Genli Ai is a male on this planet of androgonist aliens. Since it is their planet, he is the alien. It is a struggle for him to see the Gethenians as a single gender, because of gender roles in societies that do have gender. In kemmer, the Gethenians are then able to have a gender for a short amount of time, in order to reproduce. Genli Ai's planet must be one of patriarchy because his confusion must root from not having one sex as a suboordinate to the other. Even as he first describes Estraven, he refers to him as a "he", though Estraven is neither male of female. Genli describes Estraven as, "one of the most powerful men in the country..." (5). This shows that where Genli came from, being a powerful man seems more prestigious than a powerful woman. The fact that he classifies Estraven as a man with such a high stature must mean that the idea of females in power must be foreign to him.
Even in personality traits such as emotion, Genli shows more emotions that males would commonly express. He is often surprised when the Gethenians react to him in calmer tones than they naturally should if they had gender. He mentions while talking to Estraven that he, "was angry then, but he said nothing that showed it..." (14). Since he assumes that Estraven is more male than female, he was shocked by the lack of anger which is a common emotion for men to feel and express. His planet must be struck with more conflict than the planet of Erhenrang, because with a lack of such strong emotions associated with gender allow their minds to not be clouded by irrational feelings.
I feel like Genly uses "he" to classify the people of Gethen because he can never tell if they look female. The Gethenians all look male to him especially since they were these big coats to cover their figure and face. I think Genly is more used to men than women because in history women were seen as weak and needy. Women weren't seen as strong and independent. When Estraven acted feminine he was shocked because he always sees him as a man. He wasn't use to this whole act and teased him about it. Genly is just confused with the whole no gender thing in Gethen, so I think it makes it easier for him to just classify them as men since most of the time they act like men.
ReplyDeleteWe as a society have always viewed humans as "mankind". It isn't that we believe men are superior to women now, but thats what people used to believe. I also think Gently finds it easier to just refer to people as he because for some reason she is probably view as effeminate and some view this as a sign of disrespect. Remember that the people of Gethen live in a society similar to the medieval times. Being a woman just sounds weak to them.
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