One of the reasons I read Murderbot as masculine despite listing its gender as "non-applicable" is its desire to protect humans, especially "small, soft humans," to the point of lethal violence as needed.
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One of the reasons I read Murderbot as masculine despite listing its gender as "non-applicable" is its desire to protect humans, especially "small, soft humans," to the point of lethal violence as needed. The fact that Murderbot is ambivalent about gender norms and its own gender presentation actually makes it one of the healthier fictional examples of masculinity I can think of. LOL.
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One of the reasons I read Murderbot as masculine despite listing its gender as "non-applicable" is its desire to protect humans, especially "small, soft humans," to the point of lethal violence as needed. The fact that Murderbot is ambivalent about gender norms and its own gender presentation actually makes it one of the healthier fictional examples of masculinity I can think of. LOL.
Murderbot almost exclusively walks around in a long-sleeved shirt, pants, jacket, and sturdy work boots even when it's not hiding out and pretending to be human. It's kind of lazy, sarcastic, sullen, and just wants to watch TV all the time. It resents being dragged into social functions (unless there's a good show involved) or having to deal with human interpersonal drama.
I've met a lot of guys like that!
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Murderbot almost exclusively walks around in a long-sleeved shirt, pants, jacket, and sturdy work boots even when it's not hiding out and pretending to be human. It's kind of lazy, sarcastic, sullen, and just wants to watch TV all the time. It resents being dragged into social functions (unless there's a good show involved) or having to deal with human interpersonal drama.
I've met a lot of guys like that!
Murderbot, genderless organic-bot hybrid construct that it is, originally lacking in body hair (and resenting having to grow its own), lacking any "sex parts," utterly indifferent to relationships, and ambivalent about how human beings choose to dress and behave, would still have an extremely easy time passing for male in our society.
In the setting of the books, it might be different as non-binary and third gender people are common.
But in ours? He's just a dude.
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Murderbot, genderless organic-bot hybrid construct that it is, originally lacking in body hair (and resenting having to grow its own), lacking any "sex parts," utterly indifferent to relationships, and ambivalent about how human beings choose to dress and behave, would still have an extremely easy time passing for male in our society.
In the setting of the books, it might be different as non-binary and third gender people are common.
But in ours? He's just a dude.
This thread isn't actually about Murderbot.
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This thread isn't actually about Murderbot.
As an agender being, Murderbot would undoubtedly resent being read as male as much as it resents being treated like a human, but it would probably concede it's generally seen as both.
Unless it's living openly and has its feed ID up there for everyone to see like in Preservation space, but that's not really the point.
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As an agender being, Murderbot would undoubtedly resent being read as male as much as it resents being treated like a human, but it would probably concede it's generally seen as both.
Unless it's living openly and has its feed ID up there for everyone to see like in Preservation space, but that's not really the point.
I've come to realize every demographic (or rather, members of every demographic) thinks they're worse off than everybody else in terms of gender expectations, hazing, and violence.
Cis-het men, cis gay men, cis women, cis lesbians, trans women, etc. We all think we drew the short draw in terms of how society treats us because when it's happening to you, it sucks, right?
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I've come to realize every demographic (or rather, members of every demographic) thinks they're worse off than everybody else in terms of gender expectations, hazing, and violence.
Cis-het men, cis gay men, cis women, cis lesbians, trans women, etc. We all think we drew the short draw in terms of how society treats us because when it's happening to you, it sucks, right?
But as a trans person, it's funny when cis people think they have a hard time living up to gendered expectations when most of them literally don't have to do anything to be read as their gender.
Most of them have no idea what being gender nonconforming really means in terms of how society puts you in the spotlight and targets you for abuse and violence. And they can't know how hard it can be to pass as a different gender than the one you were assigned at birth because why would they?
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But as a trans person, it's funny when cis people think they have a hard time living up to gendered expectations when most of them literally don't have to do anything to be read as their gender.
Most of them have no idea what being gender nonconforming really means in terms of how society puts you in the spotlight and targets you for abuse and violence. And they can't know how hard it can be to pass as a different gender than the one you were assigned at birth because why would they?
In a patriarchal society where cis-het men are considered the default and everyone else is a special exception, it's actually really, really difficult for cis men to gender fail even when they try!
That's why Murderbot doesn't need to do anything to be read as male except have a fairly straight body type with no breasts or hips to speak of. Being socially awkward and unnecessarily hostile is just a bonus on its case!
So like I said yesterday, men, you really don't have to try that hard.
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In a patriarchal society where cis-het men are considered the default and everyone else is a special exception, it's actually really, really difficult for cis men to gender fail even when they try!
That's why Murderbot doesn't need to do anything to be read as male except have a fairly straight body type with no breasts or hips to speak of. Being socially awkward and unnecessarily hostile is just a bonus on its case!
So like I said yesterday, men, you really don't have to try that hard.
Are men assholes to each other and AMAB people about not manning up correctly? Yeah, of course.
Unfortunately, that's part of patriarchy, too, and it isn't going to change unless men stand up to that shit themselves. The rest of us can't do it for you.
But the kind of toxic machismo and hysterical insecurity that drives the manosphere and conservatism in general is really dumb, actually.
And totally unnecessary!
And in my opinion, it makes you look weak for bowing to it!
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