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 `__” by mumuinc for a great building of characters of all three sisters, and - I have actually enjoyed “`High Heels and Hippogriffs `__” 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 `__” 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 `__” 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