Greetings all!

A couple of feedback messages on my initial posting of Relatively Absent 
have gotten me to question a few assumptions I have held in regards to the 
usage of the 'he' and 'she' pronouns when referring to Ranma in a fanfic.

I've always subscribed to the 'Internal Viewpoint' formulae, in when the 
story is told from Ranma's or a neutral POV the masculine designation is 
always used, no matter which form of body Ranma currently has. This rule is 
broken only if/when Ranma no longer cares how he or the outside world views 
him, or if he views himself internally as female at any point.

Of course, using this convention requires that in the places of a story 
where the POV switches back & forth between Ranma and other characters, the 
pronouns are also constantly switching back & forth. Now, I myself have no 
problem following these types of narratives, and as an author using the 
Internal Viewpoint rule is a handy method of showing how Ranma views 
himself, but a couple of readers have commented that they found this usage 
extremely confusing - especially in instances where Ranma is 'locked' in 
his female form.

Is there a generally accepted consensus on how this is handled?  I've seen 
both methods used in various fanfics (not both in the same one, of course! 
:), and I personally have a more difficult time believing in stories where 
the prose always refers to Ranma as a 'he' or 'she' based strictly on 
external form. However, I could very likely be in a small minority in this 
opinion.

Comments, please?

============================================================
Mark Shurtleff
email: gaijin@sfcmd.com
irc alias: Gaijin -or- togashi_gaijin
============================================================


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