Gender neutral characters

[Locrian]

So one of the stories I'm currently working on involves several gender neutral characters. I'm finding the task a little daunting, but it is important to the story. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of writing gender neutral or variable characters, or any examples?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Vorkosigan saga has a hemaphrodite (Bel Thorne) as a main secondary (but not pov) character - check out Labyrinth, Mirror Dance and Diplomatic Immunity for how it's handled.

Also, The Deptford Trilogy has one in the third book.

 

[Glisterspeck]

In my WIP, a whole race of goblin-like, epicene creatures. I tried to go with made up gender neutral pronouns, but their language is grating enough without the made up words, and there are two many of them to be able to pull off it, so they all became male, at least, through the view of the humans that encounter them.

Good luck with it!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The classic example for variable genders would be The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin.

Here is my attempt to write about a completely neutral human being.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

It's a non fiction documentary but it might be useful:
Me, My Sex and I

 

[Nerds_feather]

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is a good (and recent and popular) example.

 

[tinkerdan]

I guess it depends on how gender neutral they are and by that I mean:

Is it a choice?

Is it biology?

Is it sociological mandate?

Is it a religious revelation?

If they are designed to be neutral that doesn't preclude relationships such as companionship or even love when there is no biological imperative for them to be gender specific.

If Its a religious thing then they could be fighting against biology and sociological pressures. There could be stringent rules governing relationships.

If its Sociological it could include rules and laws regulating it. Again possible stringent rules regarding relationships.

If it's choice then it could end up being a disregard for all of the above. But also a lot of pressure from the outside.

There are probably a lot of other concerns besides relationships someone else will have to put in their two cents for those.

 

[Pyan]

Robin Hobb's multi-book character The Fool.


The Fool - man or woman

 

[Locrian]

I guess it depends on how gender neutral they are and by that I mean:

Is it a choice?

Is it biology?

Is it sociological mandate?

Is it a religious revelation?

If they are designed to be neutral that doesn't preclude relationships such as companionship or even love when there is no biological imperative for them to be gender specific.

If Its a religious thing then they could be fighting against biology and sociological pressures. There could be stringent rules governing relationships.

If its Sociological it could include rules and laws regulating it. Again possible stringent rules regarding relationships.

If it's choice then it could end up being a disregard for all of the above. But also a lot of pressure from the outside.

There are probably a lot of other concerns besides relationships someone else will have to put in their two cents for those.

One of them is an AI, which obviously doesn't have a gender. It sometimes presents one way or the other if it believes that it will help it relate to someone.

The other is human, I'm still trying to get the reasoning straight in my head and I think I need to check some LGBT sources for some perspectives, but my current ideas are that they find traditional gender roles to be meaningless to them. Society at the time will be very socially liberal so they feel no pressure to pick a gender to identity as. Instead of dealing with stigma and prejudice, ignorance is the bigger problem they face.

Any thoughts on pronouns? So far I have just been using the characters names rather than "they" while writing.

 

[allmywires]

I'd agree with tinkerdan. There's a who rafter of sociopolitical issues that come with gender neutrality/fluidity, so it depends which route you are going down. Psychological effects of forced castration in a hellish autocracy, or a more social conflict with a gender fluid character in a world with strictly defined gender roles? Or, simply, a blank third - neutral - gender? It can be as simple or as complicated as you like.

Eta: cross posted, but the point still stands for the human (I think). Pronouns, I'd stick with what you're doing, 'they' is very clunky.

 

[Abernovo]

For the human character, there's the whole QUILTBAG spectrum. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by gender neutral in this case. Intersex, asexual, transgender, transsexual, gender-fluid/genderqueer, third gender?

For an intersex character, there's Laura Lam's Pantomime. She's actually a Chronner, although hasn't been here much. There are asexual characters out there, and plenty who don't conform to the 'standard'* gender roles.

they find traditional gender roles to be meaningless to them

Careful! Ask three people for their definition of anything, and you'll get three answers! There's a spectrum of sexuality and, more importantly, personalities. Everyone's different.

Good luck with your writing.

*Standard not always being the same, depending upon time and location.

 

[Toby Frost]

One of my main characters is an alien from an asexual species. He simply produces young every so often. As a result, his species have an odd concept of family, almost no idea of physical affection (they are somewhat touchy about their personal space) and regard human reproduction as disgusting. Since he displays more stereotypically male characteristics, he's seen by the other characters as a "he".

"We are asexual, but for some reason unknown to me we tend to be described as male. Now, enough of this emotional talk. Let us find some warfare." Suruk belched and walked on, scratching the place where his backside would have been.

To be honest, I think you've got the three pronouns - he, she and it - and you've usually got to pick one of them and stick to it. For the computer, I would describe each personality by which it displays itself by the personality's gender: "The computer had taken the form of a woman. She was short, dark-haired..." etc.

For the human, "it" seems a bit cold. Does the human have enough experience of, er, two-gender society to decide to pick a gender for the circumstances? (Today I am dressing as a male businessman, and so on).

 

[Ivanya]

The Wraeththu books by Storm Constantine feature hermaphrodite characters, just as an example.

 

[tinkerdan]

For the AI I would agree that whatever it is at the time might be the appropriate pronoun to use. Since the computer seems to be happy to accommodate those it associates with.

Keep in mind that this works mostly when dealing with one at a time and could cause consternation when multiple previous contacts of varied gender are present.

As to the choice of gender neutral of the other character that would have some ramifications that include whether society has chosen to make gender neutral clothing or if not whether the character is trying to keep a gender neutral wardrobe (whatever that might be.) Other wise the character might end up with options similar to the AI just out of what they chose to wear that day and if they use or don't use makup and how it is applied and if there is a gender neutral pattern established for all of this.

If they are the first Gender Neutral of note they might be writing the book on this and in that case I'd go with asking your character now and then what they think.

 

[Dean F. Wilson]

The biggest issue with this, as far as I can see, is finding the right pronoun. Our gender neutral pronoun "it" has negative connotations, since it's the kind of word we attribute to animals and things we consider "lesser" than we are. This would likely make many readers think a little less of the gender neutral character.

It is possible to use "he" or "she," so long as you stress early on that the character is, in fact, gender neutral. I have some gender neutral characters that I use the male pronoun for. I would recommend avoiding switching back and forward between him and her; while it might be a nice touch for gender equality, it will likely confuse readers.

Alternatively, you can try to avoid pronouns, but I am not sure how feasible that is. Too much repetition of a person's name or role might be wearying to the reader.

-D

 

[jastius]

i tend to not he/ she things if i can most times as people have certain role expectations of gender.
my standbys are in order of use:
1. name
2. title - their occupation or role, eg. the biker, the commuter, the server, the director, the mail carrier, the mechanic, the child, the swimmer, the pilot, etc.
3. collective pronouns or adjectives.
4. avoiding definitions.

remember that in a conversation you do not need to tag the speakers if it is only the two. you can get away with tagging only the one speaker.

 

[Locrian]

Thanks everyone, there have been some really interesting responses.

For the human character, there's the whole QUILTBAG spectrum. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by gender neutral in this case. Intersex, asexual, transgender, transsexual, gender-fluid/genderqueer, third gender?

For an intersex character, there's Laura Lam's Pantomime. She's actually a Chronner, although hasn't been here much. There are asexual characters out there, and plenty who don't conform to the 'standard'* gender roles.


Careful! Ask three people for their definition of anything, and you'll get three answers! There's a spectrum of sexuality and, more importantly, personalities. Everyone's different.

Good luck with your writing.

*Standard not always being the same, depending upon time and location.

Gender queer or possibly third gender? The character is pansexual in terms of preference. The only direct description of their gender appearance that I'm going to give will be "androgynous". In my head they might be biologically male or female, however what that biology is is irrelevant, so they aren't intersex. Their perspective might be along the lines of "but why do I have to have a gender? Neither of the options feel right." Perspective subject to change.

Society at the time (centuries in the future) will be widely accepting of transgender individuals, but people will generally struggle with the idea of things not fitting neatly into either box, and thats where most of the conflict will arise with the character. While gender means different things to different people, what it means to the character is what they will be rejecting.