: Re: How do I present a future free of gender stereotypes without being jarring or overpowering the narrative? My story takes place in a relatively near future setting where gender stereotypes have

@Ann1701686

Vote Up Vote Down

I don't want to answer the question you've asked because I think at the core you're asking "What do I write?" If the point is not to be didactic or write an allegory, I think what you're actually asking is:

How do I present a world with radical social norm differences than my own and still tell a good story?

And the answer is that you just present it as your characters would interact with it. If it's not the point, then do not make it the point. It's possible its a darling and one you do not wish actually write about (and you'll know this because it will get in the way of whatever narrative you actually want to tell); but if its not in the way than its the typical window-dressing that setting and theme write.

Let's ask the reverse, of your question which is still a derivative of the one I pose above.

How do I present an older version of the world that accepted radical social norms that are not at all acceptable today?

The reality of this isn't that much different. You pick a point of view character. They have to interact in a world where the social norms (say slavery) are what they are. And that changes who has power and who doesn't. That changes who has expectations and who doesn't. It warps the conflict a bit and changes what the character is allowed to do as society sees them.

But, there's another layer. You can write faithfully for the time period and end up with a truly abhorrent character. Sometimes in these situations you have a character who is the window through which your reader identifies. The person who doesn't quite get it or has opinions, but is outside of the normal social structure. Maybe you get to see their inner monologue where they hate slavery, but outwardly they can't say that for reasons. And through that our modern sensibilities are satisfied.

But, there's not really a how other than being faithful to the rules an not violating them. And not making any rules that break the fourth wall or lose your reader.

The point is that it doesn't matter when you're writing about something like this. Past, future, parallel dimension, now but in a local space where this is accepted (say an island your protag crash lands onto that doesn't have gender). But, what's likely to happen is that gender will be the "Agent X" of your book. Even if you don't feel it is, your readers likely will. That will be the thing they focus on if you give it tons of detail.

You need to decide how important this detail of your world is. If it isn't important, then the way you treat it in your book is you casually mention it in a sentence or less and move on. The more you write about it the more important it will become. If you have a presentation in a class or take a scene to explain it then that's what your book will be about as your reader interprets it. The time (word count) we spend describing things is directly proportional to the importance of the thing we are describing.

I don't want this to be a "men in dresses" story, but rather a story that might happen to have men in dresses at some point because it's the stereotype-free future and whatnot.

Then you basically just need to occasionally have men show up in dresses and not pay much attention to it. This is probably going to be schismatic for a normal* audience. Its going to be difficult to write a story that's not about gender if you put this in there. I recommend you just get comfortable with your book being about no-gender-stereotypes if that's the world you want to write about because there's likely not a way to write about it without it being a big deal for your audience.

(*Normal is just average, not a value judgement).

(0)

Login to post a comment!