Oh woe! My pronouns have gender issues

Saint Fool · Oct 24, 2007

I'm asking this question because one of my friends said "that's going to confuse the reader" and although I think the plot is a good one, I'm now worried about the execution.

One of my main characters is a young man secretly (and successfully) masquerading as a woman. From the point of view of the other characters, "he" is a "she" and they refer to him in the female gender. (e.g., X tripped as she came down the stairs and Y rushed to catch her.)

But from his POV, he is definately a "he" coping with pretending to be female (among more life-threatening issues) and refers to himself as male. (e.g., His skirts caught on something - the stair or the carpet or the d_mned heel on his shoe - and Y's quick action and strong hands were the only things that saved him from breaking his neck.)

I've planned at least two or three POVs in the story and have always known that I have to nail the POV changes so that the reader doesn't have his/her brain explode with the confusion of gender-challenged head-hopping. One solution I'm considering is to restrict "his" point of view to its own chapters ... but this might lead to backtracking as he reflects on the action in the previous chapters. Or I could establish his voice in the first few crossing-dressing chapters and then "free" it in subsequent "mixed POV chapters."

I know. I know. The wise thing to do is just write the story and after the second draft send it to the betas for comments followed by revision if they all go "I'm confused." But my friend is making me wonder if I need to think about this beforehand.

So - how would you handle a man in drag and his pronouns?

Bufty · Oct 24, 2007

I trust your reference to 'gender head-hopping' is made with tongue-in-cheek because when you refer to 'considering' restricting his POV to its own chapters it does suggest that at present there may be a danger of head-hopping.

I don't know the answer to your difficulty but I'll give it a whirl and see what comes out. Suggestions from others more experienced will follow, I'm sure.

Once I knew a male character was cross-dressing, he would still be a 'he' as far as I was concerned and I would expect him to be so referred to throughout by the narrator. I feel it would be in the mannerisms and clothes and situations/reactions of himself and others where the humour, if any, would lie and not in the confusing use of a female pronoun.

Unless it's First person, it is the narrator who narrates - not the POV character. In someone else's POV the cross-dresser is surely still a 'he' as far as the narrator is concerned and it's only in direct thought or conversation by that POV character that 'he' would become a 'she'. I suspect reference to what I knew was the assumed 'female' name would also work better than a female pronoun.

Unless I am overlooking something - and I may well have done - , it seems to me, as you acknowledge, the main issue is one of correctly setting up the cross-dressing situation and securing the reader's acceptance of it at the outset.

Good luck.

PS. Not sure this Grammar for Grasshoppers Forum is the right one for this question.

Saint Fool · Oct 24, 2007

Thanks for commenting - especially the idea of referencing the character by name.

After posting, I went to work where I decided that the pronouns will sort themselves out on their own and it doesn't serve me or the story to tie myself in knots about it so early in the process. (Self-created writer's block ... who'd have thunk it?) At some point, one of the folks who reads my second drafts will be pleased to point out any pronoun or grammer inconsistencies that throw him out of the story. So on to the plotting, and thanks again for commenting.

Ziljon · Oct 24, 2007

You can switch POV within a chapter as long as you have little ### for scene breaks.

His skirts caught on something - the stair or the carpet or the d_mned heel on his shoe - and Y's quick action and strong hands were the only things that saved him from breaking his neck.
###
THe cop rushed into the room. The perp, no, the suspect, (he had to remind himself not to jump to conclusions) was standing there in a long dress. Damn she was hot. It looked like the hem of her dress was ripped. Probably ripped it in the struggle.
Damn, he had to stop doing that.

(Just a bad example.)

Oh woe! My pronouns have gender issues

Saint Fool

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Saint Fool

Ziljon

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