Gender in Writing

Lemme think... my one published novel and two novels after it (well, three actually) and a bunch of short stories take place on the planet Traipah, where pretty much every multicellular organism is a hermaphrodite, including all three native sentient species, with whom gender identity is seen as just another aspect of one's personality. And, entirely of their own accord, there are three different interspecies relationships going on (four, if you count that Alex and Nokwahl used to be intimate).

A fantasy storyverse of mine has some species of beings who either have no gender or have peculiar gender roles; that same storyverse has a God who used to be a Goddess leading the Good Guys, and one of the bad guys used to be a kind and gentle God who got driven insane by his parents, and is now cruel and evil by way of said insanity.

Another storyverse has a species of humans whose males are fist-sized parasites with the intelligence of a turnip and another species of humans whose females have been bred to be literally good for nothing more than producing babies and lactating. Oh, and a species of humans who don't even use sexual reproduction anymore, and in fact can't reproduce without the aid of machines. Oh, and the story is dominated by a race of practically-immortal superhumans with a vast empire, both genders in their species as equal as can be without being identical.

And my one conventional fiction storyverse? The main character is a stereotype-defying Goth lesbian, neither butch nor femme, as apt to wear top hat and tails as she is to don a pretty dress, but preferring her own style. One of her best friends is a black MTF trans girl who is a Dark Christo-pagan, rejecting the typical European deities of paganism in favor of the old African deities. This trans-girl is dating a heterosexual male friend who is fully aware of her TG status and is cool with it. Their other male friends are intelligent, heterosexual (though that might change), but don't fit into any of the "geek" stereotypes (though one does read a lot, but he's also the dark and handsome brooding type). There's also the hetero female friend who used to be a bully and is also an avid reader but is into sports... as in, she competes in sporting events (and is somewhat overweight, but is in better shape than a lot of skinny people). The one friend who fits any of the geek stereotypes at all is the shy, skinny, glasses-wearing Cinnamon Cumin, the daughter of normal-looking people who happen to be hippies who own a health food store.

So yeah, I play with gender a lot, too. And other stereotypes. I defy all stereotypes! Even race. The Ah'Koi Bahnis of Traipah come in seemingly random arrays of colors. And Lo (who is a pale white and is the Goth lesbian mentioned above) joins in Jasmine's worship of African pagan gods.