Genly is put in a precarious position he finds himself on an alien world with a non-gender, usually sexually dormant, species. He finds it difficult to understand their complex psychology despite having done extensive research on them before even coming to winter. He also struggles to see the Gethenians as they are and as they aren't, they aren't male or female, but at the same time they are (confusing right?) This would be hard for anyone who's brain wasn't conditioned to think this way since birth, because our brains know instinctively that females should have certain qualities and males should have certain qualities that is isn't true if you're on the planet winter. We often take for granted that for the most part most people think the same (herd mentality as some might call it) but Genly doesn't have that luxury on Winter he is forced to take a different approach use different tactics then we would if he were talking to someone on Earth; espcially when it comes to the Gethenians and their shifgethor (I know I spelled it wrong) and how saying or doing certain things can challenge other Getheaninas prestige; like asking questions when you should know the answer.
Genly's attudides show that he comes from our world, or at least what the world looked like at the time of The Left Hand of Darkness being written.
There is no female and male at the same time, they only become gender prepped when Kemmer commonsense. But during which kemmer ends they are either left pregnant (left with there current gender until they give birth) or become gender-less for the remaining months to come. it would be confusing in Genly prospects because he comes from a world were there will always be sexism, gender inequality and gender stereotypes. it sounds similar to ours right? its hard for Genly for those reason only, because for gently, they could never teach him how to think in a gender neutral way. Because there live a way that you can never escape gender inequality. this is why genly struggles so much, only because in his earth based planet they taught him at a young age that women act like this and men act like that. In my opinion, this does not really affect him at all. he does not offend anyone nor repeats any slurs that could led him to his death. it just bothers him because his not at home sipping tea.
ReplyDeleteSince Genly is from another planet, he does not exactly blend in with the Gethenians. He is unusually taller and has many different complexions that the people of Gethen do or don´t have. One prominent feature is Genly´s ¨ability¨ to retain his male reproductive parts, or just putting it simply, remaining as a male day in and day out. Because of this, Genly often feels very isolated and lonely. He is so different from everyone else that he has no one to confide to (except for Estraven ,but that´s not the point). I believe that Genly expresses his loneliness and isolation by trying to identify the people of Gethen by gender,even if it is a gender-less society, to cope as if he were not different from everyone else. He assumes that Gethenians are either male/female depending on their actions and physical features to manage or adjust to a society that he is not accustomed to.
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