The Face of TG Storytime Part 1: Introduction

 The Face of TG Storytime

Part 1: Introduction

I've always had this strange fascination with gender bending. And for the longest time, I couldn't explain it. But now, I think I finally can.

I'm not going to get into my personal life and story of how I've dealt with trans feelings and gender dysphoria for most of my youth, because this series of posts isn't a memoir on my life. It's about gender bending stories on the internet. But I will say that I am transgender, and am currently working on transitioning myself. It's been a slow process so far, but I think as of now I'm finally making some progress on it. Maybe next year, I'll finally be the woman I've always wanted to be. 

For most people it seems that gender bending in media is mostly limited to that one anime, Ranma 1/2, and a few miscellaneous body swap episodes in TV shows like Star Trek's "Turnabout Intruder". And I probably should mention actual trans representation here too, and it should be noted that in the 90s and the 2000s, it was pretty shit. 

But these days with transgender people becoming more visible we've started to see good trans representation in media, for what seems like the first time. Shows like "Euphoria" come to mind. 

Yeah, I know trans people shouldn't be considered in the same vein as "gender bending" because they are different. But I feel like if I'm talking about gender bending, I should talk about trans representation, because it’d just feel wrong not to.

On the internet, the world of gender bending fiction is quite spread out and diverse, spanning god knows how many years. There are a few sites in particular that were completely made up of gender bending stories, as it was their purpose.

TG Storytime was one of these sites, and the one I used the most back in my middle and high school days. TG Storytime is a site composed entirely of gender bending or "TG" Stories. I was too young for Fictionmania and Scribblehub wasn't a thing yet, so this was my go-to for TG content. These days the site is arguably most known for that one controversy featuring a foreign troll but the less said about that the better.

I'm actually an active participant in TG Storytime, and a few other sites, as I am now a TG author myself, and am currently working on what is coming to be a pretty big story, but that's not really relevant at the moment.

So what is my plan with these series of posts, exactly? Well it's to review every one of the Top 25 most popular stories on TG Storytime. Why? To see what TG Storytime is like as a site and what it's place is in the world of online gender bending content. These stories represent what people most liked and wanted to see on the site. They are the face of TG Storytime.

Originally I wanted to make a video review of all these stories, but I soon found that might be, well, unethical. As well as disrespectful to the original authors. After all, these are free stories posted online on the internet, by people who are not receiving any profits for their writing. It would be a bit shitty to review them all in a public YouTube video. And that's not to mention the problem of review bombing. I'm not a big YouTube channel, not even remotely, but there is a chance that if someone sees that video, they might go and review bomb the story and give it a low score. That is not something I'd ever want to happen.

I floated around the idea of making the video unlisted, but at some point I just gave up on making the video entirely. It's just not something I should do. So, instead, here are some blog posts. Each of these stories will get its own blog post, where it will be analyzed and picked apart. It's worth noting that the Top 25 most popular stories on TG Storytime can switch around. So far since I've started reading through all these, the same 25 stories are still on the list, and I will review all those 25. However, if a new story comes onto the list while I'm doing these posts, I will review that one as well. I will be as nice and as good faith as possible in these reviews. After all, I shouldn't be harsh and rude, especially when I know my own story isn't a masterpiece, and definitely has flaws of its own.

Nevertheless, that is the plan. I do hope any readers who find this will enjoy my ramblings. The first story I will be looking at will be "For a Girl" by O2bxx. Until then, see you later!