Transgender Star Wars

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Transgender Star Wars
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By Stanman63


In the Star Wars Universe, there is one race that is transgendered, the Hutts. I do not know of any other transgender in the universe, Anybody else knows of any? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hutt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutt_%28Star_Wars%29


Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

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Golly...

Andrea Lena's picture

...does this mean I'm in the same class as an asexual gastropod? Bit of a stretch. I suppose you could look at other fictional non-humanoid species in light of gender, but is that what you want to associate with the term TRANSGENDER? Oh well, I guess I'm just having a bad day.



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Andrea Lena

  

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Love, Andrea Lena

I dunno...

I was wondering a similar thing...

There ARE examples in mainstream Science Fiction writing of many variations on sex and gender. A previous blog referenced the Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk and Dr. Janet Lester exchanged bodies (voluntarily in her part, involuntarily in his). (Oh, did I wish I could find such a device - and someone willing to trade places!) But, that's not necessarily transgender. If memory serves, the reason she wanted to trade places was not that she was a guy trapped in a woman's body, but that she was unable to rise to command of a star ship because she was a woman. (The highest ranking female human I'm aware of was Captain Pike's executive Officer, in the original series.) There was a Romulan Female commander, if memory serves.

There HAVE been TV shows that actually had transgender characters (played by non-transgender actors as far as I know) from "House" to "NCIS" to others. One movie that I've seen recently, a Documentary, has a transgender main character (Prodigal Sons). (If you've not seen it, it's quite compelling! Kim Reed tells an amazing story of her family! She isn't the only one with a story to tell! thus the "sons" instead of "son" in the title!)

As to whether the Hutts are transgender... I never saw ANY indication that they were trapped in a body of a different gender from their own.

Anne

Err...

According to the Physiology section of the Wikipedia article, Hutts are hermaphroditic and voluntarily adopt gender roles - it's just a matter of convention that adults are generally referred to using masculine pronouns:

Though traditionally referred to as males, all members of the species are hermaphroditic; personality type and gender roles are assumed voluntarily, or upon a viewer's deduction. Upon becoming pregnant, Hutts are referred to as female, although some Hutts do not accept this and choose to retain their masculine persona, whereas others alternate between male and female character. (Wikipedia)

Hutts were hermaphroditic, and as a result, gender was more of a case of a Hutt's deliberate decision or a viewer's deduction. Often, Hutts carrying children were referred to as female, though it was entirely up to the Hutt in question as to if the distinction was accepted or not. (Wookieepedia)

While it's entirely possible that transgenderism may exist in the Star Wars universe, because it's not a 'mainstream' topic in the conciousness of most Western writers, there are probably very few (or even no) TG characters in canon or 'dead tree' publications (i.e. the 'expanded universe')

If you're after TG in Sci-Fi, it's probably best not to look West to Hollywood but East to Japan and anime / manga series. Or do a category search for stories classified as Sci-Fi here :)

 

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

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Exactly...

Puddintane's picture

"Mainstream" SF has been dealing with the issue for simply ages. About every other book by Jack Chalker, Theodore Sturgeon's Venus Plus X, William Gibson's Burning Chrome et aliae, Silverburg's Son of Man, Margaret Weis' Robot Blues, Rudy Rucker's Master of Space and Time, Justin Lieber's Beyond series, M. A. Foster's Morphodite trilogy, Zelazny's Lord of Light, Heinlein's Number of the Beast, and on and on. Even Star Trek had several notorious episodes that danced around the point with poor success.

Cheers,

Puddin'

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Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Star Wars f2m

There was at least one crossdresser in Star Wars: In Return of the Jedi, Leia disguises herself as the bounty hunter Boushh.
And in Attack of the Clones, there's a chase sequence with a shapeshifting assassin that seems to take both male and female shapes.

shapeshifters

Sadarsa's picture

Dont forget that the shapeshifters could assume genders as well as forms...

I've acctually been suprised no one has written any TG fan-fic's in this genre. I mean it's a whole bloody universe, you dont have to alter or even so much as mention Canon characters from the films. Also note that there are 3 different time frames as well. In the Old Republic the force did some pretty crazy stuff. During the time of the films i'd say the force was waning. During the New Republic (after the films) the force was gaining strength again. Personally if i was to write in the StarWars universe i'd write it During the Old Republic era. I forget exactly how far back the history goes, but if i remember right the (documented and timelined) history goes back at least 100,000 years to the beginning of the Sith civilization (before the fallen jedi arrived on their planet)

So yeah PLENTY of room in the timeline to play in...
Plenty of time for "lost dark side techniques" to be invented...

~Your only Limitation is your Imagination~