Glynn Marshes writes:
A marvelous malapropism, buried like a bloggy easter egg in an article that . . .
… calls on science fiction writers to join the revolution: sci fi novels are way too gender binary, yo.
I want more writers to stop defaulting to binary gender in their SF—I want to never again read entire anthologies of SF stories or large-cast novels where every character is binary-gendered. I want this conversation to be louder.
First in an on-going series.
Totally stealing that.
Via Monster Hunter author Larry Correia, who responds here with characteristic glee, writing that it’s fine for writers to work their pet causes into their stories — as long as they do it with skill.
Have you ever gone into Barnes and Noble, went to the clerk at the info desk, and said “Hey, I really want to purchase with my money a science fiction novel which will increase my AWARENESS of troubling social issues.”? No? This is my shocked face.
Readers hate being preached at. Period. Even when you agree with the message, if it is ham fisted and shoved in your face, it turns you off. Message fic for message fic’s sake makes for tedious reading. Yet, as this stuff has become more and more prevalent, sci-fi has become increasingly dull, and readership has shrank [sic].
Of course, the literati won’t be happy until everything is boring ass message fic and nobody reads sci-fi anymore, because then they’ll be super special snowflakes.
Correia notes however that message fic wins nice awards. Who woulda thunk.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Related: What oh what are we to do about the virulent racism and sexism in classic literature?
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/01/the-product-of-its-time-defense-no-excuse-for-sexism-and-racism/283352/
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Burn them and replace them with nice friendly message fic 🙂
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I judge fiction on how good it makes me feel about myself.
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The Atlantic has been Malcolm-Gladwellized in that their articles depend much too much on the notion that everything you know is wrong.
“Ah yes dear reader, you, like most people, think X. But you are WRONG! It is Y. Now here are a coupla thousand words to shake your world”.
So I am used to Atlantic articles, like this, that depend on the frisson of the counterintuitive. But they are usually professionally done, and not blatantly sophomoric. This feels like a bad SAT Writing Test submission.
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heh
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What a coincidence! I judge fiction on how good it makes you feel about yourself, too!!!
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“Binary-gendered” is a classic.
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Isn’t sediment pretty much by definition already “dismantled”?
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More white male bi-gendered sexist racist logic.
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Busted!
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Last line of the article:
😀 😀 😀
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With all the sediment dismantled it’ll be unstable as hell.
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Perhaps most telling is this:
I am not interested in discussions about the existence of these gender identities: we might as well discuss the existence of women or men. Gender complexity exists. SF that presents a rigid, unquestioned gender binary is false and absurd.
Typical “the science is settled you mouth-breathers” leftie tolerance. Their science is a cargo cult of being right-thinking, parroting the proper newspeak terms and attempting to silence any and all dissent.
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Yeah, climate science is irrefutable. Genetic science? RACISS!
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