My Runway: Body Swap Gender Bending Fun!

Check out my Gender Bending YA Fantasy Novel, Brother Bewitched!

My Runway on Netflix

What is it to be a male?  A female?  How closely does anyone really adhere to the stereotypes?  No nation explores these ideas with as much creativity and vigor as Korea, and My Runway, now available on Netflix, does a wonderful job exploring these questions while also having a lot of fun.

In the series, a guy and a girl swap bodies.  Been done before, right?  But the choices here make it more interesting from the start.  The male, Jae Boem, is the world’s top male model, and very much a spoiled princess.  Arrogant, haughty, and superior, he swans around like the the world is beneath him, disrespects others and is perfectly confident in his beauty.

The female, Na Jin Wook, is a high-school student with bad grades who dreams of being a model and refuses to listen when people tell her she is too short.  Spunky and full of pep, she believes that she can succeed through hard work despite her unfavorable genetics.

They swap bodies and suddenly Jae Boem finds himself the cute but imperfect girl, physically over-powered by another high-school girl and dragged into a mundane life.  Meanwhile,  Na Jin Wook finds herself sharing a house with a bunch of super hot guys, including a male model she has been crushing on from afar.

Of course, there are romantic complications and lots of drama.  The types are all mixed up, too, with guys who obsess over designer fashion and hair, aggressive girls and a lot of mixing and matching of gender types that reflect reality more than most shows.

I don’t want to say much more because it is all fun and a lot of that fun comes from surprise, but if you are interested in gender identity and what makes us who we are, check out this fun and super-well-acted and written series!

Second Nature: Sneaky Good!

 

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How would a man and a woman from our world change if they found themselves in an upside down world where women had all the privilege and men faced constant objectification?  Would they?  Are we who we are, or the products of our environments?

Amanda (Collette Wolfe) and Brett (Sam Huntington) into a world where traditional gender identity and roles are reversed.  Women are aggressive and emotionally stunted, while men are passive and sensitive.  At first, each character just finds it weird, and they search for a magic mirror which can switch them back to their own world.

But, as times passes, Amanda (notice the irony of her name?) finds she likes living in a  world where the deck is stacked in her favor.  She is now the boss at her company, and is considered a shoe-in to win her race for mayor simply because he opponent is a man.  Meanwhile, the constant barrage of sexism Brett faces wears on him, and he finds himself become more emotional and insecure in response to the way he is treated.

For a time, the movie has fun playing with the flipped world.  Amanda loves telling her male subordinates to go and get pedicures on the company, slapping men on the butt and going to Peckers, where the wait staff consists entirely of men in tiny little shorts, their outfits clearly patterned on Hooters.  Brett, meanwhile, finds he can’t go into a bar without being pestered by aggressive women, who bombard him with lame come on lines, grope him and try to get him to kiss other guys for their amusement.

Amanda also begins to confront the way the stereotypes cut both ways.  A friend asks her is she’s a lesbian because she has been “acting like a boy” and she starts to feel that winning the election just because she is a woman negates the achievement.  Ultimately, she decides that the gender flipped world is just as bad as her own, and that she is against privilege and discrimination in any form.  Did I make the sound a little too noble?  It doesn’t come across that way in the film.  It just came across as a human being who was tempted to become the thing she hated and refused.

One of the nicer moments in the film involves a scene between Amanda and Brett when they are driving together after being stuck in upside down world for a week.  Brett is frazzled, demoralized, insecure, and he complains about the way he is treated in this world.   Amanda says something like,  “Only here a week, and look at what it’s done to you.”

“Don’t,”  Brett says.  ‘This is all an exaggeration of the way things are in our world.”

“It really isn’t,” Amanda says, and she is speaking to all those who have not faced objectification.

This is a good watch.  Collette is especially fun as she finds herself on top and for a time just kind of becomes a callous dude reveling in the privilege.  She doesn’t come across as vengeful or bitter or any other stereotype, and in fact pretty much seems like the female version of a bro– content and amused and happy to have it all easy due to her sex.  Sam does well showing how his character is demoralized by the sexism.   Watch it!

Win a Wig!!!!

AKStore Wigs 32" 80cm Long Straight Anime Fashion Women's Cosplay Wig Party Wig With Free Wig Cap(Blonde)

Just something fun for the release week of Brother Bewitched, a YA TG Fantasy novel in which the primary male character ends up a girl with hair like the wig– so I am calling this the Serren wig.

Check out Brother Bewitched, the amazing new YA Fantasy book by TG Kadee! Enter sweepstakes to win a wig!https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/10efcd3737356064 #giveaway

Have fun and good luck!!!!!!

 

One Week Until Release Date!

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Bother Bewitched drops in ONE WEEK!  I am so psyched I can’t even tell you.   I had so much fun writing this book, and if readers have half as much fun reading it they will be having a blast as they turn each page!

If you want to get in on the special pre-sale, you can still do so!  Here is the link:

BROTHER BEWITCHED

This week, I will be posting some things talking about the world of The Shattered Isles, and maybe a few sneak peaks into the characters and some of my choices in telling the story.   So, please come back and see what’s up!

Comment!   Share!  Like!

Report: If I Was Your Girl

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Love it.  The end.

I probably could and maybe should end with that, because anything more i say will simply be a less awesome version of the experience you would get if you read this book– which, why haven’t you?   Get it and read it now!

If I Was Your Girl is a coming of age novel, and as such it hits many of the beats you would expect.   One thing that makes this novel different, however, is that the main character is a very typical insecure young woman going through all the changes and insecurities that come with being a new girl in a new school, falling in love for the first time, trying to relate to her estranged father, but who happens to have been born in the wrong body.   She was born male, but always knew she was a girl.

In addition, the story takes place in the American South, and the character was raised as a fundamentalist Christian, thus having to deal with the conflicts created by an upbringing that says she will burn in hell for being true to herself, while also insisting she should be true to herself.

What’s especially beautiful is that we see that she is a person, and I would say just a person.  She has the same needs and wants, the same fears and insecurities as anyone else.   But, of course, she also has additional fears, fears of rejection, fears of being the target of violence, which she has been subjected to throughout her life.

This one brought tears to my eyes more than once, but it also brought laughter and joy, and ultimately great admiration for the craftsmanship of this author.  Can’t wait for more!

Here is it.  Read it now!

Brother Bewitched Available for Pre-Order!

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Brother Bewitched plunges the reader into a world of nightmare pleasures!

A PunkBerry Award Winning Novel– YA fiction for people who hate YA Fiction.

Readers say, “Strong Storyline” and “Great Characters!”

This 324 page novel is Now Available for pre-order at a special discount price!   After release, the price will rise!  Order now!

Story

Crown Prince Serren lives to drink, smoke and bed women. His sister, Pattenia, longs to rule, but by law the crown passes to the eldest male heir. Pattenia seems doomed to live in her little brother’s shadow, until a strange new girl appears and offers her a choice: “Take what you want. Bewitch your brother, turn him into a girl, and declare yourself ruler of The Shattered Isles.”

Will Pattenia strip her brother of his sex, his name and his crown?

What does it mean to be boy? A girl? Brother Bewitched explores all this and more in a fantasy world setting full of booze, sex and drugs.

Special Pre-order edition at a special pre-order price and with a steamy, deleted scene only available pre-order! You should pre-order for sure! Do it now!

Links

US  UK  Germany France Italy Spain   Netherlands  Japan Brazil Canada Australia

Mexico  India

 

Gender in the news

 

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Today’s New York Times reports that shows challenging gender roles will now receive a rating from Common Sense Media, a group that offers online ratings for parents concerned about the shows their children watch.   As a creator with a longstanding passion for gender fluid media, I am excited that parents will find it easier than ever to steer their children toward shows that encourage them to define themselves regardless of whatever gender biases they face.

The article focused mainly on the ways female characters are portrayed, celebrating shows that depict women working as scientists and engineers, for example.   While Brother Bewitched does feature a female character breaking gender roles– Pattenia, who aggressively seeks power, it also examines a boy who discovers that he enjoys some things he once considered feminine and beneath him.

More and more, mainstream society has come to see that the gender binary we inherited from our ancestors does not work in the contemporary world, and in fact it functions against efficiency, pushing both men and women into roles that do not use their best selves to their best advantage.  When a less able man rises into a management position over a better skilled woman, that hurts both the individuals and our economy, and when a man is discouraged from entering a field to which he is well-suited because it is a “pink collar” field, that hurts both the person and society as well.

Bottom line: these ratings will help more people be who they want to be, and that is a very good thing.