But the other panels gave me pause for thought. I went to a discussion of revising the gender in SF stories, and a discussion of the merits of this year's Hugo Awards Best Novel category.
The gender panel seemed hell-bent on finding evidence of non-binary gender in every SF story, and I came away rather annoyed at that. Because, like, whose story is this, man? Maybe, just maybe, the author isn't concerned with that issue in that story. I'm certainly not. My Panthera books focus on the issue of wildlife crime, and man's inhumanity to animals. My stories are about challenging the homocentric superiority complex that so many humans have. As far as I'm concerned, humans are no more special than any other marvellous creature that evolution has produced and honed.
But these people were determined to examine every story for evidence of non-binary gender, something that just doesn't concern me. It assumes that the whole question of sex and gender is important, and to me it isn't. My characters are who they are, and they're not bothered about it. They accept their bodies, and get on with their real work.
I think if a writer listens to too many reviews or critiques of their work they could get very nervous about ever putting pen to paper again. But hey, whose story is this? You want to write about something that examines alternative genders, be my guest. Just don't expect me to re-write my story to examine this issue, because I won't.
Ultimately it's the writer's choice of what story to tell, and we have to have the courage to stick to our vision, know it is as valid as anyone else's world view, and be strong enough to put our work out into the world.
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