The Road Less Travelled: Yin, Yan, and gender identity!

[kurushi]

Concept: Based on ideas of yin and yan, and the god of crossroads, chimato no kami: Ranma deals with concepts of feminine and masculine identity.

Setting: After graduating from high-school, Ranma and Akane have begun to teach classes in the Tendou Dojo. Kasumi has finally married Dr. Tofu, and Ranma has moved into her old bedroom. Life has continued as usual, though Akane's aggression has been building to a fever pitch recently.

Plot: Ranma is stuck one evening in the rain at a dilapidated roadside shrine. He pays attention to the two small stone figurines there, one of which is wearing a yin pendant on a rotting string. He takes it home, planning on replacing the string with a better cord as thanks for shelter. Instead, he has a dream in which he encounters the wife of the god of crossroads. She tells Ranma that sometime in the past – some years ago now – Akane took her husband's yan pendant. Though only a trinket in the human realm, Akane has worn it so close to her body for so long that her soul has become unbalanced.

The goddess claims that it is her husband's intention that Akane become a tool of imbalance, to give himself greater power over his wife and other deities in general. Ranma agrees for Akane's sake that balance should be restored. He accepts knowingly the power of yin in the pendant, and sets out in real life after he(she) wakes up to tilt the balance back towards equality.

Initially he tries to do this through the usual; dressing up and acting effeminately. He tries to engage with women and act as a woman, when he has the time to spare from his work. This initial attempt, however, is rejected by the goddess as stupid. Colours and shapes of clothing; flavours of ice-cream.. they all have nothing to do with the true natures of yin and yan. She directs Ranma to contemplate his existence as a female. What sexuality and the general experience of life mean to him. It is only through a true and deep experience of yin that he will be able to overcome the shallow and stereotyped influence of yan that Akane has allowed into her life.

The point: I want to tie a lot of the feminine/masculine conflict into the balance and interaction of dark and light, dry and moist that comes with the yin and yan concepts. But I would also like to build up a repertoire of thoughtful, serious, non-girly aspects of Ranma's femininity. In his life, women are often angry, dangerous, bitter, and occasionally more violent than the men. They have near absolute power over men a lot of the time.

I'd love to hear what you all think of this idea. I'd also like to ask you (very humbly, mind you) for any suggestions you might have regarding canon influences on Ranma's concepts of femininity, and Akane's concepts of masculinity.

[Shanami]

Well, as far as my Nyquil addled mind can understand (I get loopy on semi-sleep drugs), this seems like it *could* be interesting, but I think, as it is a more intellectual pursuit (and I may change my mind on that tomorrow when I'm essentially sober) that it would be very hard to write. As I don't know your style, I won't comment on feasibility, at least until I'm capable of understanding human interaction (and I know I talk flowy like when inebriated, I'm tired, cut me some slack).

But, I'd like to point out, that if you are going to do this, that it is yin and yang. Please, please remember the g, we don't want the inverse of the evil Ying Yang Twins butchering good ol' fashioned zen-like stuff.

And I hope that you take this in the spirit it was posted in... drunken amusement. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to pass out so I can wake at an ungodly early hour to take an exam, and I'll post something more coherent and far better thought out tomorrow morning.

[kurushi]

From my experience, yang/yan is used interchangably; it seems to be a different form of romanisation. In some of the Tao books I've read in the past (most, actually) and a few martial arts sites I visited when I was really into my training, "yan" has been preferred. Even so, "yang" is the commonly accepted term in the US, and the alternate spelling doesn't even get a look-in at Wikipedia. Oh dear goodness me!

I used yan without thinking, probably because when I did read on the concept that was the spelling that I encountered. I'll leave the post here as is, but will consider changing "yan" to "yang" in the actual document of the fic.

Thanks very much, er, for taking the time to warn me about what seemed like an illiterate error. Especially when you have an exam tomorrow.

As a point of interest, zen is a type of Buddhism, and yin yang are concepts from Taoism. I'm not so ambitious that I'm planning on bringing multiple spiritual theologies into the fic. In fact, I'm already mixing an old Shinto roadside shrine and god in with Taoist concepts of masculine and feminine. I'll explain the why of it towards the end of the fic (there is a good reason), but basically I'm just utilising the symbolism of yin and yang as something that Ranma and most fic readers will recognise.

[Quickshot0]

Is there any particular reason why Ranma can't just take the yan pendant from Akane? Or maybe just destroy it, it is kind of his preferred ways of dealing with things of a magical nature...

[kurushi]

Though only a trinket in the human realm, Akane has worn it so close to her body for so long that her soul has become unbalanced.

That part didn't make sense in the first post? Sorry. I'll elaborate: The pendant Akane has been wearing has been leeching out yan. It's now a spiritual, or occult, taint for Akane. One that is no longer dependant upon the physical presence or absence of the pendant.

Thanks for asking the question: I'll have to make sure that it's very clear. Perhaps I'll have Ranma ask that question when it comes up in the story, "So I'll go grab it and problem solved, then?"

[Shanami]

Alrighty then, I stand corrected. I didn't realize it was an acceptable alternative spelling. Though, for the normal audience you'll find of this, you'll probably want to use the more well known version.

Having reviewed this while actually coherent, I still like the general premise of the story, though I think you need to consider some other angles for this at the start. First, are these A!MG style kami or not? If not, exactly what is the domain of the god and his wife. I understand that it is a god of a crossroads, but what precisely do you mean by that, and why would a god of a crossroads want to increase the yan(g) of the world. What is the motivation behind this imbalance, because I don't see how creating imbalance would increase the influence of the god of a location (unless it is a A!MG style god where his power is derived from yang as a sphere of influence).

Is Ranma going to attempt to fix Akane, or is he becoming more feminine to counterbalance her. If it is the second, how will he survive around her, especially considering the other destructive (Nodoka and Genma, not to mention everyone else) influences in his life. What exactly is the situation with the fiancees, it is after high school, has a choice been made about marriage?

I think the basic premise of questioning the balance of yin and yang is a good one. I rather enjoy fics where Ranma *has* to get in touch with his feminine side for some reason or another, but I really don't understand the motivation of the kami involved in this. I can see many other reasons why Ranma would attempt to balance his own karmic imbalances (He's raised to be extremely imbalanced by Genma) and I could see why maybe a goddess of balance would implore him to fix his own issues by getting in touch with his yin side as an alternative reason. Basically, I like the main thrust of what you want to do, but I question your reasoning for why it has to happen except that it seems like a convenient plot device for both where you want to go, and for why Akane is (for lack of a better term) a complete bitch. It could be that Ranma and Akane both have to work on their feminine natures together, which would probably be pretty funny (and not where it seems like you want to go).

Finally, I'll be the first to admit I know very little about religion in general, much less eastern religion, so some of my issues may just be implied by the very nature of taoism. I would imagine this to be fairly typical, so if the basic tenets of taoism are going to be important, I think you'd have to be very careful about explaining them in the story itself. I understand the Norse and the ancient Western religions, but I'll admit this is completely outside the realm of what I know.

[Spokavriel]

If the male principle has been drained from Akane and is now toxic to her how does a truly female Ranma effect her at all?

If anything the most likely solution for her would be to get some spiritualists and Ki masters on hand then give her a soak in spring of drowned man.

Is this a Chaos growth imbalance Vs Harmony stagnation order situation?

Wouldn't adding Yin where yang has been drained from the environment just increase the imbalance?

Edit: You know this whole thing might make allot more sense to me if it were Nodoka under the influence of the Yang medallion. And make it so she had a life outside the Saotome home before Ranma and Genma return from the training trip. Make it the influence of the Medallion that fuels the Saotome parents Manly obsessions but leave it with her so that her imbalance influences and promotes the insanity of Nerima including Kuno and the Hentai Horde. Maybe even make it so Nodoka was the Grade School Gym Teacher for all those boys.

And Akane would end up in her situation getting imbalanced in reaction to so many boys around her being imbalanced themselves.

Edit: Maybe even have Akane end up with it after the Failed wedding with Nodoka having passed it on to her for luck. But I really don't think this premise works that well with Akane having it originally.

[mondu_the_fat]

Interesting.

However, I can't help but feel that this sort of fic will turn into an Author Tract.

The very topic is polltically incorrect. It would feel like the author is Genma and Nodoka imposing his own views of what a man among men is supposed to be. This works for Ranma in general, because such things are dismissed as the personal view of the characters. The man among men idea isn't the same idea for the other characters. However, when gods themselves come into play, the author is saying "THIS is how its supposed to BE!"

[kurushi]

I'm flattered that I've got quite a few replies on the subject now. I'm sorry that I've taken a while to reply to everyone. What has been said is all very useful, and your perspectives have given me some hints as to which areas I need to tweak or reconsider.

I'll address you in turn.

First, Shanami:

I wrote a whole paragraph on Chimata no kami until Yasuhei pointed out that a lot of gods and goddesses in fandom behave like the AMG series deities. So as an answer, no; they aren't concrete entities and they do not have physical bodies. I have to admit that I have tweaked the chimata no kami to be a dichotomous entity, male and female, from the original single male god. Since they share a shrine, and some amount of their power, a yang leaning imbalance will tilt things in his favour, give him more autonomy over her. I suppose they are more like the anthropomorphic personifications of some fantasy novels, whose identity and form change dependant upon the faith and attention of mortals.

Regarding your questions about high school and marriage, I dealt with those in the clearly labelled "Setting" paragraph at the top of my first post. You can take "life has continued as usual" to mean that their engagement continues and they have not yet married.

Regarding the plot direction, I am not certain how the final character conflict will out. I wanted to be more sure of Ranma and Akane's canon gender related issues before I cemented anything in. But I thought that in my original post I was being clear enough when I said that the goddess claims that her husband is the source of the imbalance, and that Akane needs rescuing. I haven't nutted out the full nature of the god and goddess' duplicity, but there is supposed to be something fishy about this whole premise. I'm glad that you picked up on that.

My final direction isn't both of them exploring the feminine, but both of them learning to explore the whole and all. That will involve the feminine, absolutely, but I'm just as frustrated with hyper-feminised Ranma fics as I am with hyper-masculine, and it's partly why I wanted to write this in the first place.

Next, Spokavriel:

Ah! I realised my large mistake. In the uni research I've done in the last few years, when we say "chemical 1 has leeched out of the bone", we mean to say that the chemical has left the bone and entered the surrounding soil or other material. I used that phrase without thinking, and it's probably caused more confusion than my original flubbed post. So Akane's becoming steeped IN yan, not drained of it.

Please forgive me for a very stupid mistake like that.

So it's a little redundant, this next response of mine. But as Ranma's female form isn't enough to create a yin imbalance - he's man through and through conceptually - any similar attempt to exert magical physical changes would have no effect on Akane.

I hadn't thought about the option of a spiritual healer becoming involved. I don't want to make the scope of the story too large, but it sounds like something I should at least consider.

I also haven't thought about involving too much of the ensemble cast. I intended for Ranma to avoid Nodoka for a lot of the early story, in an attempt to hide her experiments with yin. But since Nodoka and Genma have handed down some of their issues to their son, it would make sense to involve them in the core story somehow. I'll have to do a bit more thinking about how I might fit that into my concept, but it could quite possibly make for a much better fic.


And finally mondu_the_fat:

However, when gods themselves come into play, the author is saying "THIS is how its supposed to BE!"

I honestly don't mean for the god and goddess in this fic to be dictating the evolution of the characters, or preaching to the readers. I do not mean to re-inforce the dichotomous and restricted concepts of gender and sexual identity that Genma and Nodoka endorse in the manga at all. In fact, I wanted to write a story that showed Ranma and Akane confronting these concepts that they've learnt from their parents, and moving past them.

I don't think that I've receieved a comment for any fic or idea before along the lines of "politically incorrect". Since I'm a bit shocked to see them there, I'd like to ask you to elaborate on what pinged your PC radar when you read my post. (I'm worried that I'm coming across here as defensive or narky. I'm not, honest! I'm really curious, and quite eager to hear more from you on this. Blast the internet for lacking visual and audial context for sentences!)

I'm also concerned that you're seeing too much of the canon "man amongst men" in my spiel where I did not intend there to be any. I wanted to show Ranma gaining new perspectives on his identity, and moving beyond the, as you say "man amongst men" ideology.

I'm actually doing my best to avoid an "author tract". I'm not sure whether you meant that the regaining of spiritual balance and Taoist themes was going to be my tract, or the gender identity exploration. So it'd be useful to me if you clarified that, too. To be honest, I wanted to write this story for the sake of the story that it could be. I have no designs on promoting my own take on sexuality, or shoving in any preachy themes. So if you could clarify exactly what you meant by "author tract" and perhaps which paragraphs specifically made you feel concerned about this, I'd be in your debt. If you could point out my "man amongst men" sentences or passages, too, that would be wonderful.


-- Thank you all for responding! I got feedback that I wasn't quite expecting, which means that I'm really grateful to all of you; you've exposed some gaps in my concepts and planning. My fic is going to be much better, and most of you have taken the time to write much more in-depth posts than I'm used to expecting. It is, like I said above, very flattering.

I hope that some of the clarifications (and apologies) I've made resolve those questions. I'd like to hear more from you, especially mondu, if you have the time.

[Spokavriel]

Glad to help. I know that use of leach. The only problem is the from Akane bit instead of to Akane. If it leached from the Medallion. The source of the chemical has had its level depleted as it leaches to the environment. Easy mistake no need to worry.

The whole situation with Nodoka as the bearer of the Medallion was just my attempt to show what I think might be a better bit of back story rather than in fic events. and I'm glad the comments on Spiritualists and Ki Masters helped you think of other possibilities. After all look how often in Fannon Dr. Tofu is rearranging someone's Chakrah network.

[mondu_the_fat]

You've got an original character (a god at that) tellling how the main characters should behave, and the main characters actually agreeing/modifying their personalities, with potential grave consequences if they don't. And this behavioral modification is central to the story. Jack Chick would be proud.

The only way that isn't an author tract is if you go on record stating that whatever is in the story is not your own personal beliefs.