I really wanted to include some gender variance in my stories, something outside a binary model. But most of the stories are in a pseudo-historical setting, and one is from a non-western culture, so I was wary of trying to overlay modern western queer identities. It's one of those tricky problem solving challenges you get as a writer, only this one is all wrapped up in the fraught world of identity politics, as well as my own personal experiences of my identity. So it's got a tasty topping made from stress fruit.
A friend linked me to an article called 'Gender Variance in Edo Period Japan,' by Marie Kudo, which I found a really useful insight into a third gender identity within Edo Japan. I've used some of the information in that story in my Kitsune story, 'Fox Spirit', which is a retelling of a traditional Japanese folk story, 'On a Contest Between Women of Extraordinary Strength'. Even though I can't straight up write a trans character in that setting, it still feels empowering to write a character that doesn't fit into a binary model of gender. And, as a trans writer, that's important to me. It's also probably one of the most stressful things I've tried to do as a writer. I have an enormous qualifying paragraph at the start. I write this blog with the expectation the internet will find me wanting, and some sort of identity criminal. But I've tried, in good faith, to do something that's important to me. Internet lynch mobs make this a terrifying time to take risks as an artist, but I've done my best, and that's all I could do.
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