In the short story White Water, Blue Ocean by Linda Raquel Nieves Perez, the protagonist’s family suffers from a curse where the women can’t lie, and the men can’t fall in love.
Except the protagonist is nonbinary, so she doesn’t have either affliction.
I can’t say I fully understood the story, but I think thematically it played a bit with the resentment some people feel towards the LGBTQ community for “playing outside the rules.” Their elderly family kept misgendering them, etc.
I think more restrictions on the protag. does make for a “better” story, often.
However, the curse-as-social-gendered-bonds analogy fits much better if they are excluded from both spheres. (From what I’ve heard; I don’t have any experience as nonbinary.)
Yeah, like I’m imagining an epic where the MC goes on a quest to find a way to love, and has to play clever word games with monsters and villains because they can’t lie. And at the same time is a slightly more bumbling John Wick character because they have trouble with empathy due to the lack of loving relationships, but they can’t quite pull off the slaughter that he can. They don’t know exactly what they want, but they can see the contrast between the lives of the people who love and care about it, and the people that don’t. And they meet friends and allies that have all flavors of loving relationships, before eventually managing to raise the curse. Details and BBEG are left as an exercise for the writer lol
I’m not non-binary either, but it sounds like a sweet premise, and I’d read the hell out of it. You’re probably right about the analogy though.
Enby here, and yeah the analogy is almost spot-on. It’s only missing a weird emphasis on everyone else’s assumption that one of the curses would apply to them, and their grappling with the choice to either exploit or correct those assumptions in various circumstances.
If you’re interested in the story, it can be found in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023. It came out right after Roe flipped, so a lot of the stories cover gender related issues.
I mean, like, the only unisex bathroom at work is a 5-minute hike down three floors from my desk but there’s a gendered restroom less than 30 seconds away. I can exploit the fact that everybody assumes my gender incorrectly to use the more convenient facilities and nobody but me cares.
Eh, there are the horrors, but there’s joy too. Being invisible to almost everyone means I never get catcalled even when I’m out on a topless hike, and the few who can see me for who I am all seem to love my mixed-gender aesthetic.
In the short story White Water, Blue Ocean by Linda Raquel Nieves Perez, the protagonist’s family suffers from a curse where the women can’t lie, and the men can’t fall in love.
Except the protagonist is nonbinary, so she doesn’t have either affliction.
Haven’t read it, but I love the premise. I think it would be better if they had both though.
I can’t say I fully understood the story, but I think thematically it played a bit with the resentment some people feel towards the LGBTQ community for “playing outside the rules.” Their elderly family kept misgendering them, etc.
I think more restrictions on the protag. does make for a “better” story, often.
However, the curse-as-social-gendered-bonds analogy fits much better if they are excluded from both spheres. (From what I’ve heard; I don’t have any experience as nonbinary.)
Yeah, like I’m imagining an epic where the MC goes on a quest to find a way to love, and has to play clever word games with monsters and villains because they can’t lie. And at the same time is a slightly more bumbling John Wick character because they have trouble with empathy due to the lack of loving relationships, but they can’t quite pull off the slaughter that he can. They don’t know exactly what they want, but they can see the contrast between the lives of the people who love and care about it, and the people that don’t. And they meet friends and allies that have all flavors of loving relationships, before eventually managing to raise the curse. Details and BBEG are left as an exercise for the writer lol
I’m not non-binary either, but it sounds like a sweet premise, and I’d read the hell out of it. You’re probably right about the analogy though.
Enby here, and yeah the analogy is almost spot-on. It’s only missing a weird emphasis on everyone else’s assumption that one of the curses would apply to them, and their grappling with the choice to either exploit or correct those assumptions in various circumstances.
If you’re interested in the story, it can be found in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023. It came out right after Roe flipped, so a lot of the stories cover gender related issues.
Wait, wait, wait… You can lie? But… Wait. Who is the sociopath in the relationship?
I mean, like, the only unisex bathroom at work is a 5-minute hike down three floors from my desk but there’s a gendered restroom less than 30 seconds away. I can exploit the fact that everybody assumes my gender incorrectly to use the more convenient facilities and nobody but me cares.
Well, that’s a pain in the ass. Sorry you’ve got to deal with that.
Eh, there are the horrors, but there’s joy too. Being invisible to almost everyone means I never get catcalled even when I’m out on a topless hike, and the few who can see me for who I am all seem to love my mixed-gender aesthetic.