Bisexual or trans protagonists?

[feuervogel]

So I volunteered to be on a panel on "where's the rest of the acronym?" at NASFIC. The panel assignments aren't out yet, but I thought I ought to prep anyway, just in case.

I can only think of a few off the top of my head, so I thought I'd turn to my frenz on teh intarwebs for help. (I googled "bisexual protagonist sf" and found Mary Anne Mohanraj's list, but paging through, the vast majority is gay or lesbian. I disagree with her classification of Swordspoint's protagonists.)

So, what I'm looking for primarily are speculative fiction novels (or novellas, or short stories, I guess) that have main characters, either leads or part of an ensemble cast, who are from the BTQ* part of the acronym. Preferably *positive* depictions, please.

Bisexual
Alec Campion (Swordspoint) [canonically has female lovers, a wife, and a son]
Richard St Vier (Swordspoint) [canonically has a female ex-lover (Jessamyn)]
Aral Vorkosigan (Barrayar)
Desire (Sandman)
Henry (Blood Price/Tanya Huff)
Anise (Sing the Four Quarters/Tanya Huff)
Bannon and Vree (Fifth Quarter/Tanya Huff)
Sarah Rainmaker (Gen13)
Eric and Cory (Bedlam's Bard/Mercedes Lackey)
the Elfquest series
the Anita Blake series

Trans/Genderqueer
Dono Vorrutyer (A Civil Campaign; debatable whether this represents an actual trans narrative; I've read arguments against but not for.)
Iain Banks' Culture novels (also debatable; people can alter their bodies with a thought and show no attachment to either gender, particularly. Perhaps more post-gender than trans?)
Desire (Sandman)
Mission Child (Maureen McHugh)
Glasshouse (Charles Stross; debatable - see comments)
The Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin; not strictly trans, but influential look at gender)
Tobin/Tamir (the Tamir Triad, Lynn Flewelling; also not *strictly* trans, but a critical look at gender essentialism)
Weetzie Bat (Francesca Lia Block)
Xenogenesis (Octavia Butler; third gendered aliens)
Imajica (Clive Barker; third gendered character)
Wanda (Sandman; controversial character)
Okha Soyan (Bloodhound/Tamora Pierce)

suggested but unsure where to classify
Blackjack (Lee Singer)

So, my friends who may be more well-read than I, what do *you* suggest? PS: Feel free to link!

Comments

[kirin]

I can't think of the name of it right now, but there was an Asimov story about people being killed and brought back as opposite-gender clones of themselves. Which is... kind of borderline. Plus Asimov being a product of his time I doubt it's the most progressive thing ever (this was a long long time ago so my memory of the details is fuzzy), but I believe the main character was portrayed in a positive light.

Oh, and Desire in the Sandman universe is bisexual and of flexible gender. But also not really human, so.

[feuervogel]

Desire is an interesting character. That s/he isn't human is sort of irrelevant, because none of the Endless are particularly human, either. They're personifications/deifications of emotions and states of being. And Desire being neither male nor female yet both, and basically pansexual, really goes against the patriarchal heteronormativity.

[wychwood]

Here via network; Tanya Huff has quite a few bisexual characters. Specifically, Henry in the "Blood" and "Smoke" series (Blood Price is the first book he's in), and Sing the Four Quarters (first of the "Quarters" series) has a bi protagonist.

Trans/gq - Maureen McHugh's Mission Child has a protagonist who lives as a boy for a while because it's safer than being a girl, but later has hormone treatment to become... effectively kind of androgynous, I think? Between sexes, anyway. It's not clear how zie identifies, but there's definite genderqueerness involved.

Not really trans - Charlie Stross' Glasshouse is another "people can change bodies" story where the protagonist signs up for a program where they live in a fake 20th century community for a while, and he gets put into a female body (against his will) for it. There's a lot of gender stereotyping and in general I didn't think the handling of gender made any real sense, but it is at least a story that talks about issues of being "in the wrong body", even if I thought it sucked at it.

Sounds like a good panel, anyway! I'm tracking comments to see if anyone recommends anything I don't know :)

[feuervogel]

Ooh, Tanya Huff. I've only read a couple of her books, though, and none of those.

Mission Child reminded me of the Tamir trilogy by Lynn Flewelling, wherein a girl is magicked up to look like a boy and is raised as a boy for political reasons, and it doesn't last forever. Also debatable whether it's a strictly speaking trans narrative, but there's definitely an anti-gender-essentialism angle on it.

Do I want to include Glasshouse? I haven't read it, and sucking at gender doesn't sound great. Though it's at least more aware that people frequently identify as a particular gender, and wouldn't want to be in a differently gendered body, than Banks' Culture novels. (Which I guess one could type as agendered or genderqueer or post-gender, depending on mood.)

Even if I'm not on the panel, I'm going to try to attend it!

[steuard.livejournal.com]

LeGuin's book The Left Hand of Darkness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness) is on some level entirely about gender identity. The population of the planet where it's set is androgynous until their fertile period each month; at that point, depending on the nature of the relationship between partners, one will develop as male and the other as female. (They're human, but one of many engineered variants scattered around the galaxy.)

It's not really a standard B or T situation, and it certainly doesn't directly address the challenges faced by bi or trans individuals in our society, but if you decide to include examples like that Banks series then this would probably be an important (and classic) example as well.

[feuervogel]

I thought about LHOD, which is one of my favorite books ever, but I couldn't quite figure out where to classify it... because, as you say, it's not really trans or bi, but it's an interesting look at gender, which isn't *quite* the focus I'm looking at, if that makes sense.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

Weird: the Wikipedia link that I attempted to include up there showed up as a normal HTML link when I previewed, but transmogrified into this copy-paste thingy when I actually hit submit. What's up with that? (Ah, now I see the note down below the post button that explains what's going on... but that still doesn't explain why the preview wasn't accurate. And in fact the note about links being reformatted isn't there on the preview page. Oh well.)

[donaithnen]

Just checking LJ quickly before work, and i must be missing something that precludes them, since i don't think i see either Lynn Flewlling's Nightrunner series (at least i thought that before the primary relationship hook-up at least one of them indicated they were Bi) or the Tamir Triad (although that one may be cheating a bit in regard to Trans.)

[feuervogel]

I don't recall Alec ever hooking up prior to Seregil, unless you count that evening in the Street of Lights, and I haven't been able to think of any female lovers Seregil had (there was Ilar and Korathan, and he had an unrequited thing for Micum, but I'm blanking on women). So that's why they're not on the list.

I forgot to add Tamir when I edited, after leaving the comment above.

[smarriveurr]

*nod* I was going to mention the Nightrunner books too, but it's not entirely sure whether the protagonists are bi or not. I mean, I think there was enough tension with Micum's daughter Becca to put Alec on a potential list... the fact that he ends up in a committed relationship with Seregil rather rapidly precludes exploring that too blatantly, though.

As I've said elsewhere, one of the reasons it's hard to find a lot of bi characters in fiction is that anyone who isn't sleeping around is assumed to be attracted to just the gender of their partner/latest infatuation. The only way to make it clear that a character is bi is to give them multiple "on screen" relationships to prevent the impression of the character developing a gender preference, or to have the character flirt with/comment on members of both sexes while in a relationship, which runs the risk of coming off as sleazy/unfaithful. The least awkward thing I can think of for highlighting the bisexual side of a monogamous character is to bring up old relationships/exes in plot - and that has the risk of being hamfisted if tying that past to the current events is too much a stretch, while it can also be dismissed by the "experimented and grew out of it" crowd.

[feuervogel]

It's true, that's one of the biggest problems: bi invisibility and the assumption of monosexuality unless proven otherwise. Which is why I really like to remind people that, hey, Alec and Richard are bi, not gay, when they're talking about the great gay protagonists of Swordspoint. JESSAMYN. SOFIA. Hello?

(I'd have to re-read it, but I think there's a bi side character in the Tamir books. One of Tobin's guards, I want to say.)

People who would argue that it was just experimentation and a phase can stuff their biphobia where the sun don't shine. (That isn't to say that people *don't* experiment or that experimentation isn't a valid thing to do; more that "settling down" with someone doesn't invalidate past relationships.)

[smarriveurr]

*nod* There's a very strong current of monosexuality and simple "out of sight, out of mind" with a lot of fandoms. While I don't endorse the "just a phase" stuff, I've watched a few people dismiss both character and human relationships the same way, so it's certainly something I think about when people talk about "bi characters in fiction". "Hey, kiddoes, unless the author makes a real point to be blatant about character sexuality, it's going to be hard to pin down."

I also remember watching some wank about the comic character John Constantine, who has been involved on-panel with a guy on at least one occasion, where folks argued that he was just doing it for revenge, and was thus, I guess, not bisexual, but bastardsexual. I can't really remember at the moment if it was more than a blip under one writer (a couple decades' worth of comics and graphic novels can be a lot to keep in your head at a time), but, uhm, folks, seriously - "I know, I will have a sexual relationship with this other man and use it to break his heart and ruin him" is not a solution most straight guys would come up with in the first place.

[feuervogel]

Oh, I've seen people dismiss human relationships that way, too, from both the LG and straight sides of things. (Biphobia's everywhere. I have a handful of bookmarks on the topic.)

Hey, kiddoes, unless the author makes a real point to be blatant about character sexuality, it's going to be hard to pin down.

So true. That makes it harder, you know?

Re Constantine: WUT. People are dumb.

[princess]

Francesca Lia Block has a recurrent Trans character in her Weetzie Bat stories. Well, in one of the Weetzie Bat stories, and then in a short story in the anthology Girl Goddess #9.

(I <3 FLB so hard, her books are SO good on feminism, gay characters, trans characters, magical realism, and dealing with the effects of abuse (mental, physical, and sexual). She also captures teenagers like no one's business. Anyway, I include her here even though she's not really speculative fiction because I feel like magical realism is in the same realm, and people who like her stuff may have some other recs...)

[feuervogel]

Francesca Lia Block totally counts!

[ranyart]

Ugh. I wish there were actual things other than "this sort of counts if you squint."

I'm reading an Octavia Butler series right now (it's packaged as "Lilith's Brood" but the collection says the series was originally published as the Xenogenesis Trilogy) that involves an alien race with a third sex - family units are male/female/ooloi. The ooloi start to form family groups with humans, but it's all about producing children so even though the way sexual relationships work out is kind of interesting, it still feels super heteronormative. It's a great series overall though.

I love that there are neat post-gender explorations in some books I've read, but it's really depressing to never find actual trans characters, and I wouldn't count the new explorations of gender as falling under a trans umbrella in most cases.

Another thought: Clive Barker's Imajica has a third-sex character with genitals that interface with the internal or external genitalia of partners equally well. There aren't any really groundbreaking ideas about sex or gender, but I thought the genital configuration was cool.

I'd expand this and say I can almost never find bi/trans characters in any genre of fiction. Theres a YA novel called Cycler that I bought a year or two ago based on rave reviews on BoingBoing but almost didn't finish because it was so frustrating. The main character is a teenage girl who becomes a boy for a few days every month and I hoped to find some interesting thoughts on gender in the book but most of that was handled pretty poorly in my point of view. She does become friends/romantically involved with a bisexual guy, and her boy-self falls in love with her female best friend, although that's not explored too much. I think there's a second book but I haven't decided to read it since I had a lot of problems with the first one.

[feuervogel]

Yeah; I think that's the reason someone suggested this panel for the con. And it makes me want to work in some bi characters in my writing. (As it is, I question Hikaru's sexuality. I have her written as a lesbian at the moment, but she only has a single past relationship, and no desire for any more. Not because she's still hung up on her ex of 15 years ago, but more because she doesn't really *care* to be in a relationship. As far as I can tell, anyway. She doesn't talk much about her personal life. :P )

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Are you sticking to text?

Captain Jack Harkness, from Dr. Who & Torchwood is an obvious one. (Bi/pan sexual)

Sir/Lady Tristan from Camelot 3000 (gender queer; Tristan is reincarnated into a female body).

Alien Nation (TV series) -- there is an element of Third Gender, although the gender expression is distinctly male. (not well done, but it exists.)

(I'd be surprised if third gender issues didn't come up in Brin's Uplift series or RObinson's Callahan series, but I cdon't recall anything.)

Anthy in Utena (bisexual). Although given the incense and otherwise entirely fucked up nature, maybe better to skip.

[feuervogel]

Yeah, I'm focusing on novels and text-based fiction. I may also consider manga and graphic novels (see: Desire), so maybe I should say "print media" rather than "text."

[ladydreamer]

I'm not familiar enough with the comics in particular to know, but there was a trans character in one of the teen superhero groups. I think it was The Outsiders, but I'm not sure. Anyway, you could probably ask on noscans_daily and get some good responses.

Gen13 has Sarah Rainmaker, who is canonically bisexual. Wanda from Sandman counts as trans, definitely, but while I found it positive (as a teen), some transfolk were NOT happy with it. As were, at the time of release, a huge bunch of cis readers who were upset by Wanda's existence… but then super double upset by the time she died. Some transwomen also felt the character resonated with them, as she might, since she was based on someone that Gaiman knew. So it's hard to say whether the representation is positive or not, since it doesn't please some of the group represented, but caused some of the readers to begin seeing transsexuals as people.

The character in Sing the Four Quarters is Anise, btw. Also part of that series is Fifth Quarter, No Quarter, and The Quartered Sea. The first of which introduces Bannon and Vree, a brother/sister assassin team. Vree is shown to be bisexual early on, telling her brother that she sleeps with women more often to avoid "little soldiers." I didn't realize that Bannon was also bisexual until The Quartered Sea when he gets his own romance. What I love about the way Tanya Huff writes in queer characters is that it isn't stigmatized or highlighted in a stereotypical way. They just are or aren't.

[feuervogel]

Thanks! (I put a note with Wanda as a controversial character.)

I've heard a lot about Tanya Huff, though I've only read a couple of her books. Maybe I ought to pick up some more! I enjoy reading stories where queer characters just go about their lives. (Someone told a story at ReaderCon about a lesbian couple moving into suburbia and their neighbors getting all freaked out. So they made a video of what lesbians do, and it was, like, grocery shopping, walking the dog, going to work... which got some of the neighbors to chill out, anyway.)

[anthimeria]

Okha Soyan in Tamora Pierce's book Bloodhound is a transwoman.

I also feel like a bunch of Mercedes Lackey's early books have bi characters, but except for Eric and Kory in Bedlam's Bard they're all secondary characters. Eric and Kory are also, happily, in a triad with a woman. (Erm, Bedlam's Bard is the more commonly-found omnibus of Knight of Ghosts and Shadows / Summoned to Tourney, and the books were co-written with Ellen Guon.)

The elves in Elfquest are all pretty much pan/bi, and often poly. The whole series is wonderfully sex-positive, too.

In another voice for Tanya Huff, her new book The Enchantment Emporium features an entire family of people who seem to be bi (including the main character), and think nothing of it.

I hesitate to add this, but there's a number of bisexual characters in the Anita Blake books (though I've stopped reading them because they turned from urban fantasy horror to erotica with vampires).

[feuervogel]

Thank you! And I really should get some more Tanya Huff for my shelf, it seems...

I included Anita Blake, because it's an example, even if it's become vampire pronz instead of UF. And it's really popular.

[kuppo]

Nyx, the protagonist in the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy by Kameron Hurley is bisexual.