What do you think?

[wyld_dandelyon]

So, the editor of the Warrior Wisewoman anthology, in the submission guidelines, says, “I am looking for stories that shed light on the truth of what it means to be female…”

This got me thinking, because the grammar (“the truth”) suggests that the editor is looking for a universal answer to this question; I am, in general, dubious about “universal” when we all have different life circumstances, and even basic things like “how it feels to be pregnant” vary greatly from person to person and even from pregnancy to pregnancy in the same woman.

Still, I know what it means to me to be female – or at least, what it has meant at various points in my life. Or do I? Maybe I just know what it has meant to be me in my particular circumstances in a world that treats females differently than males…

What do you folks think? What does it mean to be female? What does it mean to be male? Do you have opinions on what it means to be the gender you’re not? Is this universal, or do you think your answer would be different if you lived (for instance) 200 years in the future?

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

As to mistaking someone's gender--the things people have learned to use to identify someone as male or female are deeply ingrained; even friendly people who strongly support someone's decision to switch genders have a lot of trouble using the preferred pronoun, instead of the one the automatic identifier in their brains comes up with.

Hanging out with transgender people has also alerted me to the fact that the differences between genders are not only physical (hip size, plumbing, facial hair) but chemical/hormonal in nature. Estrogen helps tear ducts work, for instance, thus women cry more easily. I don't make the mistake of thinking that this must mean men feel things less deeply--but then, some male-to-female transgender people DO report being better able to feel and identify their feelings once they start taking estrogen.

I used to think the question was trivial; now I think it is very complex.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I did think of this possibility, though I have my doubts whether the editor would go for a trans protagonist. That wouldn't stop me from writing a story if I thought I had a good idea, of course.

Another possibility is an intersex protagonist.

Complexity that is central to (or at least pertinent to) the story would certainly lead to plot and character development; my best stories/songs take more than one idea thread and weave them together; so far, however, nothing has sparked around the thought of using a trans protagonist.

I would want to do something more than just a trans-self-discovery story or a trans-coming-out story...