busyI agree that sexuality makes for awesome conflict, that studying wildlife is a great idea mine, and that introducing characters from different backgrounds can create long-term challenges that go beyond whether or not they'll ever get together as a couple. Many of my stories that feature romance/sexuality account for cultural or biological differences. "Did You Get Your Answers Questioned?" in Genderflex was about dealing with a new partner's unfamiliar gender identity. "Peaches from the Tree of Heaven" in newWitch dealt with divergent reproductive expectations. In Torn World, my main storyline angles to introduce Fala (a Northern ranger) and Rai (a Southern shopkeeper) as a way of playing out some of the cultural conflicts; and the sexual/romantic arrangements in those two societies are wildly different. My poetry does likewise. "The Underground Gardens" presents not a couple but a trio -- a male elf, a female dwarf, and a male (but asexual) human -- and how their family structure influenced their choice of home. One of my unpublished epics, "Courting on the Porch" (currently on sale for $24.25 in the 2010 Holiday Poetry Sale) describes the sexual process of an alien species with very different sexes, and how that affects their lifestyle.
Among my favorite examples from someone else's work are
haikujaguar's Jokka stories, some of which are now available for individual download in electronic format. The Jokka have three sexes -- male, female, and neuter -- with varying degrees of durability. Their efforts to cope with their biology are a prevailing force in society; and I think some aspect of that appears in every story about them that I've read so far.How does divergent sexuality play into your reading and/or writing?
Thoughts
December 14 2010, 17:27:10 UTC 10 years ago
Ooo, content!
>>So often I see Xeno-sexual situations played up as ideal and "More fun to each partner than their own kind", as well as the fact both seem to always have similar cultural values, which so often feels lofty and unrealistic.<<
... as written by authors who have probably never seen an interracial or mixed-religion couple have a screaming meltdown in public.
>>I love playing with Gender and unusual sexes in my writing, especially when I do cooperative writing with my spouse. It lets me expand on and play with other worlds, and it lets my companion play with gender in a safe setting (as a still-undecided Genderqueer-transwoman). <<
That sounds really cool.
>>One of my alien races has a strong tendency towards trios, because that is how they reproduce (One "Male", one "female", and one incubator).<<
In "Courting on the Porch," one sex is mobile and the other is sessile. Typically one mobile sibling stays with the sessile sibling -- incest is the norm in this species -- later to be joined by an unrelated mobile. (There are somewhat more mobiles than sessiles born, to allow for attrition.) The two mobiles provide the gametes; the sessile provides incubation but also has some influence over which genes get expressed. The poem shows how they go about forming families and the challenges they face due to their particular biology.
Re: Thoughts
December 17 2010, 14:33:10 UTC 10 years ago
Though, wouldn't it be three sexes, two of which are mobile? Or are they isogametic, without a distinction between ova and sperm? Or, alternately, mobiles being hermaphroditic?
Re: Thoughts
December 17 2010, 20:04:17 UTC 10 years ago
Yeah, I keep hoping someone will sponsor it.
>>Though, wouldn't it be three sexes, two of which are mobile? Or are they isogametic, without a distinction between ova and sperm?<<
Isogametic sounds like the right description. (Thank you for the word: I hadn't encountered it before!) The two mobiles have the same physiology; they both emit gametes of the same type which the sessile combines, activates, and incubates. (The mobiles can actually fool around outdoors, but it is not as much fun and some people think that's kind of perverted.)