Cepl’s Introduction to fem!Harrys
#################################
:date: 2020-03-16T09:09:21
:category: literature
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit
(my comments on “`LF Fics to introduce me to fem!Harry by
u/frostking104`_” Reddit thread)
.. _`LF Fics to introduce me to fem!Harry by u/frostking104`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/fje6nu/lf_fics_to_introduce_me_to_femharry/
There are two types of fem!Harry stories:
1. Where Harry (with a different name, of course) is naturally
a girl, always was and always will be. Usually, I guess, the
motivation is that the author is a woman, and she feels
uncomfortable writing from the male point of view (I know
something about that, somehow, without me wanting it, most of
my stories have a female protagonist, and it is really hard).
For some of them the difference in result is minimal (I like
`The Videus Charm by OfPensandSwords`_ as an example), for
some of them it leads to completely different stories. I like
`Victoria Potter by Taure`_ and I *really* liked the very good
setup of `The odds were never in my favour by Antony444`_, but
it turns kind of weird in the second year and later with the
hidden cabala running the world and similar crap. Also, for
very different story `Tea Cures All Ills by delizabethl22`_.
2. Gender-bender stories, where Harry was originally our Harry
from the books, but then something weird happened and he
turned to a girl (or he was born as a girl and then his sex
was magically hidden and now he/she turns back into his
natural state). There are many wrong reasons why somebody
could write such a story. First, and I am afraid it applies to
most of them, the author wanted to write a lemon and femslash
was juicier for (I guess, usually) him. One unashamedly so is
IMHO `11396276`_ and I will leave it at that (other is
`21206021`_). Or there is non-smutty, just fun, variant in
`Pranking The Tournament by Gardevoir687`_.
The second is that they are Snape/Draco fans and they didn’t
want to write a slash story, so they turned Harry into a girl
to suit them better to their planned pairing. One classical
example would be `Snape's Daughter by Tribi`_ with the
unbelievably horrible choice of name for the main protagonist
(I won’t even write it here). I am not a big fan of either
Snape or Draco, so when the story turned to be Drarry, I quit,
and I remember just the overall feeling about it now.
A reasonably good variant on this theme is `Becoming Harriet
by Teao`_, where the pairing is with the Snape’s AU son, and
it suffers from the deluge of smut (including some of the most
obnoxious tropes like magical-hormone-makes-you-horny), but if
you skip that, there is a rather good story hidden beneath it.
An alternative to that “something weird happened” is `A Fair
Life by Rtnwriter`_, where it is Harry (the canonical male
one)’s death in the Forbidden Forest at the end of DH and
returning as a girl on the eve of the announcement of
champions for the Triwizard tournament and it is so far rather
decently written Hermione/Harry femslash (not even too
smutty). Similar idea with different execution is `A Different
Perspective by StellaStarMagic`_, where the canonical Harry
jumps after Sirius into the Veil in the Death Chamber of the
Department of Mysteries, but he is kicked back by rather
Pratchettish Death into being a twin-sister of more or less
canonical Harry Potter just before the letters from Hogwarts
are delivered to them. She is sorted as a Hufflepuff, and it
develops into so-far interesting timeline repair story.
Usually, the sticky part of gender bender stories is the
treatment of unease of the former Harry with him being
a female suddenly with all bits in wrong places. One example
of rather anxious treatment of the situation is `To Reach
Without by inwardtransience`_ which turns into the rather
interesting pairing of Harry/Susan Bones, but again further
the development, weirder it becomes.
**{update 2023-09-06}**
(as `the response to the inquiry on Reddit`_)
It is strange, I really dislike Indian!Harry and I have never found
black!Hermione, where the difference would make any meaningful difference, but
I can accept fem!Harry quite easily.
I have written a bit about why I think this happens here, and I have
meanwhile found even some (few) stories which I actually enjoyed:
- I really liked “`The Three
Sisters <https://archiveofourown.org/works/29799375>`__” by mumuinc
for a great building of characters of all three sisters, and
- I have actually enjoyed “`High Heels and
Hippogriffs <https://archiveofourown.org/works/38488393>`__” by
NinjaPandaScholar, which is a boy-turned-girl story, but written
well.
Two things I really deeply dislike, no, the things I hate, in fem!Harry
stories are:
- any Harry/Voldemort pairing, especially when fem!Harry because of
getting it from Voldemort turns into complete pureblood supremacist
killing Muggles; ugh! (I would add very tentative thumb up to “`This
Body is My Prison <https://archiveofourown.org/works/10665114>`__” by
JBankai89, although BEWARE, it is a story about multiple instances of
rape, degradation, multiple infanticides, and other unmentionable
horrors, followed by attempts of recovery, so if you have ANY
triggers, you should really stand away),
- why oh why, almost all fem!Harry stories turn into femslash? If you
want Harry/Paravati pairing (I look at you “`With A Little Help From
My Friends <https://archiveofourown.org/works/27992832>`__” by
Asami_T), there is much easier way than turning Harry into a girl and
make them both lesbians. I have absolutely nothing against
homosexuality IRL, but I don’t enjoy reading about it (being a
straight guy, I just don’t get it, aside from possible sexual
titillation), and I would very much prefer if fem!Harry finds some
bloke (I could suffer even Drarry, although I don’t like it
generally).
There are some more stories with fem!Harry which deserve recognition.
Let me get through the list at least briefly:
* “`Feminea Inextensi`_”
* “`Gryffindor’s Girl`_”
* “`Harriet Potter Is`_”
* “`Harriet Potter: What it is like to be a witch`_”
* “`Harry Potter and the Cloud with the Silver Lining`_”
* “`Harry Potter and the Gang of Giggling Girls`_”
* “`Harry Potter Witch`_”
* “`Harry & the Mysterious Curse of the Girl-Who-Lived`_”
* “`Jamie Evans and Fate’s Fool`_”
* “`Magical Metamorphosis`_”
* “`Not a Girl`_”
* “`Past an Hour the Prospect’s Black`_”
* “`Skirt`_”
* “`The Daisy Chain`_”
* “`The Pureblood Pretense`_”
* “`The Traitor’s Daughter`_”
* “`To Walk A Mile In someone else’s Shoes`_”
* “`Cinderella Potter`_”
----
.. _`The Videus Charm by OfPensandSwords`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13197260/1/
.. _`Victoria Potter by Taure`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12713828/1/
.. _`The odds were never in my favour by Antony444`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11517506/1/
.. _`Tea Cures All Ills by delizabethl22`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372018
.. _`11396276`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11396276/1/
.. _`21206021`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21206021
.. _`Pranking The Tournament by Gardevoir687`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13132217
.. _`Snape's Daughter by Tribi`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7618752/1/
.. _`Becoming Harriet by Teao`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4876630
.. _`A Fair Life by Rtnwriter`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13285012/1/
.. _`A Different Perspective by StellaStarMagic`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22953583
.. _`To Reach Without by inwardtransience`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11862560/1/To-Reach-Without
.. _`the response to the inquiry on Reddit`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/16b4x19/female_harry_potter/
.. _`The Three Sisters`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29799375
.. _`High Heels and Hippogriffs`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38488393
.. _`This Body is My Prison`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/10665114
.. _`With A Little Help From My Friends`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27992832
.. _`Feminea Inextensi`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/34390174
.. _`Gryffindor’s Girl`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11483591
.. _`Harriet Potter: What it is like to be a witch`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4699043
.. _`Harry Potter and the Cloud with the Silver Lining`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13185192
.. _`Harry Potter and the Gang of Giggling Girls`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11268925
.. _`Harriet Potter Is`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/6109822
.. _`Harry Potter Witch`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7706345
.. _`Harry & the Mysterious Curse of the Girl-Who-Lived`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6343543
.. _`Jamie Evans and Fate’s Fool`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8175132
.. _`Magical Metamorphosis`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/11063298
.. _`Not a Girl`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5883303
.. _`Past an Hour the Prospect’s Black`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13437829
.. _`Skirt`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20188459
.. _`The Daisy Chain`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13106883
.. _`The Pureblood Pretense`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7613196
.. _`The Traitor’s Daughter`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33974866
.. _`To Walk A Mile In someone else’s Shoes`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7452425
.. _`Cinderella Potter`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13799774
