Restrictive Pronouns: Reading and Writing Ungendered

After reading Book Riot Contributor Rah Carter's article, "Missed LGBT History Month? There's a Book For That," I immediately ordered Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Denis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg. I wanted to read it primarily for my own interest and lack of knowledge on the subject matter and secondly because it would fit two categories of The Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge: Challenge 5 - A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ and Challenge 10 – a microhistory. Actually, come to think of, it would also fit Challenge 6: A book by a person whose gender is different from your own.

I haven't learned this much from a book in a long time and that's saying a lot considering I'm a Master's of Arts student in English Literature. It's only fitting to quote Feinberg in explaining what Transgender Warriors is about: "It is a fresh look at sex and gender in history and the interrelationships of class, nationality, race, and sexuality." Feinberg explains the difference between transgender and transsexual and lists a whole host of terms that fit within the definition of "transgender." As Feinberg struggles to come to terms with identity and treatment by society in general, readers go on a historical journey through an often hidden, but highly non-heteronormatively sexualized past. My heart hurt many times over as the microhistory moved into the more recent realms of patriarchy and capitalism that lead to the disgusting treatment of transgender people that sadly still occurs today. Don't get me wrong, as a society we have come a very long way, but we still have a very long way to go.

As I read personal statements like, "People stare at me wherever I so. Some who gawk at me shift between seeing me as a very feminine man and extremely masculine woman. I unnerve them because they can't determine my sex," it really hit me how much a person's gender is simply irrelevant. Feinberg includes a quote from Craig Hickman, poet and performance artist, that says "I often am seen by people as a 'What's that?' to which I usually respond 'Isn't beautiful enough?' We are attracted to people, to personalities, and even though physical attraction is very important, why - really - is the gender associated with any one characteristic important at all?

If I had to choose only one thing that had the most impact on me from this book, it would be the realization that language is so very restrictive. "Language can't be ordered individually, as if from a Sears catalog," writes Feinberg. I have a number of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances that could be labelled under one or more of the LGBTQ category. I have a best friend who is currently doing graduate studies research on bisexual female youth in sport and one of the most difficult parts of the research is finding people who are willing to label themselves. And really, who can blame them?

You may have noticed that I avoided using any gendered pronouns in this post, or maybe you didn't. Either way, the point is that writing ungendered can be done! After all, why should we define ourselves by a pronoun?!

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I haven't been able to get the ideas of writing ungendered and reading about ungendered characters out of my mind since I read Feinberg's book. I did a quick internet search for books that contain gender-neutral characters and was pleasantly surprised at the results. Here are just a few I plan to add to my TBR list:

Lock In by John Scalzi

This is a Sci-Fi novel that follows the story of two police agents, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann (two obviously gender-neutral names), twenty-five years after the outbreak of a contagious virus that causes one percent of its victims to become "Hadens" - fully alert humans who are unable to respond to stimuli or move. Main character, Chris Shane - whose gender is never revealed - is a Haden investigating the murder of a fellow Haden. An "Integrator" is someone who can allow a Haden to use their body which is how agent Shane functions. I actually think I'm going to check out one of the two audio-versions of Lock In, either the one narrated by Wil Wheaton (pretty cool, right?!) or the one by Amber Benson (also cool).

Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brenzenoff

This one is YA Fiction and tells the story of sixteen-year old Kid (clearly gender-neutral). Kid's life on the streets of Brooklyn is full of adventure and love and the gender of the main character nor the lover, Scout, is ever revealed. YA is typically a genre that never really seems to be able to capture my interest, but this novel and its ungendered characters has already peaked mine.

Call Me Tree by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Of all the books that came up during my search, this colourful work of Children's Literature is the most intriguing. I say that because it is a children's book and if we are going to start changing the conversation about gender and its arguable lack of importance, then the best place to start is with our children. Gonzalez' main character obviously goes by the name Tree and the story explores the idea of why someone is called he or she and the assumptions made when calling someone by a gendered pronoun. I may be an adult, but Call Me Tree is definitely a book I want to add to my collection and introduce my own children to (whenever that day comes).

Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville

I think I've owned Into the Land of the Unicorns for close to twenty-five years. I'm venturing to say that I ordered it from a Scholastic book order in elementary school. It's young adult fiction, but I was reading well above my age level as a youngster so I'm thinking Mom would have bought this for me before I was ten. I dug this out of my youth-book-box when I found out about Riedel Fascination's Ethereal 2015 Reading Challenge. If I had to choose a favourite ethereal being it would be the unicorn; in fact I often tell people it's my spirit animal!

Coming back to visit this book after so many years was a lot of fun. I don't have a lot of interest in YA literature and, to be honest, this book didn't help to build that interest. It is a lovely read, though, and once I got into it, the story did captivate me enough to read the last fifty pages non-stop. Into the Land of the Unicorns is a magical book filled with vibrant detail like this description of the ethereal creatures themselves: "In shape, he was much like a horse, though somewhat smaller and more finely built. His hooves were cloven, like a goat's, rather than solid like those of a horse. Mane and flowing tail seemed spun of silver cloud and moonlight. From between his enormous dark eyes thrust a spiraled horn, three feet long at the least, that glowed as if lit from within." Beautiful!

The story follows a young girl, Cara, from the human world to Luster, the land of the unicorns, where she along with a group of unlikely companions treks through dangerous country to return a powerful amulet to the Queen. Of course, they hit some bumps along the way. What fun would a fantasy be if good did not have to conquer evil?

By far, my favourite character is the Squijum, a rambunctious cross between a monkey and a squirrel who says things like: "Now now shake butts move feet hotcha get going." As a book lover, my favourite scene in the book occurs when the group reaches the home of Grimwold, keeper of the Unicorn Chronicles. He has a room called the Story Room described as follows: "Books, scrolls, stacks of paper, notebooks, pens, and pots of ink seemed to cover every available surface - of which there were many, since the room held five long, low tables. The dark wooden walls were lined with with maps, pictures, and intricately woven tapestries." I would love few things more than to live forever in that room. Wouldn't you?!

I'm really glad I revisited this book and I actually wouldn't mind reading the other three books in the series. Since YA fiction isn't really my forte, though, I'm giving this book a three star rating.