In her book, The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin paints a picture of a fantasy world that she uses as an allegory for the real world. Throughout the story, Jemisin uses the world she created to challenge the gender norms of the real world by allowing women to hold just as much, if not more, power than men, and by including transgender characters in a way that does not place importance on gender.
In this story, the majority of the main characters are women. The story follows Syenite/Damaya and Essun, who are both women. By making the main characters women in a book about power, Jemisin shows that women are just as powerful and important as men. Women also hold just as much power as men do in this book. For example, both women and men can be orogenes, and orogenes are judged based on how many rings they have rather than their gender. This is seen when the deputy governor is skeptical that Syenite will be able to clear the harbor because she is only a four ringer. The deputy governor wants Alabaster to do it, not because he’s a man, but because he is a ten ringer. When Syenite tells the deputy governor that she will be clearing the harbor instead of Alabaster the deputy governor says “will you be … sufficient?” (212). Syenite then is forced to explain why she will be able to clear the harbor, even though she is only a four ringer. This discrimination by rings rather than by gender shows that people in this world do not care about gender as much as people do in the real world. By making power between men and women equal, Jemisin challenges the norm in today’s world that men typically have more power than women.
Jemisin also includes transgender people in her story. When they are introduced, they are both mentioned in a way that shows that nobody cares that they are transgender. One is a boy who is in Damaya’s class in the fulcrum and Jemisin slips this into the story when she writes, “another boy has no penis, though he stuffs a sock into his underwear after every shower” (193). Jemisin introduces this boy in a very matter of fact way and does not place much importance on the fact that he is transgender. Jemisin introduces the other transgender person in a very similar way that does not place importance on gender. This reinforces the theme that people in this world do not care about gender and shows that less importance should be placed on gender in today’s world.
Throughout the story, Jemisin shows that people of all genders should be equal in the real world by writing The Fifth Season in a way that does not place importance on gender.
In The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin makes the character of Tonkee transgender. Tonkee is a geomest that is following Essun, as Tonkee believes that Essun is of the utmost importance. Despite pretending not to care, Tonkee clearly wants to protect Essun and learn about why obelisks have been following her for the better part of three decades. Essun’s reaction to Tonkee being transgender is minimal. Jemisin writes, “she does this in front of you [takes a bath], shamelessly stripping down and squatting by a wooden basin to scrub at her pits and crotch and the rest. You’re a little surprised to notice a penis somewhere amid the process, but well, not like any comm’s going to make her a breeder” (233 - 234). Essun is indifferent to the fact that Tonkee is transgender; she immediately accepts this fact and moves on to more important things. Essun realizes that her best chance at survival and finding her daughter is by staying alive through the help of Tonkee and Hoa, and she is not bothered by who they are. Tonkee’s transgenderism bothers her family, as Jemisin writes, “Tonkee’s girlness scuttled an arranged marriage or two” (391). Though not everybody is willing to accept Tonkee for who she is, Essun clearly has no problem with Tonkee being transgender. Essun has questions as to Tonkee’s motives, but these questions are never connected to Tonkee’s gender identity. Jemisin writes this character in a way that normalizes Tonkee and transgenderism.
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ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in the blog post and the above comment, Tonkee is a transgender woman. Similar to the boy in Damaya's class, the exposition surrounding her transgender identity is not filled with much pomp and circumstance- it is merely a stated fact. Essun is only "a little surprised" in finding out about Tonkee; she is quick to accept this and not care much about it (234). However, it is notable that there is this element of surprise; transgender issues seem to be not completely understood in this world despite being accepted. Essun has bigger problems to worry about, such as her daughter and her secret orogeny. After staying the night in Tonkee's house, the gang continues their trek. After resuming their journey, Essun refers to Tonkee as "the commless geomest" (234). Jemisin has Essun describe Tonkee in reference to her occupation and social status, not her status as a transgender woman. The choice to not limit Tonkee's identity and entire personality to her transgender identity allows Jemisin to add dimension to her characters and build a world capable of acceptance. Jemisin writes a world "that does not place importance on gender," as you state in your blog post. The normalization of things within the realm of fiction lends to the normalization of things in real life.
Throughout her novel, “The Fifth Season,” N.K. Jemisin makes her main characters female, and extremely powerful in order to show that women can be and are often are more powerful than men. While reading the novel, I noticed how Jemisin did this, and as pointed out by the blog post, orogenes are not judged by their gender, or race, or class, but rather how many rings they have. While considering this, I thought about how it was strange that Jemisin decided to make Alabaster one of the most powerful orogenes, with ten rings. At first, I thought Jemisin just did this to show how people will always portray men as more powerful. Then later in the novel, when the deputy governor doubts that Syenite will be able to completely clear the harbor, despite not having nearly as many rings as Alabaster, I realized that Jemisin set this up purposefully. I believe that Jemisin wanted to show the reader that similarly to how people are classified their entire lives, and how everyone has different expectations of people based on their respective backgrounds. Jemisin wanted to show that everyone can defy the odds that are placed against them, no matter what their background is or how skilled they are believed to be in comparison to others.
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