So, I didn't comment on the science in the google doc you sent me, but I figured I'd comment here a little bit:
I don't know how Star Trek handles the eusocial concept, but here's how it works, biologically, on earth with respect to the concept of gender vs. sex.
Firstly, sex and gender are two different things altogether. Sex refers to the biological make up of the organism, which falls into male, female, hermaphrodite, and inter-sex. Male and female obviously refers to the carriers of sperm or egg. Hermaphrodite refers to carrying both sperm and egg, which many sexually reproducing species evolve into thus increasing their reproductive success. (Needless to say, in a non-sexually reproducing species, the sex is a non-issue.) Then there's the intersexed individuals whose genetic make up says one sex, but their hormonal make up says another, causing the body to sort of be both and neither at the same time. Intersexed individuals are also never fertile and cannot (naturally) produce offspring through normal sexual intercourse (however that form takes).
Meanwhile, gender is the psychological identity of the individual, independent of the biological sex. Gender identity can be male, female, agendered, or queer. In the case of male and female, pretty straight forward. Agendered individuals do not identify as having a gender, or in other words, would identify the gender category as Null. Queer identity is anything that doesn't quite fall under the previously mentioned three, many of whom identify as gender-fluid, as in, identifies themselves as something between a male and female.
Second, the use of neutral gender pronouns, such as zir, hir, etc, stemmed from the gender queer community that doesn't identify with either him or her. As such, the use of these words signify a neutral gender identity, not sex category. Biological sex category is pretty hard coded and not nearly as debatable (either you carry eggs, sperm, both, or none).
Third, in terms of eusocial species (which we think of as hive-based insects, although some have argued the naked mole rat is a mammalian example) it is kind of weird, to me, that they use gender-neutral pronouns when there's no indication that there's a wide-spread gender neutral-ness. What I mean is this: yes, although the workers cannot breed and are thus rendered reproductively neutral, they are nonetheless distinctly female in terms of biological sex. Meanwhile, drones are fertile and inseminate the queen and carry sperm, and are biologically unquestionably male. There's no reason to believe that there will be gender identity politics when the reproductive roles are so clearly defined. Hell, one can argue that they probably have less gender identity dysphoria due to the fact that the society is so much more rigidly defined by their reproductive roles. As such, it doesn't seem to make much sense for these races to use gender neutral pronouns.
Now, a hermaphroditic species probably will have much more gender identity sensitivity, due to the fact that the reproductive roles are less defined and thus the psychological effect of gender identity will probably play a much bigger effect.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-23 04:13 pm (UTC)I don't know how Star Trek handles the eusocial concept, but here's how it works, biologically, on earth with respect to the concept of gender vs. sex.
Firstly, sex and gender are two different things altogether. Sex refers to the biological make up of the organism, which falls into male, female, hermaphrodite, and inter-sex. Male and female obviously refers to the carriers of sperm or egg. Hermaphrodite refers to carrying both sperm and egg, which many sexually reproducing species evolve into thus increasing their reproductive success. (Needless to say, in a non-sexually reproducing species, the sex is a non-issue.) Then there's the intersexed individuals whose genetic make up says one sex, but their hormonal make up says another, causing the body to sort of be both and neither at the same time. Intersexed individuals are also never fertile and cannot (naturally) produce offspring through normal sexual intercourse (however that form takes).
Meanwhile, gender is the psychological identity of the individual, independent of the biological sex. Gender identity can be male, female, agendered, or queer. In the case of male and female, pretty straight forward. Agendered individuals do not identify as having a gender, or in other words, would identify the gender category as Null. Queer identity is anything that doesn't quite fall under the previously mentioned three, many of whom identify as gender-fluid, as in, identifies themselves as something between a male and female.
Second, the use of neutral gender pronouns, such as zir, hir, etc, stemmed from the gender queer community that doesn't identify with either him or her. As such, the use of these words signify a neutral gender identity, not sex category. Biological sex category is pretty hard coded and not nearly as debatable (either you carry eggs, sperm, both, or none).
Third, in terms of eusocial species (which we think of as hive-based insects, although some have argued the naked mole rat is a mammalian example) it is kind of weird, to me, that they use gender-neutral pronouns when there's no indication that there's a wide-spread gender neutral-ness. What I mean is this: yes, although the workers cannot breed and are thus rendered reproductively neutral, they are nonetheless distinctly female in terms of biological sex. Meanwhile, drones are fertile and inseminate the queen and carry sperm, and are biologically unquestionably male. There's no reason to believe that there will be gender identity politics when the reproductive roles are so clearly defined. Hell, one can argue that they probably have less gender identity dysphoria due to the fact that the society is so much more rigidly defined by their reproductive roles. As such, it doesn't seem to make much sense for these races to use gender neutral pronouns.
Now, a hermaphroditic species probably will have much more gender identity sensitivity, due to the fact that the reproductive roles are less defined and thus the psychological effect of gender identity will probably play a much bigger effect.
/two cents