IIn Chapter 7 of His in Herland, Alim provides more of his backstory. Alim(a) is biologically male. Since I've written many male characters in the course of my life, creating another male character shouldn't have been any trouble.
Except in this case, I wanted to show that despite current and past (the issue here isn't new) unsettling denials within our culture about our human mammalian natures, biology does in fact influence our experiences, personalities, and choices.
Menstruation is not some yucky, unfair, or embarrassing thing that women with biological parts do (1950s cliches, anyone?) nor should it be shrugged off as ultimately insignificant to the experience of being a woman. It is connected to the entire process of female maturation and would be connected, whether or not grocery stores had aisles full of feminine hygiene products.
Later in His in Herland, I have a protective leader ask Terry, "Why should we send our young women into a world where they will be scorned for their bodies?" Unfortunately, this is a legitimate question these days, as "cisgendered" women (women born biologically female who identify as female and exhibit feminine traits) practically have to apologize for having breasts, a uterus, and the hormones that come with them.
Don't apologize!
In the meantime, I needed to address how my young man (14 years old) is becoming increasingly unlike his female peers, not only in terms of body maturation but in personality.
I maintain that biological differences are not disconnected from the brain. We are whole creatures, not abstracted piecemeal ones.
But here is where things got complicated. Amongst family members, friends, and students, I encountered male disagreement over how men are different from women in personality. One could argue, correctly, that more women than men enter people- and language-oriented professions, especially in societies where women have more choice. But fiction is about individuals and plenty of individual men enter people- and language-oriented professions.
As a cogent commentator on Althouse points out (in sum), "Saying, This is what the female experience is like and this is what the male experience is like is an act of imagination--as is imagining what another female or male's experience is like." Each of us, always, is struck continually in an individual head.
I give Gilman some credit here since she was trying to expand what it means to be "women" away from narrow upperclass nineteenth century ideals and demands. And she does a fine job, generally speaking, despite holding onto many of those nineteenth-century ideals. Her female characters are quite distinct, as are her male characters--and their accomplishments and ideas are given more weight than their pronouns.
I gave myself the harder challenge of differentiating between nurture (a man raised in Herland) and nature (he's biologically male). Consequently, before I published the first version of His in Herland, I sent a scene in Chapter 7--in which ten-year-old Alim(a) drops eggs from a rooftop for no apparent reason except to watch them *splat*--to a few of my male acquaintances.
My question: Is this how young men behave?
The answer was, Yes.
Chapter 7
1 comment:
I came to the conclusion along time ago that liberals deny the differences between genders; conservatives exaggerate them. I can name about three conservative commentators who talk incessantly about masculinity who had what I at least what I consider feminine traits. (I'm not going to name them though.) One was a big fan of musical theater, which I always considered an effeminate interest. I eventually realized it was a matter of cultural differences. He grew up outside of NYC and going to a Broadway show was a fun family activity. I grew up in Texas where that was not a masculine thing, though I may not bat an eye at women enjoying football or the Houston Rodeo. You can find girly girls and effeminate men in Texas and men's men and tomboys in New York, but there are significant cultural differences on those issues.
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