1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
|
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](https://archiveofourown.org/works/34390174)” —
* “[Gryffindor's Girl](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11483591)” —
* “[Harriet Potter Is](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6109822)” —
* “[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)” —
* “[Harry Potter Witch](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7706345)” —
* “[Harry & the Mysterious Curse of the Girl-Who-Lived](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6343543)” —
* “[High Heels and Hippogriffs](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13952417)” —
* “[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)” —
----
.. _`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/
|
