Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't the original purpose of this fic
to be a response to other Ranma-becomes-a-girl fics, without leaning on
plot devices such as magic and/or his curse?  A look at how Ranma "I'm
a guy, dammit!"  Saotome could very well decide to be a full-time girl?

  <Raises hand.>  Yep, I'm an author using a cheesy plot device to do
"Ranma-as-a-woman."

  I don't think it can be helped.  There are two ways of doing this, which
by all purposes according to the manga is impossible:

1.  Have Ranma act completely out-of-character.
2.  Use a plot device.

  I want all the characters to be in character, so I chose #2.  I don't
think this is a problem, provided the rest of the story is good enough to
make up for it.
  I disqualified #1 on the basis that Ranma is always out of character to
begin with.  Ranma is very hard to keep in character in any case.. he's
defies most logical explinations.  He can be completely nice in one scene
and become a total bastard the next.. without a clear reason why.  Cologne
is similar to a lesser extent.

  The problem isn't so much that Ranma "hates" his curse.  If left alone,
Ranma has no real problems with it.  Ranma is never left alone.

  There is the "martial arts tea ceremony" arc, in which girl-type Ranma
wakes up to find herself dressed in a wedding kimono.

  There is the "Picolette martial arts eating combat" arc, in which
girl-type Ranma is locked into a steel corset and can't change back.

  There is the "Musk Dynasty" arc, in which Ranma is permanently locked
into a woman.

  Fact of the matter is, when given a choice between girl-type Ranma and
Akane, most male protagonists pick Ranma.  Ranma _is_ physically the most
attractive woman, beating out even Shampoo.
  Akane wouldn't be so jealous of Ranma as a woman if Ranma was ugly.

  With all of this hell raining down on him, is it a wonder that Ranma
tries to get rid of his "curse" at any opportunity?  Of course not.  He's
got enough problems to deal with.. let alone to have men chasing after him
as well as women.

....

  As for "The clothes make the..", and fiction in general, I say only this:

It's isn't the author's job to justify a story.
The job of justification belongs to the story itself.

  If you have to constantly "explain" what happened, then you had better
seriously rethink what you've written.. even if all you have to do is make
a certain part a little clearer.  Comments of "that is the way things are"
aren't good enough.  All they do is alienate the readers.

  To be honest, the Ranma/Kodachi scene in "The clothes make the.."
wouldn't be the first thing that I'd point out as being a problem.. It
would be one of the last.

--
mattera@tiac.net
http://www.tiac.net/users/mattera