Gendered "Otherness" Experiences in the Body

Many writers have chosen to explore gender roles and the impact of gender on characters' lives and experiences by having their characters live as the other (or another) gender. In SF, this is often sex changes, or alien sexes; in historical or fantasy fiction, there can be "body swaps" between characters, magical transformations, or characters -- often female -- who live and pass as male. Characters may also have "souls" or "spirits" that multiply inhabit the same body, in both science fiction and fantasy.

Some examples:

"Passing women" and girls

The female character has some compelling reason to live as a male, often to avoid physical danger while traveling, or to take advantage of greater adventure or job opportunities. This is a particularly common way for YA fiction to explore gender issues. "Passing women" have shown up in plenty of non-SF works as well, again, particularly in YA fiction. "Passing women" are part of a broader phenomena of, usually, members of discriminated-against classes "passing" themselves as members of the privileged classes. Examples:

• Marion Zimmer Bradley, Hawkmistress! (1982) (girl disguises herself as boy and passes for male)
• Maureen McHugh, Mission Child (woman lives and passes as man)
• Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure (girl disguises herself as boy in order to get education as a knight)

See Transvestites, Drag Queens, Passing Women

Sex changes, body swaps, soul migrations

Focusing on one character who changes their sex, takes over or incarnates into a different sexed body, or swaps bodies with another character, lets the author explore otherness. In the gender context, can provide opportunities for humor and political commentary as psychically "other" characters attempt to adjust to the gender expectations and norms for their new body-gender. Also inherently explores the question of the essentiality of gender and whether it resides in the body or the "soul", or both.

Some authors have also used frequent sex changes as a way of de-essentializing gender or showing that it is No Big Deal; for example, by showing multiple reincarnations across gender (as in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, or simple and ubiquitous sex-change technology (as in John Varley's Eight Worlds universe.

Examples:

• Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign (1999) (a minor female character undergoes a sex change in order to get around primogeniture)
• Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve
• Samuel R. Delany's Triton (among other references, a male character grows functional breasts to nurse a child)
• "Switch", by Blake Edwards (a man is "punished" for his sexist ways when he dies by coming back as a woman; he redeems his evil ways by dying in childbirth)
• Lynn Flewelling, The Bone Doll's Twin and Hidden Warrior
• Robert A. Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil (man's brain in woman's body)
• Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (classic gender-exploration novel; the world is peopled with hermaphrodites who phase in and out of male or female genders ("kemmer"); in a later short story, Le Guin explored the differences in sexual experiences across the genders on this planet)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) (reincarnation across multiple genders; some demonstration of sexism in society, but the characters' spiritual essence appears to be genderless)
• Geoff Ryman, The Warrior Who Carried Life (magical transformation of female to male body)
• Thorne Smith, Turnabout (1931) (an early instance of body swapping in literature; probably the thematic inspiration for mostly non-sexual "Freaky Friday" type body swapping films)
• Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928) (and see Sally Potter's film adaptation, (1993))
• Charlotte Perkins Gilmore, "Turning"; short story about a wife magically transferred into her husband's body, experiencing the freedom of male dress and petty sexisms.

Technology makes changing sex easy, and fun, too

• Iain M. Banks's "Culture" universe, notably The Player of Games
• Tanith Lee, Drinking Sapphire Wine and Don't Bite the Sun
• John Varley's "Eight Worlds" universe, particularly "Options," Steel Beach, and The Golden Globe

Multiple psyches/souls inhabiting the same body

A special instance of soul migrations etc., but the dual (or multiple) inhabitance in the same body permits the author to engage characters in cross-gender dialogue; verbalize their gender dysphoria; comment on the other person's experience or their own experience of the other person's body; show blended gendered experiences (as in sudden bisexuality)

• Robert A. Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil
• Tanya Huff, Quarters Series
• Matt Ruff, Set This House in Order

See also gender, sex, transgender, transsexual, cross-dressing, hermaphroditism, intersex, neuter, sexuality