On not revealing gender in fiction

[firecat]

"Post-Binary Gender in SF: Writing Without Revealing Gender" by Alex Dally Macfarlane

Alex says, "I like and dislike this" and gives good reasons why.

But the main reason I'm posting it is that it brought back a high school memory for me. We were assigned to write a short story. I wrote a science fiction story in the first person. The story ended with flirting between my protagonist, who was female, and another character, who was male. I wasn't trying to hide anyone's gender in the story, but the teacher assumed that my protagonist was male and so was "concerned" that I had written a story with Teh Gay in it. When I said that the character was female the teacher said I should make that more clear. I identified as het cis female at the time and I did not understand why the teacher thought my protagonist was male. But apparently characters who don't do explicitly girly things are male by default. Especially if they are in space exploration stories.

Comments

[bibliofile]

Always interesting conversations.

Funny, I heard Kelley Eskridge read a Mars story at WisCon, and the effect was interesting: lots of people noticed the lack of gendered pronouns. But my friend Steve assumed that Mars was male, and I assumed that Mars was female. Could it be that many readers assume that the gender matches their own? I think we'd need a bigger sample than three people, though.

ADMcF

[bibliofile]

The thing I like best about the article? That it focuses on including people outside the gender binary. So sensible. Not earth shattering to me now, but I bet it still might surprise lots of people.

Progress is good, as long as it continues...

Re: ADMcF

[firecat]

Yes!

[firecat]

Anecdatum: my teacher was female.

[stardreamer]

A story like that would also be a good place for a parent to start talking to their child about gender assumptions. "Did you think [character] was male, female, or something else? What made you decide that?" Or similarly for a college course on gender in fiction.

[firecat]

Great idea!

[delight]

Reminds me of the Hilary Tamar series, where I still go back and forth on a pretty regular basis as to whether Hilary is male or female to the author.

[firecat]

*makes note*

[major_clanger]

I read them recently (there are only four, alas); my reviews are here for the first and here for the second and third. (For some reason I never got around to reviewing the fourth and final one.)

[selki]

I second the recommendation(s).

[silveradept]

Lots of good reasons to talk more about writing in a non-binary way. Although I do really like the sole requirement - write people as people - since I feel it often gets ignored.

[firecat]

It does. Partly because it's really hard, I'm guessing.

[silveradept]

It is hard. But it's doable.

[flarenut]

Because we live in an alternate universe where Ursula LeGuin never wrote anything? It really is kinda amazing how much the "unmarked=male" default still holds. (There was also an interesting discussion of this partway through the enormous hugo-nomination discussion thread at making light, where the jerkwads couldn't conceive of anyone not male being in a story unless there was some plot or thematic reason for it.)

[firecat]

Agh. Right. And apparently in the mind of my female teacher, "unmarked = male" was even stronger than "first person protagonist written by a girl = possibly not male".

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

the sad thing is that were you in high school today you would likely have gotten much the same reaction

[firecat]

Heh, good point. Probably no one can identify the time period I went to high school from that story.

[usqueba.livejournal.com]

I took a creative writing class years ago (in college). I don't remember what the specifics were but the prof suggested I do X cause That's How It Is Done. I thought, "hmmm. You and I don't read the same books, do we?!" I said something more polite, giving specific examples of what I'd read and she went, "Oh" and left me alone about it. I think I lucked out.

[firecat]

Yeah, I have had mixed feelings about most of the creative writing classes I've had any interactions with.