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This panel was the "after-dark" sequel to the Beyond Binaries 101 panel I was not a part of. Other than a bit of comedy, by and large the content of this panel didn't really seem to need to be "after-dark" -- third-gender topics are not, and should not be, inherently adults only -- but I'm not sure anyone knew where the panel was going to go when it was conceived of.
The panel benefited from a wide-range of expertise including a panelist who is both widely-published and can tell you more about insect reproduction than you ever wanted to know. This was, believe it or not, totally useful and entertaining.
Overall, however, we often struggled to get "beyond binaries," causing the session itself to demonstrate in many ways just how challenging it is to present in fiction a paradigm other than the gender-dichotomous and usually heteronormative narratives most of us live. This became particularly obvious (and, I felt, problematic and hurtful) when a panelist asserted that readers can only relate to human characters and so third-gendered aliens cannot be narrators in successful stories.
The assumption that third-gendered characters must be alien was a problem. Trans people, queer people, genderqueer people, intersex people, third-gendered people exist, right here, on earth, right now, and are human, and in a well-executed story can be narrators that are effective, plausible and easy to relate to.1 The desire for stories of characters like this, are, additionally, not limited to people who hold these identities, but to those who know them, love them or just want a story about something other than their own damn life.
Books that I mentioned included:
Elizabeth Hand's out-of-print Aestival Tide (non-linear sequel to Winterlong, which I believe is still in print), which features a young hermaphrodite named Reive2 who everyone is afraid of because her (this is how Reive is pronoun-ed in the book) eyes are green, the color of death in a domed city on a future, broken America's gulf coast.
Clive Barker's Imagica that features a character named Pie'oh'pah who appears as what the person zie is interacting with most desires. Pie's true form can only be seen by third party observers, and not even always then. This book can be problematic, Barker isn't great at female characterizations and Pie can read as a "mystical negro" character (although this is complicated by Pie's ability to reflect desire, as well as a number of details regarding Barker's personal life if you choose to consider authorial intent).
Octavia Butler's Xenogensis series, which features a human population's contact with another, differently gendered species and the subsequent absorbtion of the two biologies and cultures into each other.
Many, many other books came up, but I wasn't taking notes, so the comments to this post are a good place for that.
This was one of the panels where the audience asked "what can we do to get more stories that are relevant to us?" I felt this discussion was problematic in the sense that the answer from several of the panelists was "You can't." While the business conservatism of the publishing industry is extremely well, and certainly deserved to be noted and discussed, I thought the attempt to shut down any attempt that was made to be empowering or offer alternative ways of demonstrating and responding to need regarding certain narratives was hurtful.
Not that panels should be all nice and lovely places -- in fact, I thought this panel benefited in terms of entertainment from the frictions amongst the panelists -- but this panel was, from my perspective, largely designed for members and allies of marginalized communities, and I think it's inappropriate in those circumstances to only be able to say "yup, you're marginalized, get used to it." The marginalization and glacial pace of change in the publishing industry, at minimum, merited more possibility-focused discussion.
This was one of the panels I most enjoyed (and was the most well-moderated -- for all the disagreement, everyone stayed gracious. Thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
novelfriend!), and I thought it was also one of the most important that I was on, although in the future, it would be wonderful and appropriate to find a trans or intersex writer or critic to be present (Guess what? They exist! And are human and right here on earth!). As a genderqueer person I'm a good step, but certainly did not provide enough diversity in and of myself.
This panel is also one of the ones that's lingered with me in an unsettling way. That has value, and I hope the panel will return again next year, and can perhaps serve its audience better and with more awareness, even as I don't expect anything will have radically changed in the publishing industry between now and then.
If you were there, thank you for attending. Thank you also to the SF & Fantasy Literature Track for hosting the panel and seeing the value in this topic. Feedback is welcome as are book recs and other discussion in comments.
1 This listing originally contained "asexual." As asexual is an orientation, not a gender, listing it in the manner I did was inappropriate and offensive, and I am sorry. The reason for that initial listing was to note that asexual identities did briefly come up in the panel as we tried to get away from the panel's nearly relentless drift back towards discussion of M/F relationships (see: space brothels). I hope this clarifies, and I, of course, stand by the assertion that asexuals exist and that asexual characters can be humans and awesome narrators.
2 Full disclosure: I went by Reive on the Internet for many, many years, and never ran into another one. So if you want to dig around in my sordid past, there you go. I love this book with all my heart.
The panel benefited from a wide-range of expertise including a panelist who is both widely-published and can tell you more about insect reproduction than you ever wanted to know. This was, believe it or not, totally useful and entertaining.
Overall, however, we often struggled to get "beyond binaries," causing the session itself to demonstrate in many ways just how challenging it is to present in fiction a paradigm other than the gender-dichotomous and usually heteronormative narratives most of us live. This became particularly obvious (and, I felt, problematic and hurtful) when a panelist asserted that readers can only relate to human characters and so third-gendered aliens cannot be narrators in successful stories.
The assumption that third-gendered characters must be alien was a problem. Trans people, queer people, genderqueer people, intersex people, third-gendered people exist, right here, on earth, right now, and are human, and in a well-executed story can be narrators that are effective, plausible and easy to relate to.1 The desire for stories of characters like this, are, additionally, not limited to people who hold these identities, but to those who know them, love them or just want a story about something other than their own damn life.
Books that I mentioned included:
Elizabeth Hand's out-of-print Aestival Tide (non-linear sequel to Winterlong, which I believe is still in print), which features a young hermaphrodite named Reive2 who everyone is afraid of because her (this is how Reive is pronoun-ed in the book) eyes are green, the color of death in a domed city on a future, broken America's gulf coast.
Clive Barker's Imagica that features a character named Pie'oh'pah who appears as what the person zie is interacting with most desires. Pie's true form can only be seen by third party observers, and not even always then. This book can be problematic, Barker isn't great at female characterizations and Pie can read as a "mystical negro" character (although this is complicated by Pie's ability to reflect desire, as well as a number of details regarding Barker's personal life if you choose to consider authorial intent).
Octavia Butler's Xenogensis series, which features a human population's contact with another, differently gendered species and the subsequent absorbtion of the two biologies and cultures into each other.
Many, many other books came up, but I wasn't taking notes, so the comments to this post are a good place for that.
This was one of the panels where the audience asked "what can we do to get more stories that are relevant to us?" I felt this discussion was problematic in the sense that the answer from several of the panelists was "You can't." While the business conservatism of the publishing industry is extremely well, and certainly deserved to be noted and discussed, I thought the attempt to shut down any attempt that was made to be empowering or offer alternative ways of demonstrating and responding to need regarding certain narratives was hurtful.
Not that panels should be all nice and lovely places -- in fact, I thought this panel benefited in terms of entertainment from the frictions amongst the panelists -- but this panel was, from my perspective, largely designed for members and allies of marginalized communities, and I think it's inappropriate in those circumstances to only be able to say "yup, you're marginalized, get used to it." The marginalization and glacial pace of change in the publishing industry, at minimum, merited more possibility-focused discussion.
This was one of the panels I most enjoyed (and was the most well-moderated -- for all the disagreement, everyone stayed gracious. Thanks,
novelfriend!), and I thought it was also one of the most important that I was on, although in the future, it would be wonderful and appropriate to find a trans or intersex writer or critic to be present (Guess what? They exist! And are human and right here on earth!). As a genderqueer person I'm a good step, but certainly did not provide enough diversity in and of myself. This panel is also one of the ones that's lingered with me in an unsettling way. That has value, and I hope the panel will return again next year, and can perhaps serve its audience better and with more awareness, even as I don't expect anything will have radically changed in the publishing industry between now and then.
If you were there, thank you for attending. Thank you also to the SF & Fantasy Literature Track for hosting the panel and seeing the value in this topic. Feedback is welcome as are book recs and other discussion in comments.
1 This listing originally contained "asexual." As asexual is an orientation, not a gender, listing it in the manner I did was inappropriate and offensive, and I am sorry. The reason for that initial listing was to note that asexual identities did briefly come up in the panel as we tried to get away from the panel's nearly relentless drift back towards discussion of M/F relationships (see: space brothels). I hope this clarifies, and I, of course, stand by the assertion that asexuals exist and that asexual characters can be humans and awesome narrators.
2 Full disclosure: I went by Reive on the Internet for many, many years, and never ran into another one. So if you want to dig around in my sordid past, there you go. I love this book with all my heart.
