Corruption as an Empowerment Fetish

[Xanderfox]

Seems to me corruption as empowerment ought to be characterized as a "false" type of empowerment, that yes the corrupted person becomes stronger and more determined by sacrificing who they are or having who they are taken away from them. They haven't really been empowered they have been enslaved or replaced by a new entity and are more powerless than before.

Of course that really is for a deeper exploration of the concept rather than it as a sexual fantasy. In a fetish setting the "corruption" is more used as an excuse to have a submissive character act as the aggressor, allowing them to be depicted in a way that is opposed to their normal character. Of course as is often the case since the negative aspects of the change are ignored or thrown out many empowerment fantasy that could be called corruption are not recognized as such. Your Catwoman example stands out, because Patience is depicted as such weak person only the positive aspects of the transformation are acknowledged, the fact the original Patience has in essence died isn't acknowledged because the new Patience is meant to represent female empowerment. In reality Patience wasn't empowered, she was destroyed.

[brandygang]

I think this might be better coined as "False Corruption", since it focuses more on the awakening of emergent, assertive and independent traits with Powerplay thrown in.

You bring up a good point, and illustrate why Patience is a rather bad pickings here. Patience, has few redeemable traits or much characterization. She's fodder for her Catwoman Transformation. So her abrupt change is Identity Death, so it destroyed her. Pretty much nothing about 'Catwoman' really relates to whoever 'Patience' was, it's not like she cared about jewels or fighting crime beforehand. That's not corruption everybody looks for and it's not nearly as Process related.

A better "Empowerment" would feature a girl with recognizable enough goals, relations, behaviors, ect so a change is meaningful. The struggle is essentially internal, she gives up aspects of herself for this change, and accepts it by her motivations. She'll become what she needs to as the cost to gain her wants, or perhaps the freedom and power offered to her is the reward she seeks in itself.

A benchmark test could be if she still sympathize/identify's her previous self and can state both the reasons to become 'corrupted' and reasons she wouldn't. (Regardless of which she believes in, or follows at the moment) She'd still be 'Corrupted', entering a different darker persona so she's not just some Superhero or Magical Girl gaining power. But she's not necessarily enslaved or possessed either, assuming she can give up her power and rekindle the motives in herself that drove her to this. If she "Snaps" or betrays those original reasons, breaking her flimsy self in the process she'll have lost and it'll be a true corruption. This fetish hinders on the victim edging right near that point, from roughly there back to when she first got her Power. If they've been enslaved/destroyed and consumed by their new identity without regard for their original self it's just another corruption and this specific fetish ends.

[Crash Ichimonji]

Jitensha did a short comic based on this concept. It was a 'Jaquelin Hyde' TF where the meek, glasses-wearing scientist girl turns into a larger-breasted, green-skinned orcish/elf girl to release her 'inner self'.

'Demon on the Dance Floor' was a Corruption TF short comic that had the seemingly underconfident girl with a modest figure dance to demonic-laced music that turned her into a devilgirl at the end, her mindset going from dreary and with low self-esteem to confident and seductive. She doesn't think she's changed any, let alone think back to her former identity, so I guess it only partially counts to some degree at best.

I wonder if the lead futanari girls of 'Dulce Report' would count in this concept? Momoe started as Momose (100% male), a kind of nerdy possibly otaku kid, then after becoming a futanari (Momoe) she became confident, more cunning, and ultimately a very responsible mother (the sequal series is still on-going). By the same token, Aoi (100% female) began as the studious and proper student council president, but after becoming a horse-cocked futanari slowly lost her own inhibitions and gave into her body's new functions (read: having a dick) by becoming rather butch in her relationship with Momoe. She was almost exclusively on top when it came to sex with Momoe, and was rather protective of her formerly-male girlfriend. In a way, Aoi's corruption did empower her, and Momoe's conversion did in her own way.

:::EDIT:::

Now that I think about it, girls that become futanari tend to get a sort of empowerment/confidence boost most of the time, though 'corruption' being a rather extreme description of a woman enjoying the sexual power of having a wang and the new pleasure of penile ejaculation.