FictionMania was founded in 1998 as a website “for fans of transgendered fiction.” Much of the work was erotic and involved feminization themes that are of interest to what is now called the sissy community.
The sissy subculture is a complex overlap of several interests, including cosplay, ageplay, gender play, and kink. It is a kind of gender diverse sexuality involving erotic or autoerotic interest in feminization, usually in relation to sex with a dominant (cisgender) person or involving eroticized shame. It often involves some sort of submission, like hypnosis, chastity, training, and tasks, or nonconsensual acts like “forced feminization,” or sex that involves shame, humiliation, or degradation. Some of the erotic material produced in this subculture violates taboos about sex, sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, ideology, consent, and age of consent. In some cases those violations include use of slurs, eroticized descriptions of illegal activity, and other socially unacceptable content.
Some people in the sissy community seek social, medical, and/or legal gender transition options.
Notable contributors include conservative trans activist Brianna Wu and Brittini Blaire Summerlin aka Bubba Copeland, an Alabama mayor who committed suicide in 2023 after stories posted on FictionMania and elsewhere were connected to the author’s real-world identity.
Background
FictionMania was created to collect “fiction stories found on the old Sierra Connection BBS.” It also allowed new submissions.
The site was hosted by Reno-based retailer The Hidden Woman: Wigs and Transformation Service, which was founded in 1991 by community member Leona. It was available as a website from 1996 to 2008, part of ManiaPages, a group of websites that reflected Leona’s interests:
- HairMania (hairmania.com): “for those with a female hair fetish, mainly of the Bob hair style”
- RollerMania (rollermania): for those “who love to roll their own hair”
- FictionMania (fictionmania.com): “for fans of transgendered fiction”
FictionMania story categories
By 2006, FictionMania featured fiction in these categories and fictional universes, which give a sense of its focuses:
- Age Progression
- Age Regression
- Altered Fates
- Bad Boy to Good Girl
- Bizarre Body Modifications
- Body Suits
- Body Swap
- Bondage
- Caught with Consequences
- Chemical or Drug Induced Change
- Crime Punishment
- Crossdressing / TV
- Cultural Change
- Deals, Bets or Dares
- Female to Male Transformations
- Femdom, Authoritarian
- In Hiding
- Magic Depot
- Magical Transformations
- Mannequin or Doll
- Medieval Times
- Mind Altered, Hypnosis, Brainwashed
- Mind Transfer, Mind Possesion
- Misc Stories
- Physically Forced or Blackmailed
- Pop Culture
- School Girl
- SciFi
- Seasonal
- Sexual Punishment
- She Males
- Spells R Us
- St. Valentine’s Day
- Story Contest 99
- Stuck
- Tales of Djinnar
- The Great Shift
- The Operation
- Turned Into A Piece Of Female Clothes
- Undercover
- Victorian Times
- Ye Olde Body Shoppe
Brianna Wu and FictionMania
Brianna Wu is a conservative American transgender podcaster and game developer. Starting in 1998, Wu was deeply involved in the transgender erotica website FictionMania as a consumer of its content and later as a one-time contributor.
In a September 9, 2006 post to the Susan’s Place forum, Wu shared a short autobiography, noting, “I’ll keep this light and breezy. A more detailed autobiography is ‘Only Fools Mess with Brianna’ on FictionMania.”
That autobiography was dated July 14, 2006 and published on July 17. Excerpts are presented below.
The autobiography is notable for Wu’s self-reports vs. independently confirmed details:
- claims to be “only 26”; was actually 29 at time of publication
- experienced “12 years of religious indoctrination in the guise of schooling”
- sporadically attended college for ten years without earning a degree (1996 to 2006), dropping out for good around the time this was published
- reportedly experienced a mugging in 2002
- had a “five year crippling Ambien addiction”
- was dating a woman at the start of transition in February 2006
Excerpts from Brianna Wu’s FictionMania autobiography
note: Brianna Wu made just one post after consuming erotica on the site for 8 years. Deadname redacted throughout.
The title and synopsis show Wu was using the term Spacekat by 2006. Giant Spacekat would later be the name of Wu’s video game company.
“Only Fools Mess with Brianna
Added: 07/17/2006
By; Briannarama
Synopsis: Hey there Spacekats, this is Brianna! Have you ever wondered how a real life transition differs from a Fictionmania story? Fortunately, your intrepid reporter is here with the scoop! This real life autobiography has so much obloquy, your system just might crash!”
In the first part of the autobiography, Wu contrasts actual transition with the erotic versions presented at FictionMania:
“Tribute to [deadname redacted]
Galaxy greetings, Spacekats! This is Brianna. I’m a Journalism major at the University of Mississippi and tonight marks my sixth month since starting HRT. A lot has happened in sixth months – I’ve finished laser, I live full time as a woman and I almost always pass quite easily. I’m considered legally female by United States jurisprudence.
This is not a work of fiction. I thought that the denizens of Fictionmania might enjoy reading a true story of what it is like for a man to become a woman. I have come to understand, the stories that I admired here get so much of the process wrong.
It was important to me to celebrate by writing you my story. I wanted to celebrate the person that got me to this point – [deadname redacted]. He wasn’t a bad person – well meaning but dealing with a lot of anger. It wasn’t really his fault. Living as a boy when you know that you were supposed to be a girl is just the pits, you know?”
Wu then describes growing up, noting “I’ve always watched women with an apt fascination of the world to which I was being denied. It seemed so enchanting, all of it. […] I rarely had close friends as a child, I was just different and strange.” Wu then describes finding FictionMania:
“I discovered Fictionmania in 1998 with the advent of the Internet. In hindsight, I can say that I wasted many years that I could have been living as a girl by visiting that site. It all seemed to be so impossible for so long – but here is the story of how I beat my fear and got the courage to transition.”
Wu then describes an ex-girlfriend in disparaging terms:
“On July 6 of last year I broke up with Heather, ending the worst relationship of my life. I was 25 at the time [Wu actually turned 28 the following day]. Heather was in interesting specimen to be sure. A grouchy and emotionless diabetic finishing up her PhD in Exercise Science, Heather was someone that eschewed femininity almost completely. If I were to be truthful, I would admit that I loved her because I deemed her fucked up enough to love me back. […] It was an interesting relationship because in many ways I was the girl.”
Wu then described a year of gatekeeping via therapy prior to starting hormones: “Transitioning transsexuals must follow a set of medical and legal protocols known as the Benjamin Standards of Care. Named after Dr. Harry Benjamin, they are a source of consternation and comfort for transsexuals.” Wu started hormones on Valentine’s Day 2006 at age 28, declaring it “a holiday to be known as ‘Fuck you’ Day.” After a lengthy description of hormones and their effects, Wu writes:
“I pass extremely easily for a TS – I feel quite blessed. Although I am quite tall, I’ve always been extremely skinny. I discovered running after I beat Ambien, and I run 45 miles a week. So the tallness just works with my look as a hardcore athlete. I feel blessed in my facial features as well – I have high cheekbones and no chin. And because I’m only 26 [Wu was actually 29 at the time of publication] I have not lost any hair. I will never be considered beautiful, but at least I can easily live life in the role of the gender I have always known myself to be.”
Wu then describes how social interactions have changed:
“Female friendships are a truly wonderful thing – they are the most rewarding aspect of transition. It turns out, girls really admire a boy with enough common sense to chop off their penis. I gave a lecture to a speech therapy class recently, and the all female class looked on me with wildly fascinated eyes – they were eager to ask questions about what it was like for a boy to become a girl.
Part of female communication is coming to consensus rather than being dominant. This becomes second nature with estrogen. […] Estrogen, also makes me more reticent to say what I am thinking because I understand more deeply how important it is to get along.”
Wu then describes the “mindfuck” of recent changes in sexuality, which Wu ascribes to hormones: “I never considered gay relationships even remotely before HRT because I found women so overwhelmingly fascinating. But after HRT, after beginning to feel like a woman all the time, I found myself strongly attracted to boys.” Wu continues the self-tribute:
“Regarding [deadname redacted], he doesn’t exist anymore- let me say, he will be missed. I really appreciate that you were recusant enough to get me through this. I don’t think of you as gone – I am quite like you, only stronger. I am happy, whereas you were not. I can easily smile, which is something you were rarely capable of.
When I think of all the things that I we had to overcome together, it’s quite a list. The five year crippling Ambien addiction, the splatter-movie mugging of 2002, and the 12 years of religious indoctrination in the guise of schooling – thinking through that alone is an impressive accomplishment. We are tough as nails, Space cat – and no one can take that from us.”
Wu concludes with the joys of having transitioned:
“And although I might dismiss it, being a girl is a lot of fun. Makeup, nails, fashion and exercise were all things I took to easily. It is fun to wear skirts, and to have long hair – but it’s also important to remember, that’s not what being a woman is about. It’s also about the standards you hold yourself to. It’s about your capacity to be weak when it would be easier to be strong.
I don’t know where my life will take me from here, but I do know that I have fulfilled my biological destiny by transitioning. For that alone, conquering my intense fear – I consider my life to have been an overwhelming success.
With great pride,
Bree
July 14, 2006
http://www.myspace.com/onlyfoolsmesswithbree”
References
note: unlinked urls may contain deadnames
Brianna (September 9, 2006). An introduction to Brianna-rama. Susan’s Place https://www.susans.org/index.php?msg=44705 [archive.org] [archive.ph]
BriannaRama (July 17, 2006). Only Fools Mess with Brianna. FictionMania https://www.fictionmania.tv/stories/readtextstory.html?storyID=33620844481804758690 also archived at Crossover Fan Fiction http://crossoverfanfiction.tripod.com/Tribute_to_[deadname redacted].txt
Stories by BriannaRama https://www.fictionmania.tv/searchdisplay/authordisplay.html?word=3417
Resources
ManiaPages (maniapages.com) [archive 1998–2001]
- FictionMania (fictionmania.com) [archive]
- HairMania (hairmania.com) [archive]
- RollerMania (rollermania.com) [archive]
The Hidden Woman (hiddenwoman.com) [archive]