I could write volumes on my opinions, observations, and questions about the complexities of gender but I won't. Not today anyways. Not here. Instead I shall point you in the direction of a very fantastic book that explores these ideas. A book I re-read this last week and can't seem to get out of my brain (those are the best kind aren't they?). A very fantastic book by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The Left Hand of Darkness
You may have read or heard of this book before. It involves an alien race that is unisex. That is, they reproduce sexually but each member of the race is both a man and a woman. It is interesting to see how the society is developed without the social divide --or even distinction of --"man" and "woman". It is even more interesting to see how difficult a man from our world finds building relationships with these Gethenians because he doesn't know how to categorize them or what to expect from them.
Even more interesting than that is the transcendent closeness of such a relationship.
Just some thoughts. Hope you are all enjoying A-Z challenge.
I've long called myself gender-atypical and a tomboy, but recently I've come to the understanding that those terms reinforce the idea that there's only one acceptable way to be a man or woman. Not being very stereotypically girly by modern Western standards doesn't mean I'm somehow abnormal, just one variation on a large continuum. My parents raised me and my little brother as people, not rigid stereotypes erroneously based on biological sex. If I have kids, I intend to raise them in the same gender-neutral fashion, though it's increasingly hard nowadays. Even toys and clothes for infants are largely sex-stereotyped.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. It is interesting how as laws become more and more equal social norms become more and more separated. In the mid-nineteenth century when the modern waves of feminism started young children of both genders wore mostly white with lots of lace. It wasn't considered "girly" and mothers didn't have to buy a separate nursery sets for their male and female children.
DeleteMarion Zimmer Bradley did something similar with many of her books, too. Interesting post. :-)
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly I've not yet got around to reading any Marion Zimmer Bradley. I will though. Eventually.
DeleteGender roles are something I give a lot of thought to as well. It's 90% the reason I wrote my last two novels. Haven't read that Le Guin book yet, but I'll put it on my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteThe ever growing TBR list.
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