History Main / SecondLawOfGenderbending

See also ItsTheJourneyThatCounts. Contrast GenderBenderAngst, though many works have characters experience a mix of both, at different periods or at once.

* In the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', Mad Dummy gains a new form as Mad Mew Mew upon possessing a discarded ''Mew Mew Kissy Cutie'' doll, which is portrayed analogously to a gender transition (even switching from "they/them" pronouns to "she/her"). After doing so, she readily accepts this as her ideal and fulfilling self, with later dialogue (both in this port and in her minor appearance in the later UsefulNotes/XBoxOne port) emphasizing how much better she feels in this explicitly female form compared to her prior androgynous one.

** Elliot initially had no interest in remaining female for long and considered his gender-bending PowerIncontinence distasteful. However, upon finding aspects of his magic he liked ([[spoiler:flying around as a [[ChronicHeroSyndrome superhero]]''ine'']] and [[spoiler:ogling his {{Goth}} form in a mirror]]) he's grown to accept the female forms [[spoiler: to the point of being worried that he might lose them if magic changes]]. Tedd at one point theorizes that Elliot would partly have to fulfil this trope to ''stop'' getting spells that involve or interact with turning into a woman (not enjoying being a female more than being a male, but finding things to enjoy about being a female).

Of the three laws of gender-bending, this one is the most prone to carrying UnfortunateImplications relating to transgender people. With increasing awareness that gender identity is strong and inherent for many people, writers are now expected to acknowledge that if a character prefers living as the other sex, they had some form of gender dysphoria already. In particular, the idea that ManIFeelLikeAWoman could be reason enough for a man to enjoy being female is considered a DiscreditedTrope. Instead, being subject to a magic sex change may make a character [[LGBTAwakening realize they were already transgender]], or [[ComingOutStory come out of the closet]] if they were already aware (in which case the trope can have applicability as WishFulfillment). This has its own issues, as it can lead to erasure of people and characters who are agender, bigender, or [[AmbiguousGenderIdentity otherwise have less personal investment in one specific gender and/or physical sex]], and may enjoy various facets of their new body without having ever felt dysphoria about the old one.

* "[[Manga/KanojoniNaruHi Kanojo ni Naru Hi ]]" is the slice of life romcom of the trope. The manga does not complicated matters too much. Basically the world is a place where a person can spontaneously enter a process metamorphosis to completely change gender, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, and it is supposedly a natural occurrence to balance the scales of gender numbers in the world and its name is "Emergence". There is never a scene of girls turning into boys though. The story follows the two best friends and rival Miyoshi and Mamiya. Miyoshi being the silent and introverted of the two and Mamiya being the friendly extrovert and "best at everything" best friend/rival. One day Miyoshi comes to school and finds out that Mamiya, who has been missing school because of a health problems, suddenly appears as a girl and reveals that in the last weeks she had gone through "Emergence". What follows is a highschool romcom where Miyoshi and Mamiya have to adjust, rediscover and change their friendship all the while having to go through the social issues of a teenager having their gender changed during school by bullies and students who had previously respected or were charmed by Mamiya. Truly it is a good slice-of-life story because it follows not only Mamiya still being perfect at readjusting to her new life but Miyoshi rediscovering his friendship and his new feelings for his best friend. Although the manga ends in their last year of graduation, the sequel actually has a couple of special chapters that show what happens to them during collage and after.

* "[[Manga/KanojoniNaruHi Kanojo ni Naru Hi ]]" is the slice of life romcom of the trope. The manga does not complicated matters too much. Basically the world is a place where a person can spontaneously enter a process metamorphosis to change gender, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, and it is supposedly a natural occurrence to balance the scales of gender numbers. There is never a scene of girls turning into boys though. The story follows the two best friends and rival Miyoshi and Mamiya. Miyoshi being the most silent and reserved of the two and Mamiya being the best at everything best friend/rival. One day Miyoshi comes to school and finds out that Mamiya, who has been missing school because of a health problem suddenly appears as a girl and reveals that in the last weeks she had gone through "Emergence". What follows is a highschool romcom where Miyoshi and Mamiya have to adjust, rediscover and change their friendship all the way having to go through the social issues of a teenager having their changed during school. Truly it is a good slice-of-life story because it follows not only Mamiya still being perfect at readjusting her new life but Miyoshi rediscovering his friendship and his new feelings.

* ''[[Manga/KanojoNiNaruHi Kanojo Ni Naru Hi Another]]'' uses ItsTheJourneyThatCounts to offer an unusual and bittersweet take on this trope. Sagara is ultimately happy about her GenderBender even though she does miss being a boy because the resulting struggle to forge a new identity broke her out of her self-imposed isolation, opened her eyes to the people who cared about her and taught her the true value of love and friendship. It's not the change itself she accepts so much as the personal growth it triggered. The fact that [[JumpingTheGenderBarrier it made her sexually compatible with the love of her life]] is just icing on the cake.

* This is pretty much the second staple of amateur GenderBender fiction after DifferentForGirls. Case in point: Website/{{Literotica}}. About the only stories that avoid this are the ones that use a male-to-female GenderBender for BreakTheHaughty, and even ''those'' sometimes go for a HappyEnding by way of this.

* ''Fanfic/VoyagesOfTheWildSeaHorse'': Invoked and Averted ''hard''. Ranma notes that he has been confronted by people who either told him that he was ''lucky'' for his SexShifter curse or that he would be "better off" just staying a girl permanently. [[BerserkButton His reaction makes it very clear that anyone so unwise ended up in a world of hurt.]]
** Ryoga Hibiki makes it clear that he hates his new SexShifter curse just as much as Ranma does, if not more, since he isn't ''quite'' as [[NobodyCallsMeChicken hyper-competitive]] as Ranma. He only made the change because his original [[BalefulPolymorph Spring of Drowned Pig]] curse was a death sentence whilst exploring the [[DeathWorld Grand Line]].

* The ''other'' transgender Megumi in ''Manga/TheDayOfRevolution'' goes the "reluctant admission" route when she's menaced by a boy and realizes that she finally knows how it truly feels to be a girl. Fortunately her new-found sense of femininity also empowers her to free herself with the ultimate female defence against male attackers: a GroinAttack so severe it practically paralyzes him.

** Matsuri has [[ZigZaggingtrope some very unusual feelings]] about being turned into a girl. He's fine with day-to-day life as a {{tomboy}}, and even acknowledges multiple upsides, but still wants to be a boy eventually. His main point of contention becomes that he loves Suzu, but only wants to be her boyfriend--even apart from her attraction to his female form, dating her is the one thing Matsuri refuses to do when he's still a girl.