It's very obvious that Genly Ai is having a really hard time seeing Gethenians as how they should be seen, genderless, and his constant placement of genders on these people begins to taint how we see them as well. Genly's struggles remind me of the modern equivalent to people not being able to respect those who are non-binary or transgender. He is constantly describing the people as being either feminine or masculine, when in reality, they are neither of them until they are in kemmer.
To explain the modern struggle of those who are transgender, there are an estimated 1.4 million adults who identify as transgender and still people wrongly assume genders. No matter how many times someone may tell another what they identify as, they still decide to ignore these wishes and call them by the wrong pronoun. Genly does this often, usually describing a person with "he/him" pronouns which are seen as more fluid, but he also uses feminine and masculine in a description to put these characters in boxes of female or male. For example, when Genly is talking with Estraven, he states "it was impossible to think of him as a woman [...] yet whenever I thought of him as a man I felt a send of falseness, of imposture". (12)
However terrible it is to see Genly misgender these people, he knows what he's doing isn't right but he can't help it. "Though I had been nearly two years on Winter I was still far from being able to see the people of the planet through their own eyes." (12) Hopefully he will begin to reprogram his mind the longer he stays there so he can begin to truly fit in with the people, as he wanted from the beginning.
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ReplyDeleteI love how you used modern issues we see today as a way to further your point. People are constantly ignoring the pronouns that people in the transgender and non-binary community identify with. It's crazy how even after two years, Genly is still unable to comprehend the idea of a genderless society. We see it time and time again when he addresses people with he/she pronouns. Genly is going to have a hard time trying to fit in if he continues to stay closed minded.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and your connection to today's modern transgender issue. I think it just goes to show how one is brought up. Genly, as a foreigner to Gethen, is unaccustomed to their genderless society and coming from Terran, that like Earth has genders, his inability to see Gethenians as they see themselves stems from his planet where genders are an evident characteristic in society. However, after two years one would think Genly would finally be accustomed to the genderless ways of Gethen, but he isn't. To add on to your modern day connection, this can relate to some people today who cannot grasp or believe in the idea of being transgender, and displays the large role society has in shaping people to think in a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI see your point how Genly is having a hard time with understanding genders on Gethen because there is no gender on Gethen. Since Genly is from a different planet, these people are aliens to him. Imagine if you went to an entirely different planet, with an entirely different way of how life works. Even though Gethenians are similar to the Envoys, keep in mind that these are different organisms. The physical and characteristic similarities are why Genly has a difficulty understanding. While transgenders's have an identity issue, their dilemma is not similar to Genly's because transgenders are still the same organism as binary humans whereas Gethenians are not the same organism as Genly.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy to see how hard it is to identify things we're not used to. Genly finally sees how hard it is. He's been there for about 2 years and he's still not used to people not having genders. This is comparable to the transgender dilemma we've been seeing where people assume genders. People's confusion on what they should identify that specific individual as, is comparable to Genly's.
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