TransSF

[bcholmes]

In the last bunch of cons I've attended, queer sf panels have talked about a number of trans sf stories: Commitment Hour, Steel Beach, The Left Hand of Darkness, Identity Matrix and others. Usually, this discussion comes off sounding as though trans people get better representation in sf than gay/lesbian/bi people. People point to I Will Fear No Evil and even The Marvelous Land of Oz and say, "Hey, trans people have been represented for a long, long time".

But I don't see these examples as trans sf. Similarly, I don't see Ethan of Athos as gay sf.

That's an oversimplification. I do think that speculative and fantastical treatments of gender are things that trans discourse should be interested in. But there are attributes of the type of trans people that I know that are missing from this so-called trans sf.

I remember a good panel from WisCon called GLBT 201. One of the panelists talked about the problem that sf has in representing queer people. Because sf often presents the future, there's usually an assumption that people have gotten over queer prejudice. But, the panelist said, if you're not writing about the conflict that queer people have with society, in many ways you're not writing about us.

That's a big part of what I feel is missing from so-called trans sf. There's no conflict of gender. There's no agency about addressing that conflict. There're no real coming out scenes.

I'm sure I'm blanking on some examples, but Neil Gaiman's A Game of You is probably the closest thing I've seen to real trans sf.

Comments

from a friend of a friend

[(Anonymous)]

Hi. I'm just another schmuck with waay too much time on her hands --- but I saw your posting. John Varley is great - try _Steel Beach_ for all your sf needs. :)