Hello and welcome to a brand new series all about gender in science fiction and fantasy worldbuilding!
If you’re working on a novel that includes worldbuilding around gender, I hope this blog post series will give you new ideas and food for thought—on both creative and inclusive fronts.
Each of these posts uses a published book as a springboard for discussion. I’ll talk about things I’d bring up if I were providing sensitivity feedback or worldbuilding consultation on the novel.
Today’s post is all about the gender worldbuilding in A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a solarpunk novella set on a moon called Panga. The protagonist, Sibling Dex (they/them), is a tea monk who travels around remote villages with their wagon, brewing special tea blends and lending a sympathetic ear to people and their everyday troubles.
The world in the book is presented as a utopia, at least from an ecological and anti-capitalist viewpoint. Humankind has moved away from its previously destructive behaviours and has learned to live in harmony with nature. Society is peaceful and centred around compassion and kindness. Everyone lives in comfort and safety.
You could therefore be forgiven for assuming that the gender system in the novel is also utopian. The book’s inclusion of non-binary characters (especially a non-binary protagonist) is fantastic to see. But the wider worldbuilding—or lack thereof—around gender is far from idyllic, and brings along a lot of harmful baggage. That’s what we’ll be unpacking in this post.
