Anke wrote a Tumblr post on sexism in sf&f. I have complicated thinky thoughts related to this, and decided I should unpack them in my own post
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Now I'm imagining a pseudo-medieval world with no bias or prejudice because of the MLP explanation. "Because if we show bias or prejudice evil spirits will come to feed on our hate and kill us."
But now that I think about it, that's basically 'because religion'. Which is somewhat plausible even in a world with no magic.
I would say that there are two main prejudices in the Ancillary books: humans vs. ancillaries and the degree of civilization* of various human groups. The latter I see as a very typical colonial mode, taking a diverse society with distinct cultural groups and picking some to be favored and others to be disfavored, thereby creating (or exacerbating) division among people who might otherwise have common cause.
Have you read Too Like the Lightning? That one's set a few centuries in the future, and everyone uses 'them.' Except that the narrator keeps gendering people for Reasons. I found it very interesting, but am still not sure what I thought of it.
*Using the book's definition of 'civilized,' i.e. like the Radch.
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But now that I think about it, that's basically 'because religion'. Which is somewhat plausible even in a world with no magic.
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Have you read Too Like the Lightning? That one's set a few centuries in the future, and everyone uses 'them.' Except that the narrator keeps gendering people for Reasons. I found it very interesting, but am still not sure what I thought of it.
*Using the book's definition of 'civilized,' i.e. like the Radch.
Reply
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