Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A Lesson in Envy!

This caption was created for a newbie and I wanted to highlight why preferences can really be important. Initially I glanced Raven's prefs over quickly and found this to be the center of where I was going to make a caption, since it was really highlighted.
Female Name: Raven-This name I like to keep for "Evil Bitch" kinds of characters. If the story needs me to be a bitchy head cheerleader, dominatrix or anyone else of a generally evil self centered disposition then Raven is the girl for the job.

Dawn (Though Raven is my main, I also have a soft spot for Dawn, so I'll be happy to see how people use her)- Dawn is the innocent character. I like to think of her as the naive nymphomaniac, the kind that doesn't know how much she will enjoy her new body until she has some experience that shows her how awesome it is to be a girl. You don't necessarily need to use her that way though, it's just a suggestion that I know will push my buttons, she would also do well as any other kind of submissive character.
I figured the best shot was to do a caption for her Dawn persona, especially since I had a great idea come to mind while glossing over the rest of the preferences.
My Character somehow starts out as a plain woman with little or no distinguishing features and so goes around stealing general attractiveness and/or slutty/bitchiness from characters she encounters, this can be intentional or unintentional (After Being Turned into a Girl Obviously). 
My thought was that men tend to be envious of material things they'd like to possess, like huge TV's, fancy cars, bikini model girlfriends, etc .. Women tend to be envious of other women's situations and their insecurities about their body. Along that line, I figured that I could follow the "stealing attributes" path that Raven had requested without making it a 'willing" caption, allowing me to use her submissive character.

From there, I just wrote out what I wanted to do .. and ended up with this:


I thought the execution was ok, but it was a bit of a clunker in a few ways. First off, while she said she didn't mind lactation, she didn't specifically say she liked pregnancy. That tends to be a deal breaker for some people and I didn't want the caption to fail just because of that. The main reason though was that I wasn't sure I wanted Dawn to offer any resistance, which is what the caption implies, that she has figured out what is happening and is trying to stop the inevitable.
 
I decided that I wanted to resolve the caption in a different way. I was happy with everything but the last two lines of text, which meant that I had to figure out an ending with a real economy of words to get it done. For me, I needed to use words sparingly and make them count. I went back and figured that making her Raven might be the best way to solve that, but HOW could I make her bitchy? Using guy logic ... Midol = period = instant bitch! Once I figured that out, it was just a case of rearranging and making sure the flow of the last 2 lines worked properly and eliminating anything superfluous.


In the end, reworking it made it a better caption, and one that fit in with her preferences much better than the original, once I figured out a way to put her preferences to best use. They didn't click for me when I started, but once I had something created, everything seemed to fall into place.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: Because this is a TG caption blog, and most of the readers are fans of TG, we all seem to be envious of different aspects of womanhood. What are some things that women should be envious of men? In other words, why would a woman want to be a man?

9 comments:

  1. Something women would be envious of men? Less of a risk for UTI's? That's the first thing that springs to my mind.

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    1. That and periods were the FIRST things that came to mind, which is why Raven is about to get bitchy! LOL

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  2. If just shopping there causes all these changes, imagine if she worked there!

    I really can't think of many reasons a woman would be envious of a man. Probably because I'm so envious of women. At least in America, I think the only real inequality that's pervasive is the disparity in pay rates and that's slowly being phased out (would go faster if the GOP dropped the BS about it being too burdensome to employers). Biologically, there's really less difference than people believe. Perhaps men's greater ease at losing weight?

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  3. I think this is a really interesting question and I'm surprised that it hasn't garnered more conversation. I think the reason women would want to be men is the same reason men would want to be women. Social inequality.

    If we lived in a perfectly socially equal world, then men could be looked at as pretty and emotional creatures. Women could be selfish creatures with no care for their outward appearance. There are SOME places that this holds true, but for the most part men are still expected to not care about their appearance and to hold in their emotions. Fully straight "Man's Man" men that take too much time thinking about their appearance have a name that isn't always used in a pleasant way. Metro or Metrosexual. This may be fine in some larger metropolitan areas, but in 'small town America' calling a guy metrosexual is akin to calling him a fairy. The same side of the coin keeps women as petite pretty things to be protected from the big mean world. If asked 'Should women be able to serve on combat lines?" a small town America answer could easily be "Hell no, she'll break a nail, cry about it and mess up her pretty makeup."

    It isn't equal. it isn't fair. So men who want to be pretty... men who want to express their emotions and 'live out loud' can dream of being women. Women who want to let their mind be their defining characteristic can dream of being men.

    Pretty/Macho. When we can look at these two words and associate them with either gender in a good way and do so interchangeably, then women shouldn't want to be men, and men shouldn't want to be women. I don't think anyone alive now will see a world where this is true, but we can always hope.

    Now of course this has absolutely nothing to do with transgendered people. A man or woman who is living their life in the wrong body doesn't care about these social norms... they simply want to be in the right body.

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    1. The interesting thing about te point you raise is that (in my experience) women are more likely to be applauded for aspiring to "masculine" behaviors, but men are rarely celebrated for striving to be "feminine". A woman who becomes CEO of a major company, or is elected to a position in government is cheered and celebrated. But a man who chooses to be a stay at home dad, or work in a female dominated career like nursing, is often derided for it.

      I'm sure these reactions vary based on location, but I've long perceived an inequality pervasive through our culture which favors women over men. If you think of the clothing which is socially acceptable for people to wear, women today can wear nearly anything they want. It might be cut differently to fit their body shape better, but I've never seen a woman criticized for wearing what wa once traditionally masculine clothing. However a man in what appears to be "feminine" clothing is ridiculed or labeled a pervert. It could even be clothing that is acceptable for men in a certain culture such as a kilt or kimono, but because it resembles our cultures view of feminine clothing it's a source of humor.

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  4. Glad this discussion is heating up. A few things I had thought of include:

    - Ability of men to pretty much stumble out of bed, grab some clothes and wander out the door in search of food, go out shopping, etc ...

    - Classic men's suit never really goes out of style. A blue suit and a black suit means you can attend any formal gathering, and if you need a tuxedo, VIOLA you can rent one!

    - Men tend to look more distinguished as they get older, more wisdom in their wrinkles. Women just tend to look old.

    - Aggressive men are just being themselves, aggressive women are bitchy!

    - Women still earn comparatively less than their male counterparts doing the same job.

    - Viagra & vasectamies are covered by most health insurance. Limited coverage for women's reproductive issues.

    - While women's bathrooms are cleaner, it takes longer to get in and out of a woman's bathroom because most men can walk in, grab a urinal, and 40 seconds later, leave. Next time you head to a concert look at the men's room line verses a woman's room!

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    1. I agree that the disparities in pay an health coverage are ridiculous and there are efforts to do away with them.

      I honestly feel that women age better than men. I think it mostly comes from how they comport themselves, but not going bald helps a bit too.

      Don't women have an equivalent to the men's suit in the little black dress that can be worn for any occasion? And while a man's suit is rare to go out of style, there's little style to them. Besides minor variations in color, the biggest difference between one man in a suit and another is the tie they're wearing. If you were to pick a single category of dress (ie professional attire or business casual) women have more choices in that one category than men do in their entire wardrobe.

      I refuse to see urinals as a benefit. The concept of them is frankly disgusting, which is why I've never used them. Plus I've seen couches in lady's rooms! couches!

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    2. Well, I am giving you some things that women have brought up to me on why they wouldn't mind being a guy.

      Urinals are disgusting its true, but they are (1) very quick to do your business with and (2) women continually have to HOVER over toilets because otherwise they HAVE to sit down to go, no matter which way they wish to go.

      Women mentioned suits because they tend not to go out of style and men don't have to accessorize as much aka the shoes have to match, as do bracelets, necklaces, earrings, purse, etc... Is the suit clean? Yes? then grab a white dress shirt and any tie and your ONE pair of dress shoes and you are pretty much ready to go. Women have to choose based on what sort of social event, what time of year it is, etc ...

      and balding guys can just shave their heads and look bad ass. Women have to get the mom haircut when they are tired of doing their hair all the time. Bald isn't usually an option for them!

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  5. On the societal front women have it much harder than men. Society is very good at perverting Feminism, witness how the campaign to empower women to have a say over their bodies and their lives as a whole has transformed into a campaign to sell women into the exact same wage slavery as men. As men are constrained by convention and expectations so women are encouraged to be more 'male' - in a typically constrained and controlled expression of masculinity - or be seen as weak. There is no space in modern society for motherhood, femininity or relaxation. Of communing with the world around us.

    Women therefore are sold short, and peddled the lie that their lack of equality with men can be addressed by making them more like men. The whole idea of a 9-5 work day is pretty darn artificial when you look at the research on sleeping patterns and how humans and nature interact outside of big city-based societies.

    On those bases it's pretty clear why women would be jealous of men. Men get it 'easy'. They are not expected to keep track of social interactions, they have everything done for them by the women in their lives, they are lauded for having multiple partners and relationships and get away with being rude. They can chase careers, be free of hormonal imbalances on a regular basis and are accepted as being 'logical' and 'analytical'. All of this is as much rubbish as the ideal of womanhood, by the by, women are under the same pressures to conform but in a different way. Arguably men want to women for the desire to be pretty and be seen as vulnerable and emotional, granted, but these have a flip side in how people treat women. As well as how they treat women.

    Women's rights are nowhere near the rights of men, especially in developed nations but all over the world, and the material benefits of being a woman pale next to the disadvantages suffered as standard.

    Hmm, that sounded awfully serious...

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