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asimplechordI was thinking about genderswap in GenKill fandom last night. It's really hard for me to see Nate as a girl, I think because in his writing, in OBA, he's pretty clearly settled into his masculinity, looking for the last bastion of masculinity in Recon. (That's not to say it can't be done. It just takes some selling. Or setting in a really really different AU.)
But Brad, whose sisters call him a girl? Who just shrugs and doesn't argue or defend himself when Wright brings it up on camera, in front of the other guys? Yeah.
10 Some things about Bradley Ann Colbert:
1. Her family calls her Lee, but all her friends and colleagues call her Brad. She only hears Bradley when her mother is very angry (common when she was younger, but a rarity now) and when Nate's feeling particularly affectionate.
2. Her mom was expecting a boy. Hoping for a boy. Hadn't picked out any girl names. Brad hated her name when she was younger; more than one schoolyard fight started when she retaliated against taunts about tomboys with boy names.
3. Being called a dyke or frigid bitch by men she won't give the time of day just makes Brad roll her eyes. She's got preferences, which have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with individuals, but she also has *standards*.
4. Brad almost didn't apply to Recon when the Corps decided to administer a trial-run of female teams. She likes a good fight, but she was afraid that Recon, even if she made it, would be a daily battle against assholes who thought she didn't belong just because she doesn't have a dick.
5. She used to blame herself for the Shelly/Todd situation. She thought if she had just not agreed to a threesome, it'd never have started, they wouldn't've continued without her. If she'd been home instead of going out on training missions or deployments. If, if, if. If only they had been more honest.
6. Brad has always believed that she's a Lifer, but she has to admit, if only to herself, that five combat deployments in eight years without serious injury is pushing her luck. Taking her twenty is becoming more and more appealing.
7. Brad wants kids. She worries, because her ovaries are getting close to her "use by" date, and spending time in areas that have been bombarded with depleted uranium and other damaging chemical agents probably hasn't helped their condition. But yeah, she wouldn't mind aFicklet kidlet or two.
8. She's three semesters' worth of courses away from finishing her B.S. in Electric Engineering and in Information Systems. She'd like to finish her degree someday, but the current deployment situation has put that plan on hold.
9. Brad has no patience with Nate's not-so-secret love of female singer-songwriters. Stop whining about all the problems you have being a female in a man's world and fucking get on with living.
10. When Brad left Nate's paddle party, she figured she'd never see him again. Their paths had diverged, and all the unspoken intangibles were likely to remain unresolved until they withered from neglect. She's pretty sure Mike timed the reunion to be while she was on leave from the RM deliberately, because he's an interfering busybody.
11. & 12. In this comment thread.
13. Brad had a semi-serious relationship with a woman she met in Devon before the thing with Nate happened. She thinks, though, that even without an end-date to her time the UK, it wouldn't have worked. Brad doesn't like to think that *she* is that complicated, but she finds men much easier than women, in more ways than the obvious.
14. To call Griego slime is an insult to molds and algae. The knowledge that giving any indication that she's uncomfortable with his innuendos will grant him a victory is the only thing that keeps her from smashing her fist against his stupid, leering face. She fucking *dares* him to try to find any indication that she and Nate behaved inappropriately when Nate was still on active duty.
15. Brad wears her grandfather's wedding ring on a long white-gold chain, so that it rests beneath her dogtags, a cool weight on her sternum. Grandma Ruth gave it to her when she and Todd announced their engagement, and Brad tried to return it when they broke it off, but Gran folded Brad's fingers around the ring and told her to save it until she found some who earned the privilege to wear it.
16. Brad's favorite posting before she joined Recon was to MCBH. Her duties were routine, but the surfing on the North Shore was outstanding.
But Brad, whose sisters call him a girl? Who just shrugs and doesn't argue or defend himself when Wright brings it up on camera, in front of the other guys? Yeah.
1. Her family calls her Lee, but all her friends and colleagues call her Brad. She only hears Bradley when her mother is very angry (common when she was younger, but a rarity now) and when Nate's feeling particularly affectionate.
2. Her mom was expecting a boy. Hoping for a boy. Hadn't picked out any girl names. Brad hated her name when she was younger; more than one schoolyard fight started when she retaliated against taunts about tomboys with boy names.
3. Being called a dyke or frigid bitch by men she won't give the time of day just makes Brad roll her eyes. She's got preferences, which have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with individuals, but she also has *standards*.
4. Brad almost didn't apply to Recon when the Corps decided to administer a trial-run of female teams. She likes a good fight, but she was afraid that Recon, even if she made it, would be a daily battle against assholes who thought she didn't belong just because she doesn't have a dick.
5. She used to blame herself for the Shelly/Todd situation. She thought if she had just not agreed to a threesome, it'd never have started, they wouldn't've continued without her. If she'd been home instead of going out on training missions or deployments. If, if, if. If only they had been more honest.
6. Brad has always believed that she's a Lifer, but she has to admit, if only to herself, that five combat deployments in eight years without serious injury is pushing her luck. Taking her twenty is becoming more and more appealing.
7. Brad wants kids. She worries, because her ovaries are getting close to her "use by" date, and spending time in areas that have been bombarded with depleted uranium and other damaging chemical agents probably hasn't helped their condition. But yeah, she wouldn't mind a
8. She's three semesters' worth of courses away from finishing her B.S. in Electric Engineering and in Information Systems. She'd like to finish her degree someday, but the current deployment situation has put that plan on hold.
9. Brad has no patience with Nate's not-so-secret love of female singer-songwriters. Stop whining about all the problems you have being a female in a man's world and fucking get on with living.
10. When Brad left Nate's paddle party, she figured she'd never see him again. Their paths had diverged, and all the unspoken intangibles were likely to remain unresolved until they withered from neglect. She's pretty sure Mike timed the reunion to be while she was on leave from the RM deliberately, because he's an interfering busybody.
11. & 12. In this comment thread.
13. Brad had a semi-serious relationship with a woman she met in Devon before the thing with Nate happened. She thinks, though, that even without an end-date to her time the UK, it wouldn't have worked. Brad doesn't like to think that *she* is that complicated, but she finds men much easier than women, in more ways than the obvious.
14. To call Griego slime is an insult to molds and algae. The knowledge that giving any indication that she's uncomfortable with his innuendos will grant him a victory is the only thing that keeps her from smashing her fist against his stupid, leering face. She fucking *dares* him to try to find any indication that she and Nate behaved inappropriately when Nate was still on active duty.
15. Brad wears her grandfather's wedding ring on a long white-gold chain, so that it rests beneath her dogtags, a cool weight on her sternum. Grandma Ruth gave it to her when she and Todd announced their engagement, and Brad tried to return it when they broke it off, but Gran folded Brad's fingers around the ring and told her to save it until she found some who earned the privilege to wear it.
16. Brad's favorite posting before she joined Recon was to MCBH. Her duties were routine, but the surfing on the North Shore was outstanding.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 03:41 pm (UTC)How was HP redux? Aaron greatly enjoyed Social Distortion, although he is mourning the beer-soaked destruction of his shoes. (I warned him to wear jeans and sturdy boots if we were going to stay in the pit, but he didn't have time to go home and change after work.)
I am not against genderswap generally (obviously!), and if it's well done, or if it's an AU I will try to read it. But the entire atmosphere of GK is overwhelmingly masculine, which makes it more of a stretch for me to believe it. The author really needs to *sell* the genderswitch to me. Which, you know how I am - my brain gets stuck on the stupidest things.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 04:10 pm (UTC)Oh, poor Aaron! Glad he enjoyed the show though!
There have been very few genderswap fics in GK that have been believable. And the small things you get caught up on could easily be fixed by a proofreader or a little bit of research. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 04:46 pm (UTC)TWINS. I am looking forward to them. :D
Aaron cannot hear out of one ear this morning. I offered him earplugs, but he declined. Poor baby.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 04:52 pm (UTC)Yeah, I wasn't surprised by the Bill thing but still disappointed. I adore the twins. As far as movie canon, they may be my favorite. Besides Luna.
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Date: 2010-11-20 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 04:05 pm (UTC)♥
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Date: 2010-11-20 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 06:35 pm (UTC)12. Brad knows Nate doesn't care what she wears - he's seen her when she's filthy, wearing sweat-encrusted cammies, and in her Class A uniform, and everything in between. But for him, she wants to make a good impression. The first time they hang out with his Ivy League friends at Sullivan's, she wears her favorite leather vest with a ragged denim skirt and a pair of boots (http://www.johnlewis.com/126228/Style.aspx?source=63257) that she swears her mom bought her because the description included "military style". Nate was speechless when she stepped out of his bedroom, her hair loose, shoving her phone and wallet in her back pocket. They ended up being late, and Nate's friends gave him a ton of shit about it, but Nate just grinned and hooked his fingers in her pocket to tug her closer.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 11:05 pm (UTC)♥
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Date: 2010-11-22 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-22 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-22 05:50 pm (UTC)