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Hiding a character's gender?

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enesthi

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Okay I've just introduced a character in my story, and they're a member of a fair violently alien race that resembles an excessively toothy koala. There's no easy way to tell males and females of the species apart. This particular character is female, but the MC is not aware of this. For various reasons I want the gender to be a surprise later on, but I'm having trouble referring to the character using gender-neutral terms.

I don't like the look of referring to them as "it" all the time, and I'm worried that would imply true gender neutrality which isn't the case. How can I make it clear the MC isn't aware of gender without neutering the character, so to speak?

Edit: The story is in 3rd person POV
 
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heyjude

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Perhaps have your MC just assume it's a he and refer to him/her that way?
 

enesthi

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The story is from 3rd person POV so I can have the MC referring to them as male or female but I still have to mention them out of dialogue, that's where the real trouble is.

I should've mentioned the POV in the initial post, fixing that now.
 

TomGrimm

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If it's 3rd person limited to the perspective of your main character, then I think you could get away with referring to it as a "he" for most of the book. But if you're going 3rd person omniscient then you'd probably have to reveal - to the reader, at least - that it's a female.

Of course, you could also go the route that whatever race it is doesn't have gender terms, and everyone refers to them as "it" all the time, even if they know what gender it is.
 

Ken

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... a gender-neutral name of some sort? Could be one for the entire species: a general form of address or something.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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Okay I've just introduced a character in my story, and they're a member of a fair violently alien race that resembles an excessively toothy koala.

tumblr_m65puvYUWu1r5137bo1_250.gif


If your character doesn't know the gender of the creature, she would either think of it as "it" or perhaps assign it a gender. If you find it easier to write about the character using "he" (or she) rather than "it," just have your character assume the creature is the opposite of the gender she'll later by surprised by (she's been calling it "she" but it's a he.)
 

Kerosene

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"Name, they, it, them"

Or, you make the characters think one is a female or male, call it "he, she, his, her" and make the assumption that they don't know the gender/correct them later.
 

PPartisan

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English is annoying, as it doesn't have a pronoun that leaves the gender ambiguous. "It" implies that the "it" is neither male nor female, but sometimes you don't know the gender of a person or creature and "it" is either misleading or demeaning. I usually use "they" in these situations, but it's confused people before. I.e.

"My friend feels upset."
"Oh, I'm sorry. How are they?"
"What do you mean "they"? I only have one friend"

:rant:

Therefore, there's no easy answer. Will's suggestions are as good as they get. In general in English, if the gender is completely unknown, you assume "he."
 

victoriakmartin

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It's been awhile since I read it but I'm pretty sure that Robert J Sawyer's book Calculating God did something like this. The MC, whose POV the story is from (IIRC it was 1st person) thought an alien was male and only learned halfway through that the alien was female. It used "he" for the first half and "she" for the second so I think you could get away with that just fine.

I would only use "it" if you didn't want an assumption made which would be fine but would make the eventual gender revelation less of a surprise since it would cue to reader that they don't know either way.
 

Gateway

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I see a lot of ADAM and EVE in scifi stories.

Maybe you think it's an Adam but you find out it's an Eve.

Or, as has been suggested, a gender neutral name.

I always find reading scripts with gender neutral names to be really confusing.
 

BethS

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I don't like the look of referring to them as "it" all the time, and I'm worried that would imply true gender neutrality which isn't the case. How can I make it clear the MC isn't aware of gender without neutering the character, so to speak?

Edit: The story is in 3rd person POV

If your POV character has no idea of the gender, then he or she will have to settle on something to call it. Your character may well decide to refer to the alien as "it," or may call her "him," as a default. That's fine. Just be consistent whenever you're in the MC's POV.
 

BethS

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The story is from 3rd person POV so I can have the MC referring to them as male or female but I still have to mention them out of dialogue, that's where the real trouble is.

Not sure what you mean by that. When in a particular character's POV, everything in that segment is written from that character's perspective. That includes the narrative, exposition, backstory, whatever.
 

PPartisan

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By the way, didn't the English pronoun "one" cover this situation once upon a time? It may be archaic now, but it was useful for sure.
 

Roger J Carlson

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I don't know the specifics of your story, of course, but I usually find the "hidden gender" plot-trick irritating.
 

victoriakmartin

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By the way, didn't the English pronoun "one" cover this situation once upon a time? It may be archaic now, but it was useful for sure.

It definitely can be used this way but I don't remember ever reading any prose in which it was used. When I think of that usage, I mostly thing of instructions like "If one wants to run fast, one must practice every day" and even that sounds pretty awkward to me.
 

Ralley37

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"The Being/Creature/Entity/Lifeform/Critter" etc.

Might be able to delay coming clean with the gender for a bit. I also remember reading a story once where they referred to an alien as him and he, then later found it was a female, though it likely worked well because it was 1st POV.
 

dawinsor

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Lois McMaster Bujold has a hermaphrodite in her stories, and she consistently calls the character "it." You might take a look.
 

flapperphilosopher

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I think just calling it 'he' until otherwise indicated makes sense-- when you meet a cat or rabbit or other animal whose gender isn't immediately apparent, don't you usually call it 'he' or 'she' anyway?
 

IceCreamEmpress

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I think that if the POV character doesn't know the gender of the alien being, the POV character would call the alien being "it". People who deal with animals (farmers, zoo folks, zoologists) generally refer to animals whose gender isn't known to them as "it", and it would be likely that that habit would continue even with sentient and communicating beings.
 

DanielaTorre

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I had the same problem with a cloaked figure. I just had the MC assume it was a 'he' until otherwise proven.

The reader will still be surprised regardless. Unless of course you want the character to repeatedly wonder if his assumption is correct or not. Then you may want to drop hints and have the MC wonder if his assumption was incorrect.
 

rwm4768

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Just call them a he or she. Maybe have the character note they're not sure. Then change the gender when it's finally revealed.
 

MelodySRV

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I know that this is gender neuter, but it might help. You could refer to your character as "hir", indicating that the character isn't aware but still maybe uses something that sounds like a pronoun we use? It's tricky.

You could look at other languages and see how they treat gender ambiguous or gender neuter and maybe use those pronouns instead of the English ones. I hope you can figure it out!
 

CDancourt

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If it has a name, you can use that from time to time. You can also refer to it as "the beast" and then use the female gender.
 
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