I tried to compile a list of books that challenged my view of gender identity, and found I couldn't think of that many. Can any of you add to this list and suggest something for me to read?
NB, I'm not really looking for plain tolerance, as in James Alan Gardner's "Vigilant", where the heroins just happen to fall for eachother and nobody thinks twice about it. I'm looking for more about how it makes society different. But I don't want to place too many constraints on anything anybody chooses to suggest.
Thanks for any insight.
"Moonstar Odyssey" by David Gerrold: Lost human colonists whose gender is stabilized only after introspection and experimentation during puberty.
"Commitment hour" by James Alan Gardner, and Stephen Hickman: Swap your gender every year till you're 20; then you have to choose a permanent designation
"The Left Hand of Darkness" bu Ursula K. Le Guin: OK treatment of hermaphroditic viewpoint.
"Hominids" by Robert J. Sawyer: Neanderthals are bisexual, depending on the time of the month. Sounds reasonable till a homo sapiens woman gets involved.
"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman: Checkpoints in future history in this and Forever Free show a shift toward homosexuality as the norm to curb population growth
"Jumping Off the Planet: by David Gerrold: More gays needed! Accept sexual orientation reassignment for fun and profit!
"The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold: Time travel gets kinky
"Under the Eye of God" by David Gerrold: 98% of humans are men, and everybody deals with it pretty well
NB, I'm not really looking for plain tolerance, as in James Alan Gardner's "Vigilant", where the heroins just happen to fall for eachother and nobody thinks twice about it. I'm looking for more about how it makes society different. But I don't want to place too many constraints on anything anybody chooses to suggest.
Thanks for any insight.
"Moonstar Odyssey" by David Gerrold: Lost human colonists whose gender is stabilized only after introspection and experimentation during puberty.
"Commitment hour" by James Alan Gardner, and Stephen Hickman: Swap your gender every year till you're 20; then you have to choose a permanent designation
"The Left Hand of Darkness" bu Ursula K. Le Guin: OK treatment of hermaphroditic viewpoint.
"Hominids" by Robert J. Sawyer: Neanderthals are bisexual, depending on the time of the month. Sounds reasonable till a homo sapiens woman gets involved.
"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman: Checkpoints in future history in this and Forever Free show a shift toward homosexuality as the norm to curb population growth
"Jumping Off the Planet: by David Gerrold: More gays needed! Accept sexual orientation reassignment for fun and profit!
"The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold: Time travel gets kinky
"Under the Eye of God" by David Gerrold: 98% of humans are men, and everybody deals with it pretty well
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Tue, September 27, 2005 - 4:13 PMWell,
There's Octavia Butler's books: the Xenogeneis trilogy. I only read Imago out of the series, and it was fascinating to me. Cool gender stuff.
And if you don't mind a little fantasy tossed in with your science fiction, you can try Marion Zimmer Bradley's The World Wreckers. Curious gender stuff there too.
Actually, the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley ( which consists of MANY books) has a couple books of intense feminism and lesbianism, and gay characters. If you want to know what those specific volumes are, I could find out for you. I've got them, but the titles escape me at the moment.
Food for thought.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Thu, October 6, 2005 - 4:39 PM -
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Fri, February 22, 2008 - 6:24 PMI second this recommendation! Tiptree makes my soul sing.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Wed, October 19, 2005 - 10:24 AMmission child, which i just finished on a reccommendation off this list has a transgender main character. it's not my favorite book, but should be included on your list. -
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Thu, October 27, 2005 - 4:52 PMi'd recommend passion of the new eve, by angela carter. not as brilliant as some of her other writing, but still riveting -- a bit like early marge piercy (dance the eagle to sleep & woman on the edge of time) on acid.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Fri, May 26, 2006 - 5:58 PMRing of Swords by elanor Arnason is a long time favorite of mine.
Takes place on a planet where the genders are separated, because it is safer that way (when a male becomes a teen, he's sent to be w/ the other males). Homosexuality is the norm.
wonderful, wonderful book.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Wed, October 4, 2006 - 11:52 AMTry the Female Man by Joanna Russ. It has the added benefit of being written by a second wave feminist with 1970's perspective. It's truly a fabulous (albeit short) read.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Thu, November 30, 2006 - 2:05 PMgender:
Gate to the Women's Country, Sherry S. Tepper
GenderFlex, edited by Cecilia Tan (some pieces are erotic or pornographic)
Women of Wonder, both volumes--these are anthologies of science fiction written by women, much of which deals with gender
look for lesbian seperatist stuff--herland comes to mind
there's also a book i read once that satirizes society as we know it my making a pretty direct switch from patriarchy to matriarchy with gender roles switching similary--ie men must wear jock strap things analagous to bras, men take care of the children, it is a man's fault if he gets raped, etc.... I'll post the title here once I remember it...
You might try looking here:
feministsf.org/
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Sun, April 15, 2007 - 4:12 PMHey, I was just going to suggest Cecilia Tan (she's written some het stuff, but much of what she writes is twistedly kinky--see "Telepaths Need No Safewords" [I may have misquoted the title, but you get the idea] for a prime example)!
Also for consideration, Diane Duane's _The Door Into Fire_, her first novel, which takes place in a world where people are free to love whomever they choose, so long as they procreate at least once in their lives. _Tale Of The Five: The Sword And The Dragon_ collects that and the sequel novel, _The Door Into Shadow_; I recommend the collected edition highly.
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Re: Good gender-bending SciFi?
Sun, April 15, 2007 - 5:09 PMA few more I didn't see mentioned here:
Samuel Delany's 'Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia' (originally published as just 'Triton') is set in a human society dwelling on a moon called Triton where high levels of technology allow individuals to change their appearance, gender, sexual orientation, etc. at will. Supposedly Delany wrote this in partly response to Le Guin's novel 'The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia'. It's not Delany's best novel by any reckoning but it is interesting and certainly does fit the theme.
Le Guin's novella 'The Matter of Seggri' (which won a Tiptree award and can be found in the anthology 'The Best of Crank' (ISBN-10: 0312867395)) examines and reimagines gender roles more than it does gender identity but is still a very good, very thought-provoking read.
Gender identity and the scientific possibility of humans eventually evolving more than two "default" sexes is a theme that runs throughout Gwyneth Jones' relatively recent (and very good) novel 'Life'. This is not a "happy" book nor an easy one to read but it is extremely compelling and timely.
