(Lackey’s term, it’s more than simple celibacy, but there’s no indication of anything physical, it’s more she’s completely psychologically ace)
My haven't-reread-in-years memory is that in addition to the asexuality-by-divine-mandate there were some hormonal effects too -- she was flatter than before and completely infertile. Is that incorrect?
I think Lackey might have been riffing on [a Shin'a'in Goddess version of] the emasca surgery ("illegal neutering operation" quote unquote) that some characters in Bradley's Darkover books had. Which, I realise now but didn't when I read those books, itself might be Bradley's view of trans men. There was a character who'd become emasca before she'd learned about the Renunciates and regretted it after she found them, and if she'd had the support of feminist sisterhood and lesbianism and consciousness-raising she wouldn't have had to do such a "terrible" thing as "mutilate" her body like that.
Lackey's first sale was in Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series, and the Heraldic Gifts are very similar to Bradley's laran.
The earliest is set with the clans, and is okay, but for a somewhat awkward attempt to show what seems to be someone who is non-binary.
I don't remember that character, but if it was only slightly awkward, that's better than I've seen from Lackey in other books. Firesong, a flamboyantly femme gay man who is never shown as identifying as any gender other than male, is able to wield Need (who by this time has woken up and is able to communicate by Mindspeech, but still only accepts women as bearers) because "his masculine and feminine sides are perfectly balanced." And then there's that trans character in the Diane Tregarde short story, a woman who was gatekept out of medical transition because she was "insane" and became an evil mage instead and the book persistently regards her as a not a woman but a delusional man because the doctors turned her down. :(
One story (Threes) I had a real problem with.
Yeah, that was fucked up. And gross. And even worse when he's taunted for "liking" being raped after his forced feminisation. And then the demon gives Tarma a makeover too. Mercedes Lackey has Issues.
while the final story takes Tarma up to Valdemar to do the horse-whisperer thing on a troubled stud farm
Was it Forst Reach (Vanyel's family's lands) or am I misremembering?
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Date: 2018-01-03 08:45 pm (UTC)My haven't-reread-in-years memory is that in addition to the asexuality-by-divine-mandate there were some hormonal effects too -- she was flatter than before and completely infertile. Is that incorrect?
I think Lackey might have been riffing on [a Shin'a'in Goddess version of] the emasca surgery ("illegal neutering operation" quote unquote) that some characters in Bradley's Darkover books had. Which, I realise now but didn't when I read those books, itself might be Bradley's view of trans men. There was a character who'd become emasca before she'd learned about the Renunciates and regretted it after she found them, and if she'd had the support of feminist sisterhood and lesbianism and consciousness-raising she wouldn't have had to do such a "terrible" thing as "mutilate" her body like that.
Lackey's first sale was in Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series, and the Heraldic Gifts are very similar to Bradley's laran.
The earliest is set with the clans, and is okay, but for a somewhat awkward attempt to show what seems to be someone who is non-binary.
I don't remember that character, but if it was only slightly awkward, that's better than I've seen from Lackey in other books. Firesong, a flamboyantly femme gay man who is never shown as identifying as any gender other than male, is able to wield Need (who by this time has woken up and is able to communicate by Mindspeech, but still only accepts women as bearers) because "his masculine and feminine sides are perfectly balanced." And then there's that trans character in the Diane Tregarde short story, a woman who was gatekept out of medical transition because she was "insane" and became an evil mage instead and the book persistently regards her as a not a woman but a delusional man because the doctors turned her down. :(
One story (Threes) I had a real problem with.
Yeah, that was fucked up. And gross. And even worse when he's taunted for "liking" being raped after his forced feminisation. And then the demon gives Tarma a makeover too. Mercedes Lackey has Issues.
while the final story takes Tarma up to Valdemar to do the horse-whisperer thing on a troubled stud farm
Was it Forst Reach (Vanyel's family's lands) or am I misremembering?