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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Sept 14, 2018 5:19:15 GMT
The Kboards thread interested me greatly, and I wanted to reply, so decided to do it over here. In Mind Splitter I decided to try something different so I went with an all girl universe, so everyone uses "she", and is automatically a lesbian. However, one of my characters is asexual and agender. And (A) wanted me to use (A) as (A's) pronoun. I'm not quite sure how it works which is one of many reasons I need an editor. I also decided that in this all girl universe there would be three genders because girl is only a description of their sex. So there is femme, butch, and Andra, although my agender character doesn't subscribe to any of those. How about y'all? Have you written any nonbinary characters? Any trans characters? Would you like to? What stops or prevents you from doing so, or what fears or concerns do you have?
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Post by possiblyderanged on Sept 14, 2018 12:49:12 GMT
This sounds interesting. Common indoctrination makes such things hard for most of us (old fuddy-duddies like me, who are often afraid we've missed some important point and will end up hurting people), but I think it's something that absolutely is important to write about. I'm sure it's been done before, just can't remember any of the books.
I wrote a short story where the aliens could change from male to female and back again. In the story, it was kind of a plot point, as the stress of finding something unexpected upon returning to Earth after a long while made the crew start changing around.
And I wrote another story where the main character was gay. That in itself didn't cause him a problem, but he messed up and broke some rules and stuff happened.
My current book, a sprawling, never-to-be-finished-I-fear SF story, has gay and lesbian characters, various ethnic groups and probably will end up with some other variations. I really don't know what's going to happen, and at this point I'm pretty sure I'm going to never finish it, because it just keeps going...
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Sept 14, 2018 15:36:59 GMT
Being an asexual lesbian with Aspergers and also having a lot of friends who are LGBTQIA, or following a lot of the youngsters on facebook, it all makes sense to me. I guess because I've never felt comfortable inside the box and was always hopping out, it's easier for me to understand different boxes or no boxes at all. But if I had grown up feeling secure and safe inside the box, then I could understand feeling confused and maybe frightened at the prospect of that safety net being taken away. I'm a woman cos I have a vagina and cos my parents told me so. If I can't know I'm a woman by that then how am I supposed to know who I am? I can't just decide to be whatever gender I want to be! Not that anyone actually does decide to just be whatever gender they want to be. People figure out what gender they are, or aren't. Although there may be people out there who are gender-flexible enough that they could literally decide which one, or which combination they want to be. But for most of us that isn't a choice. We are who we are, and our characters are who they are, too. Like with T. T started out life as a male character. Then I decided to take the story and make everyone a girl which instantly made me 100% more interested in the story. And then all of a suddden T is ace and age and demanding to be called (A). Sometimes we authors make the decisions and other times our characters make them for us.
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Post by possiblyderanged on Sept 25, 2018 12:20:02 GMT
So true.
For so long, society said we were either male or female, based on our genitals. One or the other. You liked the opposite sex. That's how it was. Procreation was the goal, men where in charge and women did as they were told. But we've always had the rebels, the folks who didn't fit in. They usually hid themselves, because to be in the open was putting a target on their back. At least, gay people could camouflage themselves, unlike those with darker skins who had no choice.
Now, it's more fluid. People can be who they are, though we're having some falling back into the old days due to the current political situation. Abused people are feeling safer opening up about their experiences, people who aren't straight feel freer to be themselves. It's a bit weird, considering how some people are digging in their heels and trying to go back to the "good old days". The good old days were only good for WASP males. The rest of us have less fond memories of the times.
We have to keep fighting for equality. We have to keep telling our stories. We have to keep educating people. We aren't better than anyone, just different. And different isn't bad, it isn't scary, it isn't sinful. It just is.
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Sept 25, 2018 18:15:07 GMT
Yeah, I was reading up on theybies, yesterday, and nonbinary parents and how they raise their kids, and it's amazing how frightened and outraged people get over the idea that you don't immediately label your child and tell them who they are. If you simply let them decide when they're old enough to know, it's no big deal, and is easier than mislabeling them, then having to go back and correct your mistake. But because of the outrage and how so many people don't even know how to interact with you or your kid if they aren't binary, a lot of nonbinary parents still male/female their babies from birth, just so that they don't have to deal with the extra level of people being stupid. But they do try and give them a wider view of the world and the spectrum and they expose them to different ways of being male and female, etc. And of course, most of the time, it works out, and your kid is satisfied with the label society gives them and spends the rest of their life desperately trying to fit it. If this wasn't so common being different wouldn't be such a big deal. I was identified as female at birth, and I'm mostly okay with that. I like being called, "her," and I've always really liked girls, and I was good with girl toys and stuff like that when I was little. But I've never really identified with other women that much. I definitely don't feel like I fit into the normal "women category." Possibly because I'm Ace. Or because I'm Aspie. I'm not sure. But then I've never felt comfortable in my body. I don't feel like it's the wrong body. I don't want to modify it, or cut anything off, or anything. But I would most definitely prefer to just be a brain and not have to have a body at all. Life inside a computer, or as a ghost, would be terrific. One of the characters on SGU died and ended up living inside a computer, and on the show this was supposed to be this horribly sad thing, but I was thinking, "LUCKY!" and wishing that was me. You would have access to all that information and you could just think and be and never have to eat or pee or sleep or sneeze or exercise or bathe. It would be fabulous!!!!
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