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I am not transgender, so I can't speak for the experience personally. I was in a writing group once where this issue has come up, actually, so I'm basing some of this on the conversations that were had between cis and trans gendered people about this, and thinking and reading I've done about the issue since. I could be really wrong, though, and if I am, please tell me, as I do not wish to hurt anyone either.
There's a book I read where a character was magically transformed into a boy at birth in order to hide her identity, then later, she was converted back. One of the biggest criticisms I've seen of this book is that the author failed to explore the issue of whether the the character had a male or female identity to begin with, and how the person felt about either being in the wrong body as a child, or being changed "back" to a body that didn't match their previous identity.
Now (and I am most assuredly not an expert) suspect that there might be people who can swing either way with gender identity. They're happy in the body they were born with, but they would have been fine in a body of the other sex. People for whom gender is pretty plastic and malleable.
I suspect I'm such a person. If I was transformed into a male, I think I'd regard it as an interesting experience (though it would create some issues for my very heterosexual husband, so I wouldn't want it to be permanent). But I can't say for sure unless it happened. Maybe it would be cool for a bit, then I'd be desperate to have my old body back, even if my husband didn't mind me being male.
But I also know that there are people for whom being in the wrong body is a horror. And the solution to the problem is not to get the person to adjust to life as the gender that matches the body of their birth, but to transition to living as the gender that feels most natural to them (for some, this might even mean being off the binary completely).
In light of this reality, I think it's important to go carefully. Even if you want to portray your character as being pretty accepting of the magical sex change (or have the gender identity be changed by the magic too), I think it would be very important to somehow get across that this experience isn't typical. It should at least be worthy of comment and reflection (Have the character wonder why she doesn't care more that she's the opposite sex now and adjusts so easily to thinking and feeling herself as a she).
Another thought. Is it possible for your character to actually be transgender before this magical change occurs? Then it could be regarded as a very good thing.
There's a book I read where a character was magically transformed into a boy at birth in order to hide her identity, then later, she was converted back. One of the biggest criticisms I've seen of this book is that the author failed to explore the issue of whether the the character had a male or female identity to begin with, and how the person felt about either being in the wrong body as a child, or being changed "back" to a body that didn't match their previous identity.
Now (and I am most assuredly not an expert) suspect that there might be people who can swing either way with gender identity. They're happy in the body they were born with, but they would have been fine in a body of the other sex. People for whom gender is pretty plastic and malleable.
I suspect I'm such a person. If I was transformed into a male, I think I'd regard it as an interesting experience (though it would create some issues for my very heterosexual husband, so I wouldn't want it to be permanent). But I can't say for sure unless it happened. Maybe it would be cool for a bit, then I'd be desperate to have my old body back, even if my husband didn't mind me being male.
But I also know that there are people for whom being in the wrong body is a horror. And the solution to the problem is not to get the person to adjust to life as the gender that matches the body of their birth, but to transition to living as the gender that feels most natural to them (for some, this might even mean being off the binary completely).
In light of this reality, I think it's important to go carefully. Even if you want to portray your character as being pretty accepting of the magical sex change (or have the gender identity be changed by the magic too), I think it would be very important to somehow get across that this experience isn't typical. It should at least be worthy of comment and reflection (Have the character wonder why she doesn't care more that she's the opposite sex now and adjusts so easily to thinking and feeling herself as a she).
Another thought. Is it possible for your character to actually be transgender before this magical change occurs? Then it could be regarded as a very good thing.