A Third Gender?

I think you should. With a little bit of research, you might find such thing as third gender already exists.

Gender is a complicated concept, and I suggest you do some research. There is a whole lot more out there even in our boring reality than the gender binary Male and Female that we're taught exist. Combine that with things like sexualities and relationship styles, and you get a pretty freakin' awesome number of combinations, but it can also feel scary to write about things that may touch on someone else's reality or offend someone. I personally am a genderfluid polyamorous lesbian.

Don't confuse sex with gender. They are not the same.

Sol Quince said:

Oooo >.>

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Don't worry

It's just that it's all around the internet, I thought everyone knew about it...

I think readers will still be able to relate the alien characters if they still have human-like emotions -- anger, sadness, anxiety, joy, etc. -- regardless of what they're physically capable of.

It might also be helpful to make it clear what the other characters think of these other-gendered (er... other-sexed) aliens. Do they think them weird? Do they think of them as females because of how they look? Do they associate certain qualities with them? (Similar to the common "female = nurturing, male = tough"). Along those lines, are there hurtful stereotypes?

This is my personal opinion, but I like that you say that they're called females. I've read stories in which the author seems to enjoy creating and using new pronouns to constantly remind me that a character is neither male nor female, such as "They looked at hir" or "They saw shim standing there." To me, it draws too much attention to itself and takes me out of the story. For better or for worse, I need to subconsciously think of a character as male or female while reading, even if I know that that's a simplification. But perhaps other readers enjoy new pronouns; I don't know.

Gender has to do with language, social roles and behaviors. Gender is in our hearts and minds, and our language.

Sex has to do with chromosomes and genitalia.

Neither are binary. There are XX, XY, YX, XXY, YYX . . .

Of course you can. Go for it.

Ursula K. Le Guin did it in Left hand of Darkness and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for it. Well worth a read if you have time.

Lois McMaster Bujold, in her Miles Vorkosigan books, has major hermaphroditic characters, with both male and female characteristics. They can mate with either males or females, and do.

Since you are thinking about the sexes of aliens, the fild is wide open, because we don't have any other information of how the propagate. There could be more than three sexes; it depends on how their genes (or whatever they have) mix and fit together.

If you did actually mean "gender" rather than "sex", then remember that English, and most human languages, has three genders; although gender has mostly disappeared from a few languages.

If you want another example, read Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

Echoing the "sex =/= gender" sentiment.

That said, I have a character that's a type of intersex that doesn't exist in our world and is genderfluid as well. I did a lot of research on it but at the end of the day, a character is a character with personality, hopes, dreams, and fears--they are not just what's between their legs.

The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks has a species with three biological genders in a highly hierarchical society. In this species, all three sexes are necessary for reproduction.

The Newcomers in the Alien Nation TV series also had a third gender, a special kind of male that was much rarer, the binnaum.

I don't think you have to research extensively, but there's a bunch of questions I'd try to answer:

1. Which sex(es) will carry the baby? For how long? Those that do will tend to be sheltered by the others, specially if the gestation is long, childbirth is dangerous, and infant death is common. In egg-laying species, or species that have multiple births (say, quintuples or sextuplets), this effect is greatly reduced.
2. Which sexes contribute to the child's genome? Those that don't will probably be lower in the society's hierarchical structure.
3. Are the three sexes equally common? Is a sex significantly rarer or more common than the others? If they are equally common, life-long, monogamous relationships are likely. If one is much rarer, its members are likely to be "pooled" by communities. Less drastic imbalances can still create interesting results: polygamy, extended families, dowries.
4. Can an individual change sex? In what conditions? Is it voluntary or involuntary? Sex change, natural or artificial, may equalize gender relations, or be a big hot-button topic.

Jim Oliver said:

If you want another example, read Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

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Seconded. One of my favoritest books of all time. (And, according to one interview with Asimov I heard back in the 1970's, one of Asimov's favorite books he'd ever written.)

Also, think about evolutionary processes. What would be the advantage to a species of having multiple sexes? How would that have developed? (Here on earth, there were females millions of years before there were males, for instance.) If it exists in the primary species on planet X, then it must exist in other species, too. Which classes of species share this trait?

Or was it bioengineered to take care of an overpopulation problem?

In either case, what are the social and psychological effects of this fact? Make sure it has logical results in art, building design, social structures, and everything else you can imagine. That's part of the fun of writing s-f, to speculate on these things.

There was an alien race in a Star Trek Enterprise episode that had 3 genders. I forgot the details but the third gender had low status for some reason.

The video game series Mass Effect has a species called Asari that appear female but they only have one sex and they can mate with each other and they can mate with other species. Regarding whether they're relatable or not Asari character Liara is very popular among gamers- including my husband.

In the biological sense, yes it is an interesting characterisitic- ie a male, female, and third "vessel" sex akin to surrogate mothers. I've read a story of some sort that utilized this setup within a race.

I did it a slightly different way in a mms currently on review with an agent.
A non-human race has two adult sexes, male and female, and four recognized genders: women with children, men with children, women who have never borne a child, and men who have never fathered a child. Little matters of which partner one actually chooses for recreational sex are left to the individuals themselves. Offspring are born neuter and do not grow sex organs until puberty. To make things more interesting, nobody knows what sex a child will become.

Then I made it even harder by deciding to follow the main character in childhood. I hate using 'it' as a pronoun, almost as much as I hate contrived
gender-neutral pronouns. So I wrote the whole book in first person pov.

As far as sex goes, I heard someone or other explain that one of the problems with three sexes (as in that you need three different sexes, let's call them X, Y, and Z) to mate (as opposed to hermaphrodites, or intermediate genders) is that it's hard enough to find one mate, far less two.

The idea is that the reason we have sexes at all is to allow the mixing of DNA. The idea is that if there's rapid change, it's good to have different combinations of DNA, with the idea that the best out there is going to thrive and reproduce. (This is better than a bunch of clones where, if a disaster hit, they'd assumedly all be effected.)

But what do you get out of having a bit more DNA? Not much, really. Each parent arguably has less involvement. And you get a bit more mixing. But is it enough to make up for having to convince two different people to have sex with you? Probably not, in most cases.

So while it's a cool idea, I'm kind of inclined to agree with the person who posited that theory.

Some time back, I read a story where the human protagonists ran across a race with three sexes: male & female, which performed nearly as you'd expect, and a neuter, which was necessary as a catalyst for procreation to occur.

Talk about invasion of privacy!