Gender diverse pronouns bring me joy. What are gender diverse pronouns? In short, they’re all the alternatives to she and he (for people—I’m not counting “it”). In the introduction to Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns, editor A.C. Buchanan writes that gender diverse pronouns include “singular they, neopronouns, and pronoun sets of the authors’ invention.” What’s a neopronoun? Often, people use the term neopronoun to refer to gender neutral pronouns that can be used instead of singular they. I’m borrowing A.C. Buchanan’s term for this post because it’s broad, encompassing singular they, other gender neutral pronouns, and even pronouns which signify a gender identity beyond femininity or masculinity.
All of these things—all of these gender diverse pronouns—bring me great joy. I love singular they pronouns. I love gender neutral neopronouns. I love invented pronouns which signify nonbinary genders. I love stories that feature characters—and societies—that use gender diverse pronouns, whether it’s singular they or entirely new pronouns that signify entirely new genders. These stories normalize diverse pronouns and gender identities, which is good and necessary work because people with diverse pronouns and gender identities are all around us.
I want more stories that feature gender diverse pronouns. I will take no excuses. SFF readers accept all kinds of wild ideas. Don’t tell me that you can create new nouns (muggle) and verbs (grok) and even whole languages (Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki) within a story, but that using diverse pronouns (which often already exist) is somehow a step too far. (And, slightly tangentially, I also wish more stories would use pronouns to differentiate humans, objects, animals, gods, and robots. Can we also write some of these stories while we’re overhauling our default assumptions when it comes to pronouns in fiction?)
Gender diverse pronouns bring me joy. Stories that feature gender diverse pronouns bring me joy. Here are some recent favorites.
Provenance by Ann Leckie
Provenance is a fantastic book (one of my all-time favorite books, in fact) for many reasons: intelligent worldbuilding, delightful aliens, thoughtful and unique themes, and engaging political conflict and character drama. The book largely takes place in Hwae, a society that thinks of gender as trinary, with men, women, and nemen, the last of which use e/em/eir pronouns. And in Hwae, when people come of age, they choose their name and gender. (So cool!) If you’re at all interested in gender in SFF, this book is a must-read.
Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns
I’d be entirely remiss not to shout out Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns, which I reviewed back in April. It’s an outstanding issue, featuring broad ranges of genre tropes, pronouns, and genders. I especially loved these stories in the issue:
“Volatile Patterns” by Bogi Takács
This story is a fun, intelligent science fictional take on cultural appropriation of dress, featuring a nonbinary and neuroatypical protagonist who feels somewhat like a mix between Sherlock Holmes and a Jedi. It’s awesome.
“Phaser” by Cameron Van Sant
In “Phaser,” Elizabeth gets whisked away by aliens and ends up having a conversation with her future self. It’s a fun, smart read about the complexities and evolution of gender identity.
“Sandals Full of Rainwater” by A.E. Prevost
Piscrandoil immigrates from Salphaneyin, a society that doesn’t have gender (linguistically or socially), to Orpanthyre, a society with three genders and forty-five pronouns. And Prevost actually uses those forty-five pronouns in the text! Don’t be scared off by that though—the invented pronouns are largely derivatives of English, so the dialogue just feels like the characters are speaking with an accent. Still, it’s a fascinating, effective method to force the reader to empathize with Piscrandoil’s daunting cultural immersion. If there’s a linguistics geek inside of you, this story is a must read.
“Assistance” by Kathryn DeFazio
Astor, a nonbinary person with anxiety, prepares to leave town for a funeral with the help of PAGE, their assistive android. This simple, mundane story is one of the most caring and tender things I read last year.
“I Sing Against the Silent Sun” by A. Merc Rustad and Ada Hoffman
If you like space opera and poetry, you must read this story about Li Sin, a poet-revolutionary who is hunted by a ruthless god of silence. The coolest feature of this story is how it blends imaginative worldbuilding with SF poetry, but I also enjoyed it for its characters and representation. Three of the main characters in this novelette are Li Sin (who’s nonbinary), Vector (Li Sin’s spaceship), and Gerarr Singh (Li Sin’s confidant, who’s genderfluid).
