Genly has a hard time to see Gethenians as they see
themselves because they have a different lifestyle of which he is used to.
Genly knows that Gethenians don't have a specific gender yet he as he describes
them he always uses the pronoun "he" because likes us he isn't used
to seeing "people" that don't have a gender. He also struggles
because Gethenians function totally different to what he's been taught for
example when Gethenians go into kemmer and things along those lines. The
attitude that reveal about where Genly comes from is that he was raised to be
sexist because he often describe some actions as feminine. Genly mentions, “I
tried to, but my efforts took the form of self-consciously seeing a Gethenian first
as a man, then as a woman forcing him into those categories…”(12) in this quote he explains how he sees everyone
as a male and later views them as a woman depending on their “characteristics”
which seem to be sexist. I believe that Genly has a really has a hard time getting
use to them because he’s not an opened minded person. “Some Gethenians, I
thought, are like such animals, with deep bright eyes that do not change
expression when you speak.” (15) Genly mentions that the Gethenian people don’t
show a lot of an emotion so it’s difficult to know when they’re mad or upset
because they show no gestures. Later on in the book he also states that
Gethenians tend to be very sensitive and cry over simple things which kind of
confuse me.
I agree in that many cases where Genly can be sexist and it shows how he interacts with other people in his world.
ReplyDeleteStill, I wonder how'd I'd feel if I were in his shoes.
ReplyDeleteHey Navid!,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your post, especially when you mentioned that Genly constantly uses pronouns to label Gethenians, even though he knows they are essentially genderless. At first, I was really confused about his labeling because in passages where others are speaking, they use gender specific pronouns as well. I came to realize that this may be because Genly is "translating" the speech of others into English from whatever language they are speaking. How crazy is it that he even twists the Gethenian language around to suit his gender bias!