And now, the most powerful form of communication known to humanity: A BULLET POINT LIST.

• After the previous page and commentary, a reader going by Maplestrip suggested "masculine" and "feminine" as alternative for "male" and "female" in this general context.
  
  
• As Tedd says, English is bad at this. To be fair, I'm not sure of any language that would be good at this.
  
  To the point, this "masculine" and "feminine" option isn't perfect. What works best, should be used, is the most technically correct, etc, is wide open for debate, and there's NOT going to be consensus.
  
  The one thing I'm sure of is, after this page, someone somewhere won't be happy with me.
  
  
• I don't think this needs to be some sort of campaign to convince all transformation writers to adopt this, or anything like that. As said, English is ill-equipped for this, and no answer is perfect.
  
  I'm not even sure if it will stick here. However...
  
  
• El Goonish Shive has a number of readers who are trans, and I've gotten a lot of comments over the years about "male" and "female" forms. I'm not suggesting every reader who is trans has an issue with it, but I know it doesn't sit well with a number of people.
  
  My reasons for not trying out alternatives sooner were not knowing of any that worked better while also sounding natural spoken by the characters. Not sounding natural persists as an issue with "masculine" and "feminine".
  
  However (again)...
  
  
• The timing of this suggestion relative to the story presented me with an opportunity. With Justin about to transform, and Sam on Sarah's mind, AND a whole bunch of the core cast all gathered in one spot, I could present this an option they'd all be around to hear. It presented possibly the most natural opportunity to try it out I was going to get.
  
  
• I like Sarah leaning against the sofa like that.
  

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- Saturday EGSNP