Subject: It probably just got dumped in Floaters.
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Posted on: 2022-10-11 12:33:51 UTC

Everything got dumped in Floaters, the Flowers really hated departments for a while there. ^_~

(The joke being, a lot of that happened when the PPC Manual was being worked on, and is therefore partly my own fault. Sorry!)

There's not quite a rule that all department names should be the bad thing they deal with. Floaters and All Purpose, obviously, but also Angst and Despatch (because transdimensional hopping/snatching can still make good stories). So a Genderbending Department or Division would still only deal with Bad Genderbending.

Which does amplify your point about it being split up: it's not just characterisation issues. You can also run into plot problems, and the nebulous "but why tho" problem: if you start changing genders but everything else stays the same as in canon... why does it exist? I tagged something similar as "in which feminism could do with better planning".

Which, yes, comes round to what you said: the genderbending isn't the core issue in any of those cases. You might want a specialist around, either to unbend the characters or deal with any psychological effects when they realise what's going on, but you don't need a full department.

(& also, I think we're all hitting the point where "haha it's funny that character is a girl now" is not... all that funny any more.)

hS

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