Kameron Hurley has produced a couple of great posts this week, which I’d like to draw your attention to. Please note that this is not (yet) award-related as we are now in 2014 so the posts are not eligible for the current batch of awards.

The first post is on Juliet McKenna’s blog, and is about creating a realistic religion for your world. The tendency of fantasy writers to create religions as if they running a D&D campaign, and of readers to praise these, is a constant irritation to me. I now wish I had found the time to read Tim Akers’ books when they came out, because Kameron makes them sound very interesting.

The other post is on Kari Sperring’s LiveJournal and is mirrored on Kameron’s blog because LJ is apparently being awkward again (I’m expecting it to go down for the duration of the Sporting Tournament We Are Not Talking About). It is all about gendered behavior, and how our stereotypes for male and female behavior affect how we read characters. God’s War and its sequels do a wonderful job of turning gender expectations on their heads, and I heartily recommend them, but as Kameron says the portrayal of realistically violent women characters brings with it a whole bunch of extra baggage.

This is, of course, of particular interest to me as it has bearing on how trans women get treated. If I adopt a behavior that is typically gendered as male, such as enjoying watching sport, I know that some people will see it as proof that I am “really” male. On the other hand, if I adopt a behavior that is typically gendered as female, for example having an interest in fashion, that will get dismissed as evidence that I am “trying too hard” and “adopting a female stereotype”. Both reactions stem from an assumption that my gender presentation is false, and therefore everything I do must have some ulterior motive. It is all very trying.