#‘you ARE Genly Ai 2.0.’

[aurpiment]

tlhod’s Gender Situation as written in 1968 (published in 1969) was about a man from Earth who goes to another planet inhabited by alternate-bio ambisexual humans who are completely like Earth humans in every other respect. The man from Earth at first expects them to be like men in a way that’s recognizable to him, and that expectation causes him some struggles in relating to them, but he then comes to accept them on their own terms.

An updated look at that Gender Situation might be about a nonbinary person from Earth who goes to another planet inhabited by alternate-bio ambisexual humans who are completely like Earth humans in every other respect. The nonbinary person from Earth at first expects them to be like nonbinary people in a way that’s recognizable to them, and that expectation causes them some struggles in relating to them, but they then come to accept them on their own terms.

Mutatis mutandis since “nonbinary” is a way, way broader category than “man” (hello multigenders I love you) but people who have never heard of gender are going to have a different, for lack of a better word, thing going on than someone who is familiar with a gender binary and has rejected it.

(I also think having a normal earth queer person interact with members of a fantasy gender/lack of gender would be interesting. Real deal meets metaphor. It’s like if an actual trans woman met Jadzia Dax.)

#mt #the left hand of darkness #the way some people read the book and go ‘silly Genly Ai! of course they’re not men they’re nonbinary’ makes me go #‘you ARE Genly Ai 2.0.’ #and I say this with love because he’s a great character but also with a bit of mischief #Joanna Russ’s take on the gender situation was ‘if a woman went to a women planet she would think it ruled’ #but the women from the woman planet are actually recognizably women and are also from earth #not a spec-bio new human #that the earth woman tries to fit into an existing framework #so of course she thinks it rules. they’re lesbians. #meeting women from Planet Lesbian would obviously rule #so I think Russ has addressed a completely different gender situation #but she thought she addressed the same one