The Left Hand of Darkness

LeGuin’s depiction of a race of people without gender is at once revolutionary and deeply invested in notions of strict cultural divisions of people along normative gender lines. On Gethen, LeGuin suggests that the lack of static sexual organs and the ambivalent nature of the sexual anatomy an individual may develop during kemmer have resulted in a society without gender. LeGuin introduces the cisgendered male Genly, who comes from a patriarchal culture with a division of labor determined by gender roles, into the genderless society on Gethen to explore how and what elements of culture and civilization are informed by gender.

Although some critics interpret the Gethen people as progressively sexually fluid, LeGuin’s characterization of Gethen culture has also been criticized for conflating sexual anatomy with gender identity and for its heterosexual portrayal of sexual intimacy; Gethenian mates always assume discrete “male” and “female” identities during kemmer. This reduces the spectrum of both gender and sexual identities to the same binary that LeGuin seeks to criticize. LeGuin even represents gender and sexuality at once in the book through the yin/yang symbol, male and female, separated into hard demarcations of black and white but intertwined playfully. She does not allow for the gray areas described by a graduated spectrum. As such, LeGuin’s criticism focuses on patriarchy, and on the roots and influences of the oppression of those who identify as women by those who identify as men, rather than investigating how the full range of sexual and gender identities affect the formation of culture.

However, Gethenians do not conceive of their sexual or gender identities as binary, except in the sense that they either are or are not in kemmer. The Gethen are genderless, and when they separate into anatomic sexual roles, they do so cooperatively and with consent. Any Gethenian may develop the ability to become pregnant during kemmer, and LeGuin suggests that this equal capability results in a culture without a gendered division of labor or sexual violence. LeGuin posits that the erasure of sexual difference prevents sexual exploitation or sexism. No one stands to gain from the oppression of a particular sex, as any individual may at some point identify as the oppressed sex. The effects of this inherent equality characterize Gethenian culture, including accommodations for those experiencing kemmer, the diminished significance of monogamy, and the matriarchal tracing of lineage. By contrast, LeGuin portrays the patriarchy of Genly’s culture, which is meant as an analogue to Earth’s, as a power structure built on the division of labor, beginning with the sexual division of labor of insemination and pregnancy.

However, there are those among Gethen society viewed as “perverts” by the mainstream Gethenian culture, particularly those who maintain the consistent presence of sexual anatomy. Genly is perceived as someone who is always in a state of low-grade kemmer, which many on Gethen find horrible and strange. Similarly, Genly feminizes all Gethenians: He is unable to see them as fully male through his sexist point of view, despite his default use of he/him/his pronouns for all Gethen individuals, and unable to accept the total absence of a gender identity. In this way, LeGuin sets up a dynamic in which people of different identities should be treated with kindness and empathy, rather than with close attention to shades of difference. As Genly overcomes his prejudices and develops intimacy with Estraven, he realizes that Estraven’s sexual or gender identity is immaterial to their ability to understand, comfort, and teach one another, or to their ability to work toward a common goal.