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elliclerQ, an omnipotent entity from Star Trek, as written by Alara:
"I know you don't think less of women. But you think of them differently." He began to pace again. "It's wired into the fundamental nature of your brain, the deepest biological distinction you can make. You apply it to nonhumanoids, you apply it to inanimate objects, it colors every perception you have. If I changed sex you couldn't help but look at me differently. And since gender is irrelevant to me, it'd be a difference that wasn't real, wasn't based on something I chose. If you look at me differently because I'm behaving differently, that's one thing. Even if I didn't deliberately choose that, it's still the result of a change in me. But if I change sex, that's not a change in me-- it matters to me not at all. But it matters to you, to all humans, profoundly. So to you there would be a drastic change and to me I would not have changed at all. And I don't think that's honest. I do try to be consistent, at least."
In the latest TF fic by Astolat there's the canon idea of robots having gender (based exclusively on the ability to "contain a spark" - hold a new robot's 'soul' while it develops - which is apparently a minor design difference), but as Astolat's written it, gender doesn't seem to have any social implications in the cybernetic society. You just... change the pronouns.
And it really breaks my brain a little, because, yes, I *do* think about men and women differently, and that's just logical. In our world *any* gender is steeped in ages-deep context and anyone who *has* a gender has formed *some* relationship with that context.
Take Galvatron, for example - the crazy megalomaniac Deception overlord, who loves war and power and commands with an iron hand, given to violent unpredictable outbursts. When you say "Galvatron, he" - I just easily accept it, it's a very basic archetype. If you say "Galvatron, she" - my brain starts running around in circles, trying to pattern-match the idea against any other examples of women-in-power, yet the database returns no results - powerful feminine archetypes are built on very different principles. Then the brain starts to imagine some 'human' context in which Galvatron could exist and her relationship with it - a simple yet inescapable mistake. And if I don't catch myself in time, I either drastically rewrite Galvatron's personality in my head or I conclude that it's impossible for her to exist. Oh, well.
"I know you don't think less of women. But you think of them differently." He began to pace again. "It's wired into the fundamental nature of your brain, the deepest biological distinction you can make. You apply it to nonhumanoids, you apply it to inanimate objects, it colors every perception you have. If I changed sex you couldn't help but look at me differently. And since gender is irrelevant to me, it'd be a difference that wasn't real, wasn't based on something I chose. If you look at me differently because I'm behaving differently, that's one thing. Even if I didn't deliberately choose that, it's still the result of a change in me. But if I change sex, that's not a change in me-- it matters to me not at all. But it matters to you, to all humans, profoundly. So to you there would be a drastic change and to me I would not have changed at all. And I don't think that's honest. I do try to be consistent, at least."
In the latest TF fic by Astolat there's the canon idea of robots having gender (based exclusively on the ability to "contain a spark" - hold a new robot's 'soul' while it develops - which is apparently a minor design difference), but as Astolat's written it, gender doesn't seem to have any social implications in the cybernetic society. You just... change the pronouns.
And it really breaks my brain a little, because, yes, I *do* think about men and women differently, and that's just logical. In our world *any* gender is steeped in ages-deep context and anyone who *has* a gender has formed *some* relationship with that context.
Take Galvatron, for example - the crazy megalomaniac Deception overlord, who loves war and power and commands with an iron hand, given to violent unpredictable outbursts. When you say "Galvatron, he" - I just easily accept it, it's a very basic archetype. If you say "Galvatron, she" - my brain starts running around in circles, trying to pattern-match the idea against any other examples of women-in-power, yet the database returns no results - powerful feminine archetypes are built on very different principles. Then the brain starts to imagine some 'human' context in which Galvatron could exist and her relationship with it - a simple yet inescapable mistake. And if I don't catch myself in time, I either drastically rewrite Galvatron's personality in my head or I conclude that it's impossible for her to exist. Oh, well.
