I can think of two but I’m sure there are many more:
The prophet Tiresias in Greek mythology became a woman for seven years for pissing off two coupling snakes (and either a prostitute or a wife or a priestess during that time, but gave birth to a daughter) and then became a man again after disturbing the same two coupling snakes again.
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando is probably the most famous literary sex change.
I know that Lazarus Long had a female clone but didn’t become female himself. Are there any other characters who went from m to f or f to m? (I feel I’m overlooking somebody really obvious.)
In comic books, Dr. Fate, the Crimson Avenger, Dr. Mid-Nite, Speedy, and Robin are all male superheroes who were replaced at various times by women. The actual people in the costumes didn’t change gender, but the heroic identities themselves did.
In Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, the lead characters have machines that can transfer one’s mind/soul from one body to another.
One of the characters, originally a woman, used it to become a man.
Another character would switch genders with each new incarnation. After a few centuries, only that character could remember what his/her original gender had been.
It’s been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall that a third character was forced to switch genders for political reasons.
The first two “Buckwheats” in “Our Gang” were portrayed by girls, Carlena Beard (Stymies real-life little sister), and Willie Mae Taylor. The “real” Buckwheat, Billie Thomas, was referred to as “she” in his first outing as “Buckwheat.” (Previously, Thomas had appeared as an unnamed little boy wearing a flat-topped derby hat.)
Offhand, I know of two in the comics:
[ul][li]The Ultra-humanite, a mad scientist and the first supervillain to confront Superman (before Lex Luthor, even) had his brain transplanted into the body of an actress named Dolores Winters.[/li][li]Walter Langkowski, “Sasquatch” of Marvel’s Alpha Flight underwent a transformation where his consciousness ended up inhabiting the female body of another team member; Snowbird.[/ul][/li]
In both cases, though, the characters retained their male attitudes and never fully adapted to their female forms.
Then there was that Prelude to a Kiss movie a few years back…
In Norse myth, the gods made a deal with a jotun to build a wall around Asgard. They did not believe he could finish the job in time, so they promised him an exorbitant fee.
When the jotun and his draft-horse worked much faster than they had expected, it looked like the Aesir would be screwed.
Then Loki transformed into a mare and, um, distracted the jotun’s draft-horse. Mare and stallion disappeared into the woods.
The jotun could not finish the job in time, and the Aesir were saved.
Months later, Loki gave birth to Sleipnir, who became Odin’s steed.
Ziggy from Quantum Leap. Referred to as ‘he’ in early seasons. Al made a joke about getting him a girl computer with a giant pair of (somethings… hard drives, maybe). In later seasons Ziggy gained a voice (female) and was thereafter called ‘she.’
In the original 4-issue miniseries The Books Of Magic one of the four magicians that instruct [del]Harry[/del] Tim, starts as male, and turns female when they enter some magic kingdom. I don’t know if he/she is a DC comics regular character, or only in this story.
In The Ballad Of Halo Jones from the anthology comic 2000 AD there’s a character The Glyph that had several dozen sex changes, which eventually erased her personality, and left her “invisible” ie people would forget she was in the same room.
The novel Commitment Hour is about a tribe of people on far future (post apocalyptic?) Earth that switch genders every year until their 21st(?) birthday when they must decide which to be for the rest of their lives. It’s been a while since I read it so I don’t remember too much else.
Several characters known as “Jumpers” in the Wild Cards series had the ability to switch minds telepathically. Through the use of this power, Dr. Tachyon, one of the main characters of the series, was forced into a woman’s body for a while.
In Family Guy: Stewie Griffin, the untold story, 30 years in the future, Meg is a FTM transsexual named Ron.
This one probably doesn’t count, but in the D&D Ravenloft setting, a character named Thakok-An was in love with a character named Kalid-ma. Kalid-ma came originally from the Dark Sun campaign setting, where he was a male, but due to a mistake, the original Ravenloft version was written up as female, with a male Thakok-an. In later books, this was corrected, and Kalid-ma was referred to as male, with Thakok-an as female. No in-continuity reason was ever given, so the characters themselves didn’t change gender, but the authors’ conception of them did.
There is, however, Dr Occult, who is a male and a female in the same body. Still not quite on topic, but closer.
A few actual comic book gender swaps, both accidental and deliberate…
In the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes special, Color Kid briefly had his gender switched when Infectious Lass accidentally infected him with ‘Grandin Gender Reversal Germs’. (His final line was ‘Hey – I’m a guy again!’, which is a lot funnier in the book than I make it sound.) His costume, BTW, looks much better on a woman than a man.
I haven’t read the issue in question, yet (I’ve got a few weeks, or months, before I get to it.), but apparently Tenzil Kem was deliberately infected with GGRG in the post-ZH Legion.
Then there’s the whole Sean/Shvaughn Erin thing, which I’m also a few weeks away from reading at the rate I’m going, so I’ll leave it to someone else to explain better.
Guy Gardner was briefly changed into a woman.
Superman’s gotten changed into a woman a couple times.
Two manga:
Ranma of Ranma 1/2 is cursed to turn into a woman when hit with cold water - hot water changes him back to a man.
Futaba Shimeru of Futaba-kun Change! - in fact, the entire Shimeru family - has a strange genetic quirk that causes them to change gender when excited.
One - Tim predates Potter.
Two - That’s Dr. Occult, and Rose Psychic. They’re lovers, kept apart by the fact they timeshare the same existence. So in this case, the male personality is elsewhere while the female’s out and about.
In Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness the people on Gethen change sex all the time. Genli Ai, the main character, is from earth, and is considered a freak because he’s stuck in the same sex all the time.