Yes. You do have to take culture into account. Absolutely.
I seek to effect change in our culture both politically and through my writing. I want to excise those aspects that put constraints on both women *and* men based solely on their gender. (Yes, I know, you can't just remove things, but I find it a useful visualization at times because then I have to figure out what needs to be 'filled in'.)
By constructing a completely new (or as completely new as possible given that I am still a product of my culture) culture, I can begin to deconstruct the one I live in. Nor is it a matter of simply having men and women trade places. That probably worked *once*. Nor am I interested in creating utopias, just exploring what could happen if certain basic assumptions were different. For example, while many people recognize the ferocity of a mother defending her young, there's still something of a disconnect between that and the idea of females protecting the group, especially if those females are human. What happens when a culture doesn't have that disconnect? What caused it (or what was absent from our own cultural history)? How is it expressed? Where do fathers/males fit in? What kind of mind set do the members of this culture share? Where do they differ among themselves?
That said, I still can't see myself writing wussy protagonists. :-)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 11:44 pm (UTC)I seek to effect change in our culture both politically and through my writing. I want to excise those aspects that put constraints on both women *and* men based solely on their gender. (Yes, I know, you can't just remove things, but I find it a useful visualization at times because then I have to figure out what needs to be 'filled in'.)
By constructing a completely new (or as completely new as possible given that I am still a product of my culture) culture, I can begin to deconstruct the one I live in. Nor is it a matter of simply having men and women trade places. That probably worked *once*. Nor am I interested in creating utopias, just exploring what could happen if certain basic assumptions were different. For example, while many people recognize the ferocity of a mother defending her young, there's still something of a disconnect between that and the idea of females protecting the group, especially if those females are human. What happens when a culture doesn't have that disconnect? What caused it (or what was absent from our own cultural history)? How is it expressed? Where do fathers/males fit in? What kind of mind set do the members of this culture share? Where do they differ among themselves?
That said, I still can't see myself writing wussy protagonists. :-)