The Wotch
One thing that a number of Transformation comics fail to dwell on is the horrific elements of having a person’s gender swapped. Of all the Transformation comics, perhaps Misfile best touches upon the slow slide into the mindset of the new gender, but even this comic treats Transformations as more a subject of angst and woe than actual horror. Other comics, such as El Goonish Shive and The Wotch often gloss over the unnatural state of being a gender you’re not supposed to be. Indeed, The Wotch has had characters often accept their change in gender without pause.
Thus I’ve been watching with fascinating as cartoonist Anne Onymous is actually delving into the psychological horror of three tertiary characters who are unwillingly being transformed into the opposite gender after one of them, Ivan, triggered a curse put on them by the Wotch’s mentor, Miranda. Normally with The Wotch, the transformed individual either instantly enjoys their new gender or comes to terms with it fairly quickly. The twist in this case is that the transformation is gradual, starting with the hair length of the characters… and then other changes. Of the three suffering through the transformation, it is the girl (Julie) who is showing the most distress over this gradual curse.
We’ve also been given another glimpse into the dark side of Miranda here. This woman transformed one of Anne’s foes into a plush doll rather than let her wander free. Indeed, the only reason Ivan escaped a plushie fate is because Miranda recognized him as being one of Anne’s schoolmates. So, how would Anne react if she learned what Miranda did to protect her? It is a literary trope for the skilled mentor to die or vanish, forcing the protagonist to go it alone against their enemies. But rather than the traditional death that often happens to the mentors, might Miranda end up alienating Anne through her militant attempts to protect her?
Ultimately, while Anne may abandon Miranda, Miranda may very well take it on herself to watch over Anne despite her wishes. Another often-used trope in literature is the theme of redemption… a path which often leads to the death of the character seeking redemption. The glimpses we’ve had of Miranda’s past reveals two friends, and hints at a tragic end for them. Death may very well be a release… and a reunion for a woman who blames herself for not having been talented enough to protect those she loved. This self-blame may even explain her actions against Ivan, as she strives to protect Anne, no matter what the cost.
And what of Ivan, Julie, and Scott? While they may end up the catalyst to drive Anne away from Miranda (and leading to Miranda’s efforts to achieve redemption), I must admit doubts that they will overcome their curse. This gradual transformation into the opposite gender, a transformation no one else even notices thanks to the curse’s nature, is going to leave these three with no one but each other to cling to. There is little reason for Miranda to simply remove the curse (unless of course Ivan uses the threat of using it to change more and more of the town as a weapon against Miranda). And I must admit I’d love to see more of the horror-aspect of Transformations in The Wotch, and of characters forced to live with the consequences of their actions.
This is a belated comment because I’ve just rediscovered this site, after losing track of it when it moved off of panel2panel.
I tend to zip through my webcomics, and since they’re spread out over the course of weeks, it’s easy for them to lose impact, so I really appreciated your discussion of Ivan’s transformation in The Wotch. The horror of the situation really hadn’t struck me until reading your article.
An interesting thing about a lot of the transformation comics I’ve seen is that they tend to be PG-rated, with little discussion of the physical differences between genders, sexual relationships, and so forth. Furthermore, there isn’t even a large cultural difference between male and female: guys and girls hang out together, have similar interests, etc. Being transformed from a guy to a girl, or vice versa, in these strips doesn’t really preclude any of the characters from behaving exactly as they did before, and doing what they’ve always been doing (with a few exceptions– there was the former track star from Cheer! as an example.)
One wonders, then, what the source of Ivan’s and Scott’s and Julie’s horror is, and they probably couldn’t even explain why the transformation is such a punishment. I think, though, that it comes down to the change of identity; it requires them to redefine who they are, and that is a scary process. Miranda might have gotten the same effect if she had made them all black, or given them different parents, or different friends. In fact, she might have gotten the same effect by simply changing their names: if I woke up one day and everyone was calling me George (not my name), and insisted that they’ve always called me George, I think I might have feeling similar to what Ivan is going through right now (minus the guilt he feels for having caused this).
I’ve been thinking of your comments here and I do have to disagree. Swapping their gender was one of the most traumatic things she could have done. A simple “name change” spell would be inconvenient, sure. But it would have been easily overcome with the characters insisting “I want to be called [such-and-such]” (plenty of kids start using nicknames rather than their real names).
Switching their race could be considered racist, and also raises other questions, but ultimately wouldn’t be a loss of identity. Considering the cast of The Wotch live in suburbia, minorities living in the area have likely acclimated to the mainstream culture. They would have cultural dissonance because their culture remains suburbia. Thus it’s an inconvenience, sure, but ultimately doesn’t change who they are.
Swapping their gender does. It means learning whole new ways of doing things. It means getting used to changing your way of life. Little things like learning how to shave one’s legs (or face), figuring out a new wardrobe, and dealing with the attention of those that were once your gender (more a problem currently for Yvonne than for Jules or Kelly, who have each other to fall back on), these are constant reminders of what has been done.
What’s more, they don’t want to be the opposite gender. There’s no secret desire to be the other sex with these three. Indeed, the closest we can come to this is the Robin/Robyn dynamic. Robin does not enjoy being ka-girled. Being female is alien to his nature. Others who’ve been gender-swapped seem to either have something internal rewritten, or a natural affinity toward the opposite sex. This is not the case with Robin or our three transgendered victims.
Finally, there’s the anonymity of what has happened. Their clothes were swapped out (magically?), old pictures changed, family remembers them as their current gender. The only people who know that they’ve been cursed is the three victims. Thus there’s a great sense of isolation added to the loss of identity, something that a name change or skin-color change would fail to have done.