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Transgender and Androgyny in Speculative Fiction

Charlie Dorsett (they/she)

May 19, 2010

Image by VOLPE1981 via Flickr

My new story is in trouble. A lot of trouble. I can not figure out what I want it to be about. I really want to do something different, something I want to read, something I want to see, and I've learned that I am a hard target audience.

I only know one thing about the story, I want it to have a drag cabaret in it and I want to play around with gender in a way I've never done before. I want the character list to include at least 1 drag queen, 1 transgender, and 1 androgyn. It is hard to deal with this in a way the average reader will be able to cope.

Pronouns and gender words are posing a problem for me. Also introducing the characters in a way that tells the readers who these characters are without a "coming out" scene or using unflattering language.

When I read iambic kilometer's META: Five+ Ways Being Transgender in Fandom Really Sucks, and Why I Stick With It Anyway, I felt an ache within me to work even harder to get this right.

The trans character is to one I am having the more trouble developing, so I might drop her from the roster. Is it better to do a questionable job with a character or to leave them out? I'm not really sure, but I need to figure that out.