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anraot7 ‘Strange Horizons - BotWAre: ScienceFiction andthe Question of Changing Gender ORIZON ‘tes (np iatrangenorzans.com/non-fetonanicles!) Ss s22Q/B/D/e Botan: Science Fiton andthe Question of hanging Gendor(psrangeherzons.cominor-fcionarelstbthand-scenes-cion-anéhe.questonot- changing gender!) ‘Shorey! Vint (htieangehorzons-com/author'sernvin) Iapue: 18 February 2002 (ntpstangenorzons.com/esue@-ebruary-2002)) ‘The igure of te tanssexul or raravoste culos as an extromely charged image in contemporary debates about sx and gender. From Just Sur's (ttsxtwnamazon comfexecibidos/ASINO4 590366 refenosmstrangehorizons) clebraton of aq a hat which reveals that al gendar ea performance, to Janice Raymond's (hto:twaw amazon comiexeclobios/ASIN0807762725ire-nosmistrangenoizon)charactorzaton of tanssoxuals a an opie of mon bent on subverting fem om wit, heorisof gendes have ound in Wansgendered people an exraorsinary range of meanings ana ideobgal agendas Reasings sich as Bull's argue thal tne proston of gender dentiy as actual sytem extends evento the matory ofthe boy se, unduly ting te range of boy morphologies tha could matali, n Butlers dovble-meaning of tha er. thar rts, such as Rayon, iss tal the material Body remains essential mateo era, and thal te argel of ertiqu shoul be the system of gendered social behavous that we atlach to these genderea adi. Transgender people themselves ae orn between occupying a subject postion Wat herent challenges th segender system and a requirement (now receding to ariculte ter 'poblem in trms o essontalzed gender idnity so that hey meet tha peyenoogical standard for gender reassignment suger. Both thei ou salrapreseratons andthe use of tet mage by culiral theo spo withthe natant, bclogyletire debate, andthe queston of how best o change te curren! soxigondar system Inti artic, would to consider what speculative Feton (SF) can contrbute to this cussion Inthe worl of SF. gonder reassignment surgery can occur dena gen a perecty mateable ody. Not ised by what Ane Balsamo (Np Sawn smazon convexGelbidesiAINOEZ25 12986Kefsneslmsrangehorons) has eae he kradueble detinciveness of he materi body” SF bodies can nat any gender ~ male tamale, sometang in between, ornatag at st ~ and can sch with ese from one tothe other. This ably makes SF boss a potty useful te for emallnging the ouRural consituchon of gender. rm golng 1 explore the representation ofthe gander SF body n Wo SF texts, Samuel R. Delany's Trouble on Ton: An Ambiguous Moteretopia (neni amazon convexsciobdoe/ASINOS1996208XreF-nosin/strangehorzan) and Jahn Vatleys Steel Beach (toni amazon comiexeciobioe/ASINO4417@5b4ref=nasin/strangehonzons, i nterragate tel representaton of ender and te effectiveness ofthis representation a 9 ctqve ofthe eoxigender syst, The heger ust | wan lo ask concerns the malleable Body and is useless fo eutural aor of gender: is he SF Body a more usellimage han the ranagende: Body forth nd of ural work? In order to arse this quest, wil st provi 9 deserpton of the malleable body w each ef hese novl, before tuning to an analysis ofthe ecteglel eects ofeach representation, Delany: Trouble On Triton (tte stwnyamazon com/exacioidos/ASINOB1956208Xref-nosimisvangehorzons) etry’ novel Begns wh an eplgraph rom Mary Douglas's Natal Symbols: Explorations n Cosmology (theta amazon conlexec/obdos/ASINO41S138264ref=nosim/srangehorzons). Tha Douglas quotaton reminds us that ‘hs social body consrains tho way the physical body is porcoived" signaling Delany's understanding ofthe body as a product of cure rather than an arfact of nature, The sbile of he nove, an ambiguous Reerlopin” comes fram a quotation fom Michel Foveauls The Order of Things (np an amazon comioxac/obidos/ASINO67975995A/ref-nosim/strangohonzans), awark which assresses one of Delany's ecating concemns bout how language can modal realty: what's the felatanship between words and thngs.n bot eases, hese references Sgral Delany's consciousness of he sail power of language and naming and his axplict engagement wth the way Geology construct socal common sense The soceVsexsa world n Delany's noel includes the aby o swe fom ene gener to the other and to change one's sexual orentation through @neurel proces cle rfuing. Tare fs no expt prejcies aganst ther homosexuality or hetersexualiy. an postion i gal, although most prostuts a male fon the moons while most aro female on Earth. The narrate doos note th peculariy that maa prosttuton is lgal on Earth whi fora prostitution is gal fn some moons. Most poople Ie In co-ps which aro speci to gender and soxual creation, athough mixed co-ops ako exis. Sore people Wei family deste and podly morphology that ean be maginea te beginning of ne nove, ron is male and ies inanabmale,nonepecte sexual orentaion co-op. Sigitany, he residents of Tron describe the war a8 boing over the invilabe igh to eubecve reality, The standard on Titon thatthe state cant itrfare wih te choles of ts ctzene up tothe pot of "dastuctve distress ~ and tie dastucton mustbe complained about by another cian; and you must complain abeut the dstess” Tho ding force ofthe novels the fact hat Bron cant be nappy wihin ths Meterolopsa becaute he does nt know hat he wants. Hs cries of ent begins wt the rejection he superonces when the Spike, a woman he i aacted 9 ~ obsessed wth might be a ore accurate characterization = rales his advances. “The turing point for Bron occurs during an incon in which he constructs himsol asa heroic male who has rescued the familar hlplost-woman-ofpatacha- constuction and sad woman fa fo appreciate ns harlem, this acta hero, Bron happens fo be nea the Nome of Aud (a female coworks) duting sn Inet n whic he ays experiencing random losses a power, which cause cera teas ether Lo oso thet ata gravy oto oxpelencs an exrame Increase in graviatona face. The women in Aud's co-op are being harassed by an ex-husband of one resident and nava locked themsehes aside. The man leaves (ands hed by a gravity fucuaton) ae Bron approaches, Bron breaks a window ofthe co-op, but cover that tis action unneceesay asthe cra now over and because the women were na even aware thal he gravy problem essed, Story afer Gro’ arta, he authoriies announce tal snow safe for everyone to ge home. Bron finds that he doosnt want to go homo, but instead wants to remain and have the women give him cfs and mealand tak and smile an laugh wih hin is eared reward of deference fortis act of heroism, Son's dsapponiment over tne women's ale lo respond in manne ho consers appropiate thas heroism, and hs ange atthe Spike fr rejecting han, lea han to Ue dion osc both gender and eenual retain, becoming # women who desres males. He explans nis decison to Lawrence by arguing that women dont understand “normal, heterosexual men,” ang that ne must become ts kind of woman ‘to preserve ine specs." on angus tat "what gies the species the only value has are men, and parteulaly those man whe can de what | id hntpstrangoherizors.convnon ficenfartclesfoohand-science-fton-and-he-question-ochanging-gonder? 6 anraot7 ‘Strange Horizons - BotWAre: ScienceFiction andthe Question of Changing Gender the bravery demanded there." Those men, he contnues, “deserve more than second-class membership inthe specie," but are cureny not geting her dus caus "that Kind of man ean be happy wih an ordinary woman, he kind thas around today” Bons desion fo become woman, then aed on his lenssexiasfepregent a man who ues the material ofa female body tosis! upon, a embody, 2 dation of femininity that guts patter. Delany's naratve distances sal rom Bron, however, by conus undermining Srons perspective trough he response of oer charactar 168 Bron complain ta his counselor, "jst den fe! tke 9 woman. ! mean allthe Le, every minute, a cmplee ané whale wamen.*The counsel espands, "When you were aman, were you aware of beng a man every second of he day? What makes you think nal met women ea Ike wamen,* demonstrating ta the Fader hat rons perspective on boing ome is procsaly that a malo perspective on feminty, Bre’ plaints rap, "But | ont want to be Ika most woman” agan suqgosts ararative distance rom Bron revealod inte ony of is cnadctory demands: he warts toe a roa woman butinsss tal ral women most be wornen as he warts thers to be. Delany ses Bron'sexparience as a woman fo diagiose how demaging the calgory of eal woman can be. Bron allempis ‘ove up toh concepton ofthe pertect woman, a concepin ats markedly sitar tothe paarena eonsiveton of woman ‘As «woman, Bron feel i necossary to foreg her awn desites inorder to accommodate the desites othe men around her Aequiescing to Lawrence’ demand tat tey go out te dinner when she would rather remain athoma, she observes, after a, Laurance was a man. Ad a eal woman had to relnguishcatin rights. Wasnt that, ha old areal alent, the ane tng that, rom he Ma efor, she now, Manes une?" Tha female Bron le less compatent an etiownt at her work and unabl fo act upon her dass for mon she ids atactv fr far tat such aggressiveness would rn of te kindof man she want o approach hor. Bron bocome a woman in rdor to 'o" woman bot than the females around him wer; as a woman, she escoves hat "re doing, as sho had once suspected and now knew, was preeminent @ mals of being and being Nad ued ou 0 be, more and more, spesicaly a mater of not doing” Through Bror's appointments and challenges, Dolny dlagnosos the damage that tho soxgonder syst of patrarchy doos to women as individual. Brons counsels him hat inferior work paformsanc ea eansequence of te fact thal he “komabody who belves that worsen ae les effet, So youre just wing up to your own mage He arques tat Bron can never realy bea "comple" woman because “being & worn, means having thal bedy of yours from bith, and growing up the word earning to do wnatever you do... wih and within that body” Bron hase experience the soczation requited 10 make him the eal worsan ne destes to, both because he nas not occupied the fale bod througout his Me experiance, and because the kindof Kelogy tha Used to produce the inferir-to:man’ woman Bron desis iso longs apart of sca expernco in Delany's heterotopia In Delany's reprosenatin, being @ womans the result a lang procass of socalzaton, the specfe contours of which wilbe determined bythe decogial ‘slomentsiflusrcing hs design. Brn longs for an ‘earl ieclegal formation, one hn which woman woul be produces according te his bape. He laments Its 50 strange, the way we picture the past as @ place ful of injustice, inequity, disease, and confusion, yet stil, somehow, things were ... simpler. Sometimes | wish we did live in the past. Sometimes | wish men were all strong and women all weak, even if you aid it by not picking them up and cudaling them enough when they were babies, or not giving them strong female figures to identity with psychologically and socially: because somehow it would be simpler that way to justty .. [sic] Bron finds himsolf unable to frsh his sentonco, o explain what he modal of strong mon and weak wornan would justify but the readsr can coarse that such shaping ie used fo ety sexist dsriination, Bron itl hat he is a woman created by a man" rather than tne ‘eal woman he lng to De ‘Smlres between Bron’s women and patiarchy/s woman thus provide an effec citque of the seniender system and is systematic production of sana Varley: Stee! Beach (rtestwnwamazon comvenacicidot/ASINOKA17858Sérrs “Tho main charactor inthe nove, ld, decides to eich gondos rom male lo Female aera vstal ratty experiance ding which he had boon female, Ate tnisintrtade, dy decides that he is "weuring [ol body te a bay fited pir of trousers, he kind tha bind you inte cach. R was tne fora Change" The 3s contactor fedlings about the process of Changing, whichis always captalzed ithe text. On he one Mang, Changing is esabloned as 8 1 actin the nove. eid o mare fasion trough opas suchas tha Body Change Parr and the season’ fashions in ody eying. In Hidy’s words, hanging is no big deal” On te other hand, some socions of he novel omonstato a srong attachment o gonderidontty as an ossonal part, of character, fer emerging ou fhe vu elty experience and beng infor bythe Cenral Computer tat he had failed Lo noice the gender emeh to Words fal me again. How many degrees of surprise can there be? Imagine the worst possible one, then square i, and yout hhave some notion of how surprised I was... had been a gi before, and I was a girl now, and I never gave ita thought. Which was completely ridiculous, of course. | mean, you would notice such a thing. Long before you had to urinate, the difference would manifest itself to you, there would be this stil, small voice teling you something was missing, Perhaps it would not have been the fist thing you'd notice as you lited your head from the sand, but itd be high on the lis. It was not Just out of character for me. It was out of character for any human not to notice it. Therefore, my memories of not noticing it were false memories, bowdlerized tales invented in the supercooled image processor of the CC, “This passage demonstrates the fnsion surrounding gender identity tha permeates the nova: tino big dea, bu si one nollces one's bly gender Gondor is so important to Varoys characters thatthe furs to notice the onder swich constitutes prot to Hl tat te virtual realty oxprionce had boon @ ‘computer smulaon, not area! expavione. Antrerini-quing aspoc of ts passage iste way Hy describes becoming aware of tne gander change ~ You notice ta something i missing. This characterization of he pers as extent signer of ently works againal the eat suggestion that had become obsolete Varley’ narrative is interesting tome precsely because it signals bath he deconstruction and he retamaton of steretypes required bythe hitpstrangoherzors.convnon ficenfarticlesfbohand-science-feton-and-he-question-ochanging-gonder 26 anraot7 ‘Strange Horizons - BotWAre: ScienceFiction andthe Question of Changing Gender ‘exigonder system Despite the openness ofthe war that Varley crates one in which anyone can act in any way regards of ender, can eich gender at wil an ean engage in any sexual parterings witout reference othe gnder of one's parner~ te novel works lo vabdalehotorosexual desks and actional iy’ rect address tothe reader about the fine points of Changing is revealing on both counts iy insists that he or she ust happens to be heterosexual in ny gender. As wal, K's atitude foward thing natal’ his when Hild sis gerd Can you call something a quitk when you share it with @ large minority of your fellow citizens? I'm not sure, but perhaps itis. "ve never understood the roots ofthis peculiarity, any more than | understand why I don't care to go to bed with men when I ‘am a man. But the fact i, as a man | am fairly indifferent to how | look and dress. Clean and neat, sure, and ugly is ‘something I can certainly do without. But fashions don't concem me. My wardrobe consists of the sort of thing Bobbie threw away when | arrived, or worse ... don't pay much attention to colors or cut. | ignore makeup completely and use only the blandest of scents. When I'm feeling festive | might put on @ colorful skirt, more of a sarong, really, and never fret about the hemline. But most of what | wear wouldn't have raised eyebrows if | had gone back in time and walked the streets in the years before sex changing. The fact s, I feel that while a woman can wear just about anything, there are whole categories of Clothing @ man looks silly in. “The ccton of he passage ~"quck peculiar, ily" works along the axis of the kame tension between vay and importance inal characterizes tne novels lrestment af gender deny i ola The passage suggest hat while Hy is embodying a female serelype of te navesisic woman, this characterization no big dea because its usta sily qui: ou arate remains he same Hidy we knew and loves in he ears potion ofthe narrative. The novel es recuperate these steretypes under thereof personal cnolce and preference, uggesing tat hey are merely one val choice among many. A the same timo, nowever. i prvlages the ‘choices’ of tho status quo, both through te falure to interogate a contemporary idaclegy which would aa tem as tho necessary and inevitable, and by making tem te personal crices of our sympathtic narato “The novel uses the gander switch ‘alow ty to engage in behaviour that she had not been abet do as aman. The plat ofthe novel concerns fring ou the rason behing Mis sudo atompts al of whic aro made while Hiky fs man, reinforcing the stereotype of masculinity a aconditon of acing, Aor the snc a bsing a woman, Hd begins to reach out her fends and tak abou these experiences, drawing ona slerechpe of women es emotional The naratve azo Vests Hy afer after bo sex change: there ae many mote passages describing Mer appearance, appara, and sexual acti than nthe ‘male’ sactons othe nove. Fay, wile the novel dass ry ta signal deconstruction of he sexier ystam by arguing that any dial can occupy any poston wthin his esto, ao suggests thatthe entre word changes when one changes gender: Ittums the world on its head, Changing. Naturally, i's not the world that has altered, is your point of view, but subjective reality isin some ways more important than the way things realy are, or might be; who really knows? Not a thing had boon ‘moved in the busy newsroom when | strode ino it. All the furniture was just whore it had boon, and thore were no unfamiliar faces at the desk. But all the faces now moant something diferent. Where a buddy had sat there was now a good-looking guy who seemed to be taking an interest in me. In place of that gorgeous gir inthe fashion department, the one fd intended {0 proposition someday, when | had the time, now there was only another woman, probably not oven as pretty as mo. Its teu to magne a stronger statement of how important he selgendar syst ito Kenty and socal organzaton. Unlke Delany's novel, which exptly Point cut the social orgin ofthese constucts,Varley/s contnues io sst that these are just natural and nevitle ‘quis: Conclusion 1 his pon, want to return my onal question: how useful the malaable body enables bythe aacoureo of SF ito cura hoor of gender I my ‘contemporary gender consructons as pathology ih a more enightaned future, Delany utes tha Vopes of SF to bet fet, creating a wor! whose changed Ideology demands tat t produce afrent 00a subjects rom te one at nhab ovr world. Varley novel leo works to constuct a future n whieh no one fe fed toa gender isentty, suggesting ha he catagory of gender hes become relevant fo social organization in his more enlightened age However, despte thse protestations, gender deny remains an essential category of deny lo Varley’ chracors, The contrast botwoan tess wo novel suggest that he maloabla body of SF is as proslemaic a category as th vansgandared body for cura theorists atlampzing o work tough the saxlgondor sytem anc its soca oft, Just asthe acts ane sltzepresontaons of patular transsexuals are open to readings at both ands of he politcal spectrum ‘alable SF body open to multiple and contador ceding. Smpl cresting a world in which the gene r sexual oration ofa body an eealy be ranged isnot sufient to sismante the authriy of gender a8 a category of socal dscriminaton. Butt woul lo argue tha he problem Is deeper yet. There @ danger in works Suc) as Varloy’s whlch expt aupport he eimination af gender a6 8 catagory white imptety ring on mary aftsaxloms. Such works can mtgate agains he development oa crial consciousness, encouraging the reader to fengage wih tne surface narative of gender equality whl ignarng the perestence of ender stereotypes ina worsin which, eemingh, anything goes. Ths dof SF reveals the dogroe to whien an unacknomledged and uncanssous alegiance tothe notion of gendered behaviour as nalual continues to sructire ‘ur social perceptions and choiess, even aur perceptions of aemate words. Lot me quickly adn caso this sounds asf am advocating that we sop reasing fro’ works suchas Varley, that I dont Bink hat metaphorically seohg no ev i an ofactve soliton. Instead, important to etleally ead an discus works Ie Vly, works that both ccuate popularly and tal embody the ‘onraditons ofthe sexigender sytem, a0 hat our cussion can maka hese talons more even, Athogh gande, Ike race, may no anger Nave ay ‘tandng asa biologie! category, continues to have concrete scl 28a deologial one athe to end by arguing my case fr botWand, extending the use a the term beyond an undartanding of gender ae «spectrum rather han a sto poles. Lamm rot arguing tat he maleble body of SF ew bate tal for cura res than tha maar Wansgendered body. but am also ot ergung thats «simple or Lnproblemate oo We should use bot tools, and we shoul! be ware of ner mtatins, The malleable body of SF is bath a uf toa for nterrogatng the catogory of gender and a tool that an be used to reinforce the sexlgendor syste; slimatons ane ambiguty do not preclude it rom serving as aussi point of dopartire for eral anaes. However, 2 he comparison between Delany and Varley revels, Smply showing that protagonists can shit gender snot snough just as treating gender as performance through dag snot enough for the performance tobe cial. The appeal of drag can tein the fac that t's an acknowledges performance, relying fon be gap between the performance andthe ue’ gender eneath to produc ite afect Sar, the gender-maloable body af SF ean work tsinorce constructions of genderea behaviour as natura or inevitable by suggesing hat hey would pers! a conte! where gender was kd, a the case wih Vatay’s nove, Intpstrangoherizors.comnon ficenfarticlesfbohand-science-fton-ane-he-question-ochanging-gonder? svzo17 ‘Strange Horizons - BotWAre: ScienceFiction andthe Question of Changing Gender | want to and by sessing that my purpse isnot to argue the obvious point that Delany is @ mote sophisticated novelist than is Vale and hence ssa ‘conscious and erialwnen ving the ealagory of gander io construct ne SF wor, Rather, isto argue fat he tranepresiv potential of Se representation of gander is not acieved byte fact that te ectonal wera can alow things Ike gander changes to happsr, but in how thoughtful the reader engages wih he implcations of thse changes. The maleable SF body, ik the vansgender body, does nat mean one thing or te ether: frm i rol enough abne, butte form's potentalto be potiealy enabling 8 useful stating point. Reader Comments (magoormentseadercomments nl) ‘Sorry in (nts:twene.valber.ca-svnt) hols postdoctoral folowshi a Intersactons of sclnce studies and scones fton. She complbes a cssertaton on representation of (sito ror viuaborta 8, Bibliography Belsame, Anne. Technologies of the Gondered Body (htpHuwu amazon comiexet/obdos/ASINO822916985refenosin/srangehonzons). Duman: Duke LUneersiy Press, 1996, 310 Unversty of Alora, Sho i urenty working on a project about he bod in sien ton in 2000. Send he email Bute, suits osios tat Mattor: Oth Diseurve Limits of York, Routege, 1993 on (hp am amazon comiaroc/bidos/ASINO41S90366'/rofsnosimisrengahorzens). New tary, Samuel, Trouble on Ton: An Ambiguous Meterotope (haan amazon coniexeclbises SINS 95E298Xef-nosinVetrangehonzns). New Yok Baram Booka, 1976 Doug, Many Natura Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (hoimwm amazon comiexeciobitow/ASIND415138264Kefenosin/sangehorizns). New York, Panton Books, 1982, Foveaut, Mic. The Order of Things: An Acheeoiogy ofthe Human Sciences (totum amazon convexec/oidowASIN067975235ret=nosm/strengehanzons). New York: Visage Books, 1904 Raymond, Janice. The Teanssoxus! Emp: The Making of he Sho-Male (ip/iaww amazon canvoxeclbides/ASINV0BO7752725holsnosimMrangehovzens). New York: Teachers Coleg Press, 1996, Vato, Jon. Stoo! Beach (htpvivawamazon comexoclobios/ASINDETTESESAref-nosin/atrangoherzns). New York Ace Books, 1992 I Fsctookhpsrangshorion omirano/alesbathard-ene ctor andshe quetonat changing gedertsharerfasbockbet) {GGoope ht pttangeorzanscominan con /efbthand renee cin andthe question hang ends haregaoge ph: Wb) 1 wir (nipstrangshoruor.cominon ionarcabathand-incecorandsbe-qusston ct changing gendPahare-eite nb!) © Princ svangahorons common ionertcatotand-cescion andabe quent charging ender {5 enatinepzstengetorzenscmmor-teconariksmoane sence fclonane-ne-qusiont-nangrgencestareemaBre-t) ke ‘© Copytght 2002 Serr! Vt (htpstangehorzons.convsuthorlsharny-vit) ‘Aout Shar! Vint (htpstangenorlzns.comiautnelsherry-ve) Bo to come, No comments yet Bo the Fst current Issue 9.Jan20:7 (ouplsvangehorizons comissua®-anaary-2017/) Fiction hitstsrangehorzons.cometion) ‘Bombyx mor (hp stangehonans.conietentbombya-meni By: Kerstin Hal (ntpssvangenorzons comvauhorkerstn-nal) Poetry (ntozisvangehorzons compost) Field Notes. 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