Disclaimer: Genderbending is used interchangably with genderswitching in this blogpost. I also don't know if there's a controversy, really, but I know of plenty of people who dislike genderbending. And last but not least, I write genderbend and I do not want to force anyone into writing/reading anything they're not comfortable with. 

Genderbending (or in some circles, genderswitching) is the art of changing the gender of one's favorite idols. It seems to be highly disliked overall in the fic community, especially when it comes to same- couples suddenly being straight couples. 

I have heard the argument "genderbending is homophobic" so many times I don't hold count anymore. And about an hour ago, my friend ranted about Krisho shippers. It made me want to write this blogpost to explain genderbending from a perspective of a person who actually writes genderbending without the purpose of making every gay ship straight.

This blogpost will only contain detailed examples of fem!EXO and GIRLee (fem!SHINee) because those are the only I'm familiar with but it will draw arguments from the community that writes girl group fics as well. 

Genderbending is both a blessing and a curse. It is so because it has the power to both enrich your story but also devalue it into something bad. For me, personally, genderbending is an individual as the author. Which means you can't say every author who does this is good nor can you say every author who does this is bad. 

The purpose behind genderbending seem incredibly important from my point of view. 

Why has a character been genderbended? 

So let's start there. Why genderbend in the first place when you could just create an OC?

1.  You don't have the creativity and/or energy to create an OC. Creating a good OC takes time because there goes a lot of planning into them. Not only do you need all the normal stuff when character-planning, you also need all the essentials and somewhat "irrelevant" things. When I say irrelevant I don't really mean irrelevant as such. I mean things like appearance, height, name, age, origin, nationality etc. These things are often given to you when you're writing idols. With an OC you need to be aware of all those as well. (Maybe it's a lazy excuse but honestly, I don't have the energy to create OC's so...) 
2. You don't want to write your story with a different ship. You still want to continue writing the ship you love but you want to switch it up a little bit. 
3. You don't like writing/reading gay stories because of internalized (or external) homophobia but still, you stan only one group and you enjoy writing/reading stories about those ships - even if you ship them more platonically than romantically. 
4. You're afraid your homophobic environment will know you write homoual fanfiction but you still want to keep writing your ships. 
5. You don't feel comfortable pairing your idol with a female idol for various reasons. 

Many of these go back to the whole "I really want to write this ship but I don't want it to be gay". I believe there can be many reasons for that and that sentence itself should not be dismissed as homophobic. 

Would you call a gay person who writes straight couples in fear of being outed and harassed homophobic? 

Of course it's up to you how you define homophobia and what you can/cannot allow in those terms but I refuse to be the judge of that in this blogpost. There are many reasons one may want their main couple to be straight rather than gay. 

So now we have a lot of different reasons one might choose to be genderbending their characters, some of which are problematic, some of which are not. 

The obvious problems with genderbending is the homophobia and the erasure of homouality. This is especially a problem with genderbending in the girl group fic community because genderbending there is often used as a way to erase lesbians and instead create straight couples. 

Sometimes it's for only. Other times it's because of homophobia. Sometimes it's because of an internalized ism of gay men while lesbians are still disliked. 

This is obviously a problem because it erases other ualities and because it only serves to disregard lesbians as normal. It strengthens homophobia and that's not good. 

This is not to say that we should harass those who write genderbend to erase lesbians and/or gays. Rather we should let them explain why (what homophobia are they dealing with) and educate them on why this view is harmful. 

Another minor problem, in my opinion, is when heteronormative stereotypes are pulled onto ships. This happens in gay-fiction as well. Think of the "mom" and "dad"-stereotypes in kpop. Every kpop band has a "mom" and a "dad" regardless of their gender. That's harmful in and of itself in my opinion but when combined with genderbending you'll often see the "mom"-member of a boy band genderbended into a submissive woman and the "dad"-member of a girl group genderbended into a strong, brusque man. 

The biggest problem arises when these are not switched ever. When it's always the same member being the "feminine"/"masculine" in the couple and the same member being genderbended you get this strange heteronormative ideal that seems totally detrimental both to the ship but also to genderbending. It's not the fault of genderbending in itself but it is a consequence of the stereotypes, of course, and I really hope that stops. 

But - genderbending is much more than just making a story straight because you're homophobic. It's creating characters like you would all your gay ones and it's not necessarily disregarding the gender of the actual idol. You can aware your idol is a man/woman and still genderbend them with respect. 

Let's take Amber as an example. I haven't read a lot of fics of f(x) but Amber is the boyish girl. She's been the tomboy of kpop ever since she debuted and her gender has been questioned numerous times. Genderbending Amber into a man isn't necessarily a problem if still stand by her and respects her as a woman. If you can say "I made this decision because XXX, but if I was to ever seen anyone in real life attack her for being a tomboy I would defend her" then what is the problem?

Genderbending isn't always about making something gay straight either. Sometimes it's about making something gay lesbian or something lesbian gay. But many people who are adamantly against genderbending seems to ignore (or never get exposed to) those fics. That's a shame because it skews genderbending as something super unfavorable. Something that can never be positive. 

For me, genderbending is neutral. Like I said earlier, it's individual and depends heavily on why. But that's not a good conclusion.

In the past I used to equal genderbending to creating an OC. I took an idol I loved, molded their traits and their physique to fit that of a woman's and I had a new character. Not necessarily a different character because the genderbended version is still the idol with their quirks and all the things I love - but a character with a new name that I could, potentially, just categorize as an OC and tell people to bugger off if they didn't believe so. 

(I've considered many times to join writing contests on AFF that bans genderbending by claiming it's an OC, lmao. But I haven't done that and I probably won't because I see no reason to join things that bans what I love writing.)

Anyway, I think ... maybe this blogpost does make the problems of genderbending more visible than the benefits. But the best way I can sum up the benefits is by telling you why I genderbend. 

You can always take out what you want from it. The only thing I do ask of you is to not spread hate to those who write genderbend. Ask if you're curious but .. hatred is just so pointless. Let it go. It does nothing good. 

Here's my list of reasons why I genderbend / why I read genderbend:

• My genderbended versions are as individual characters as their male counterparts and I don't consider them less.
• When writing pregnancy, it's favorable for me to write female characters.
• I don't know any other band well enough to add random female idols and I don't want to stray from writing my two favorite bands either. I might listen to a lot of music but when it comes to fics, I'm very picky. 
• When writing (although it happens very rarely), I prefer to write straight couples.
• Some fluffy stories work much better as lesbians.
• Diversity is something I love in my fics and having male x female friendships is a guilty pleasure of mine. 
• Writing genderneutral or transgendered characters is made easier with genderbend. 
• Sometimes they just enter my mind and decides it's their turn.
• I love mixing up the dynamics of tropes and stories. 
• I enjoy genderbending different characters at different times although I have a few characters of which I really love the female version I have established.
• Having an all-male cast is boring.
• Sometimes I relate better to a female character.
• Sometimes the genderbended versions just demand to be written. 

Thank you for reading, if you ever got this far, lmao. Like what you like and let other people like what they like. Share the love, people. 

(Yes, I understand the problems genderbending has. Yes I write it anyway).