See, the funny thing is, I feel the same way about genderswap stories; probably because it's so often used like a cheap trick, and feels like a cheap trick. I probably wouldn't have thought to write this one if not for a story I read some time ago in SGA fandom -- it was a brief, gen friendship piece, which first of all got my attention because I'd never seen completely gen genderswap before, but it was just a very deft little story that really made you think about how different things might have been for female versions of the characters, without ever descending into titillation or becoming overtly about "women's issues". It made me realize that you can do more with genderswap than just "Hey, I have girlparts now, let's see what I can do with them!"

And YES to tough, blue-collar women! I grew up in rural Alaska, so most of my female role models were women very much like Ellen. I want more of them!

And even though this was only supposed to be a one-shot, I've already got more ideas for different things to do with girl!Dean. Oh dear. (By the way, speaking of such things -- you mentioned the SGA AU of mine in the other comment; since you encountered the story on ff.net and I never posted them over there, did you ever read the other short pieces that I wrote in that universe later on? They're under the "texas au" tag in this journal.)