Eggfic. What a word, a terrible one, I’m inexplicably biased against portmanteaus. But it’s certainly clear in what it means. I like the idea of eggfics existing, I mean I just wrote a rather gushing review for The Dragon and Her Princess, which in itself inspired me to write this piece. I feel it’s an ontologically good genre, though I have mixed feelings about it myself. This is one of those aggravating cases where I feel compelled to make one thing clear. These are issues I personally have, they do not say anything about the genre positive or negative, merely my PERSONAL reactions to it’s conventions.
I would argue there are two kind of eggfics. There are the kind like Magica Riot, where the focus is largely on how she handles her new reality after coming out in the second chapter. The other variety, like The Dragon and Her Princess, focus on the emotions and experiences of the egg before and during her cracking and transition. While that does sort of require spending time with the character before they transition, and in many cases, before they even realize they’re trans, its not an experience I tend to feel comfortable with. First of all, as the reader I have the context that this is an eggfic, that the character will stop using their deadname and current pronouns at some point. While I’m unaware of what their name and pronouns will be I am aware the text and I are functionally deadnaming the character. I actually brought it up specifically in the review. I felt uncomfortable using Treasure’s deadname, but was also trying to write an unspoiled review. So I did not want to lessen the impact of how she picks her name. I created that particular issue for myself. I suppose I could have just referred to her as Tres, but oh well.
I expect the deadnaming aspect might be an issue for many trans women. While I don’t really care nor have the luxury to hide, block, or forget my deadname, most trans women do if they can. I’ve confused more than a few with how open I am about what mine was, mostly because it lets me make terrible jokes. It doesn’t mean I welcome someone calling me it. It’s common courtesy to refer to a trans woman as her more complete self, even when referring to a shared experience before she transitioned. But that’s not really possible in this genre. While we’re obviously talking about a fictional character, I can’t help but feel almost complicit in doing to a trans girl the same harm done onto me when reading the first chunk of an eggfic.
I think this is also why I’m unsure about recommending this style of book to cis audiences. I don’t enjoy the ideal of them having a time where its kind of ok to dead name a trans person. Once something is permitted at all, it’s that much harder to stop it elsewhere.
I’ll also admit that I hold an amount of jealousy toward the genre. One of the primary tropes is a sudden transition, the egg getting to jump, if not right into the body they want, at least a body that’s received a kickstart on HRT, people often ready to help make their early transition easier. All things I wish I’d had, things I want every trans girl to have, but we don’t so let me be a little jelly ok?
And maybe that’s the real problem with the genre for me, I wonder who the audience should be? Well, eggs, obviously, but not knowing you’re one is sort of a defining feature of being an egg, though I suppose it has come to mean any trans person who is unable to openly transition. Then you have trans women who want to experience the wish fulfillment aspect, but if the before transition bit and dysphoria is written too well you might put us off before we get there. And then there’s cis people… well they should be the ones reading eggfics, but let’s be honest, the works aren’t necessarily written for cis folks.
Magica Riot probably nails this best, and largely by realizing that eggfics aren’t really a genre, they’re more of a modifier to a story. Claire is aware that she’s not cis in the first chapter but just doesn’t seem ready to come out yet. But by the end of second chapter she’s already had her magic transition booster shot, a transformation scene, and her first magical girl fight. I literally do not remember her deadname, and when I go to work on that review I will not be looking it back up either.
It’s not a story about Claire transitioning, it’s a story where Claire transitions, deals with some of the consequences, makes friends by being her real self, and also saving the world.
I have a whole half written thing on my issues with Marcy Liao’s Make Room For Love being marketed as “trans character” for similar, if opposing reasoning. I do actually recommend the book, but it does not matter to anyone that Mira is trans. Her trans-ness informs her situation, but not her character. Her trans-ness informs the comphet and gender envy getting confused with attraction, which itself explains why a grad-student in a union organizing committee would never have realized she was attracted to women. Her being trans explains why she was easily abused and manipulated by a man who validated her womanhood, and as the author was very quick to point out, paid for Mira’s bottom surgery. Her trans-ness informs why she’s desperate to establish the grad student union, because she needs to guarantee access to her “medicine” not HRT… you know maybe I don’t recommend this book?
But how does it effect her character? I couldn’t say, the abuse she suffered, her positive family connections, her need for control over her life, her friends, those inform her character, but her being trans, does not.
So while I have my discomforts with the front chunk of Eggfics, and some confusion about who their market can or really should be, I gladly embrace works like The Dragon and Her Princess and Magica Riot. They understand the damage growing up as an egg does to a person. They know and relish the joy of being trans, of being our more authentic selves, and they share it!
