As the new guy on Gethan, Genly often falls into the habit of assigning a gender to people he meets. He gets in the habit of calling everyone a ‘he’ which makes it difficult for him to remember that Gethenians are androgynous. For instance, Genly notes “Wiping sweat from his dark forehead the man- man I must say, having said he and his- the man answers…” (Le Guin 5). Resultantly, Genly is constantly experiencing culture shock. Even though he has already been on this new planet awhile, he realizes “though I had been nearly two years on Winter I was still far from being able to see the people on the planet through their own eyes. I tried to, but my efforts took the form of self-consciously seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then as a woman, forcing him into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own” (12). Obviously, Genly is used to the gender roles on his own planet making it difficult for him to look past them and focus on his mission on Gethan. As he continues to remind himself the realities of this new planet, he notes that gender doesn’t really matter. His realization of this is obvious when he notes that he can “suspect that the distinction between a maternal and a paternal instinct is scarcely worth making; the paternal instinct, the wish to protect, to further, is not a sex-linked characteristic” (100). To the Gethenians, gender doesn’t matter because that’s all they know. It may seem strange to Genly (and to us) that the Gethenians are androgynous, however, their lack of gender has influenced various aspects of their lives. For example, Genly questions if “they consider war to be a purely masculine displacement activity, a vast Rape, and therefore in their experiment eliminate the masculinity that rapes and the femininity that is raped? (96). Genly’s inability to see the Gethenians as they see themselves prevents him from connecting with them and understanding their culture and society as a whole. What other ways could his incapability be harmful to his mission on Gethan?
The continuous difficulty that Genly faces to accept the androgynous Gethenians illustrates that his home planet is very set in their ways and their gender influences many aspects of their culture, much like gender roles play a huge part in our lives. If any of us were to travel to a place with no gender, we would experience the same difficulties that Genly faces on Gethan.
Hey Brooke! I really like the 2nd quote you mentioned in this post. "... seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then as a woman, forcing him into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own." I think here Genly reveals that he still can't take in how everything goes so differently from his world. When he says essential to my own, it shows his curiosity in just trying to figure out the reason for everything instead of just accepting everything around him. I think Gently reflects how we are as people, how we are always searching for a reason for everything. I believe that quote is saying being who we are, whether man or woman it may matter to others but in the long run it only matters that you yourself accept and love yourself as a whole. I interpret Le guin's point of view as saying that we should love and see each other for their inside selves.
ReplyDeleteYes! Now that you pointed that out, I completely agree with you. I hadn't thought about Le Guin's point of saying that we need to love everyone for what's inside and that gender doesn't matter. It's easy to see the book for face value, but it's a lot more interesting when we start thinking about the underlying meanings and Le Guin's intentions of writing about an unknown, foreign planet.
DeleteAssuming genders is definitely one of Genley's major downfalls throughout the novel. We see him degrading those he views as women and respecting those who he views as men. This shows us a little insight into how gender plays a role in his world, and is one of the reason's why he never fully connects with Gethenians.
ReplyDeleteI like when you said "his home planet is very set in their ways.." because that's very similar to how our society is set up! Just like Genly, majority of us are so accustomed to categorizing a gender and limiting others that it is tough to see people for who they really are !
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