#INPUT: FMG Question: Whose Fault?

[zarina]

Another topic, just curious to get feedback on...

In FMG stories, do you have a preference about who's to blame for causing the growth in the first place?

Put another way, do you prefer it when the woman is intentionally trying to gain some muscle? 

Or do you prefer it when the guy decides the woman needs some 'bulking up' and secretly slips her some super serum? 

[This sort of implies one person is somewhat clueless about the growth thing.  I suppose they both could be equally clueless ("Don't touch that meteor!  You don't know what it will do!").  Or both equally interested.]


Personally, I prefer stories where the guy sets things in motion, but with unforeseen outcomes.  Like only expecting her to get bigger boobs, or just grow an inch or two taller.  Whoops!

[derekr]

My favourite is the woman intentionally bulking up.  I love the realistic, steroid-driven stories, like Lisa's Path, Jill and Me, Muscle Sex, Joanne's Abs etc

[derekr]

I use the word "realistic" loosely! 

[JerusalemTulip]

A lot of my favorite stories involve women who have already built up their strength.  That said, I think a male- driving-the-growth story needs to be written well in order to satisfy most readers.  You run the danger of having characters with no agency otherwise.

[NinjaStar]

Eh, there's really no choice here for me. It's gotta be intentional because the other kind is a little too silly, especially when, like Jerusalem said, it's not done well. I like the idea of a woman making the choice of getting big and strong on her own, reading about the trials and tribulations, the sumptuous description of her muscles gaining size and strength and her thoughts and reactions to the changes in her body in addition to those from everyone else in the story.

[sinclair4000]

Yes Please!  As in - I like both story types.  It just depends on how you like your "power structure" in stories.  There are inside of the person growth stories where the woman is in control of her growth the entire time creating a sense of female dominance and agency from the outset, even if it is intended as gaining strength to attract, defend, or "take care of" a man.  She is in control and the man is just along for the ride or in some serious pain if she is vindictive or worse if she is psychotic. 

The "man in control" model - man meaning either an actual husband, boyfriend, random person she meets in a gym, or random force from above, think aliens, that "meteor" you mentioned zarina, or weird government program. In all of those cases the cause for growth is outside the woman's control, at least initially.  But I think the growth type that you describe would fit neatly under the "unintended consequences" mantel. You wrote - "Personally, I prefer stories where the guy sets things in motion, but with unforeseen outcomes.  Like only expecting her to get bigger boobs, or just grow an inch or two taller.  Whoops!"

I think the great thing for this type of story is that we the reader (me being male) can put ourselves in the place of the man and it is typically told from the man's point of view. "I thought giving Heather 3 pills instead of one would just mean double the growth, now looking at the bottle I can see that it actually causes exponential growth!"  Cue the scene where he cautiously approaches his girlfriend now working out, lifting weights, with the three pills on board.

Whatever your preference I enjoy both types.  But it doesn't have to be a binary equation.  How a story starts does not define its ending.

[NinjaStar]

I don't know about the audience surrogacy thing. The man is always along for the ride no matter the type of growth. That's part of the reason why I don't like the 'man in control' stories, because inevitably the man loses the control and suffers one unnecessary misfortune after another because the women always turn psychotic. I certainly sure as hell wouldn't want to be in that situation. Authors of this type think it's clever when the woman finds out about the growth plot device and seizes control somehow and enslaves/rapes/tortures/kills him which makes the whole idea of agency on the part of the man moot. Of course that happens in intentional muscle growth stories sadly all too often also, but at least there aren't any lame M. Night Shamalamadingdong 'plot twists' that you see a mile away that were ultimately unnecessary. If the point of a story is women growing big and strong, just have it be that.