Okay, there's not many places I can publicly grumble about the way things have gone all over in the transformation genre but here, where I'm the boss, I figure it might be alright.
Overall, do I like where things have gone? No. Am I going to actively push it towards what I like? Also no. The genre has changed in many different subcategories, reflecting a shift of the demographics and the social constructs that make up this genre.
The transformation genre has always been dominated by the 18-30 year old (at least as far as content producers and active members) age group. I am now a few years beyond this age group and am starting to feel the effects. I'll start with what you guys are likely least interested in:
Age progression: I like late teen to late 20s AP, a gawky teen to a statuesque beauty. This genre overall, age regression/progression, is pretty much dead. This is likely because it has gotten increasingly difficult to find anyone willing to touch a genre that can and usually is labeled as borderline pedophilia. This is understandable but alas, it lets me down. I have no desire for 5 year olds becoming grownups nor grownups becoming 5 year olds but the art produced these days is generally fitting right there, likely of the opinion that if you're going to get into this, you might as well go in all the way.
Breast expansion: Realism has never been a strong suit of the genre but now it's almost entirely gone from it. Boobs never stop at a nice full generous set but instead seem to go into the realm of the entirely impractical and often, it is now paired with some form of giantess type growth. Room-filling boobs and girls don't interest me much, either. And it's all quick, too. No slow appreciation of the new assets, just boom, boobs.
Now for the one you here at this blog are likely most interested in:
TG: This was my final refuge after AP and BE went crazy. The changes were usually slow, the final result realistically sexy. That era is over. Let me be clear: for the social health of the global population, the trends are encouraging. For weirdos like me who like a nice slow change into a sexy girl that is not 'realistic' by the standards of the honest-to-goodness TG community, it is disappointing. There are a few new trends which do nothing for me but which appear here to stay.
Slow transformations of a non-medical nature. These days, slow transformations are more stories about real-life changes on hormone therapy, etc. Which is great that more people are feeling comfortable sharing these desires and their own personal stories. Please don't get me wrong. I love everyone. I just am not interested in reading these stories.
Normal guys and girls. They don't exist in these stories anymore. Either they are total assholes who are about to be punished or they have a secret desire to be a girl. There is no middle ground. There are no more stories like Bikini Beach House Carwash. Just an average dude slowly being changed and trying to fight back but slowly succumbing.
And the girls... they're all awful. They either go way over the top in revenge or they are far too eager to indulge the ones who have secret desires. As in, they bully them to accept those feelings.
Lastly, as you may have guessed, I have no desires for girls to have male equipment. I don't find it unnatural, unholy, sickening, etc., it just does nothing for me. But that, too, is increasing in popularity these days.
None of this is to say in old man fashion, DAMN KIDS, GET OFF MY LAWN! but just a reflection of an era that has passed. I'm glad that people who may have felt repressed are feeling less so these days but it just doesn't reflect my level of kink.
As such, I rarely if ever find anything I care to share anymore. Reading what we do get here is about all the things I can find that might have a chance of falling into my interests.
There we go. If you're in the 18-30 bracket, you likely found this to be the ramblings of some old dude. But if you're around my age, maybe you find some familiarity with what I say.
First off, I'm saddened to see I'm the first to comment on this. Second, I almost completely agree with everything you said. I am in the same category as you, as far as being just a bit above the 18-30 age range, but I definitely do not see this as an old man's rant. We like what we like and it doesn't seem to be around as much (or at all). I'm not a huge fan of the AP/AR, as I don't care to see "kids" involved. But I do enjoy it when the ages seem more appropriate. I also am not interested in anything too old either, of course. :)
ReplyDeleteThe breast expansion part is something that has been bugging me for quite some time too. If I'm ever reading a story or caption and the size goes above DD, I just stop right there. I just don't see the attraction to that.
Just in the same way that I, personally, am not attracted to seeing a penis on a beautiful woman. Believe me, I've got my own fetishes (as I'm sure anybody reading this does), but to each his/her own. When I picture myself as the woman I want to be, I want to be a complete beautiful woman and that's what turns me on. Anything less (or more in this situation) is a failure to me.
Speed of change, for me, is more of the mood I'm in. But yes, I tend to prefer a slow change. Even a 5 minute change can be made into a slow change, depending on how well it's described. But the instantaneous changes, eh, well, I'll still take them, but just not my preference. It's almost more the mental changes that I need/want to be slow. I always want the person to be happy in the end, but how she gets there and how long it takes is where the real importance of the story is.
I too, miss the normal guys. Cause guess what, I think I'm a pretty normal guy. The stories we read, as fantastic and outlandish as they can be, we want them grounded and to have the ability to relate to the protagonist. I want to be immersed and believe that something like this can happen to me - normal, plain 'ole me.
And now that's my rant. I'm sure I have a ton more to say on the subject, but I'm sure this is getting a bit long winded.
<3 Kat
I thought you were quite well spoken and I'm sorry I didn't respond until now. Trying to be more useful these days. I'm glad Christopher's helped keep this place running with content. Because I haven't really found anything.
DeleteI don't think we disagree on much,Vengence1980. It sounds like I'm a good deal older even than you, but I started later. Oh, I'd been wanting to write tg stories for a long while, but before the internet there was no way to do it right and do it anonymously. If one sent a regular agent more than one tg story no doubt the person would stand out as a kook and become a subject of an agents' lunch. The mainstream doesn't want this stuff. Kindle Books has a lot, but it is not seen elsewhere. (My main beef for Kindle is the tg books are usually only short stories, mostly terrible. I want body in my reading and see no point to stories less than 40 pages long, and would prefer true novel-length items.)
ReplyDeleteI started out my writing with adventure stories high on human interest before getting onto net posting. Fiction sites were mostly comic book or erotic oriented, and so adjusted my work accordingly. To me tg makes for great material for fantasy and sf and have tried to work these human themes into adventure tales. My favorite protagonist is a man of action dealing with unwanted and sudden girlhood. In Magic Fountain, it is an Arab prince, in Under the Moons of Eden it is a military officer, in The Big Switch it is a hard-boiled detective. In the present story it is a street cop.
Basically, if some guy wants to be a girl, such a thing might be fine in real life, but it doesn't make for a story that holds my interest. I like my characters to adjust, to start enjoying life again, but if it is all done too easily, it is no satisfying story. Consider Lulu's anguish in this new episode.
So much tg is flatly erotic, but most people's idea of eroticism seems different from this author's. A porn scene of two or three people is mostly boring. I fast-forward through adult movies trying to find if a real story frames the fluff. But a movie like Swept Away (the original, not Madonna's flop) is complex; it deals with characters' evolving needs and yearnings, and it serves as a model for erotic romanticism of the best kind. (Women's erotic novels are common today, and for some reason are more respectable than men's, but to a male mind both the male and female heroes in the genre come out as unreal.)
In tg, much of its so called eroticism is only far-fetched fetishism. On most sites, there seems to be a lot of interest, or at least comments, showered on these pieces. I'd like to know more about whether my work is being enjoyed; if it is, it is hard to guess why more people don't say so. But many a writer writes for the pleasure of creation and doesn't require adulation, though most are certainly gratified by encouragement.
My stories might be old fashioned, too classical in structure, but the style comes natural to me. What I like I try to emulate. Trying to write for the assumed tastes of others, did not result in pleased editors. What's fun is being satisfied by what one has written. A person could only wish that he had time to do more of it.
Anyway, I like your house guidelines, Vengeance1980, and like to post here because I have felt that my style is welcomed. I'm going to keep TFTG Show in mind as long as it lasts.
You're doing great and I wish I had said so publicly earlier. Thanks, Christopher. I changed the formatting so I can get a clearer idea of your real numbers. As is, people can just read the whole thing without clicking on your story. So, since I forgot to put the cutoff point in, numbers have been down on your posts but the site visitors have stayed pretty much the same. So you're not losing audience.
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