RVA: Genderqueer Wazagans and other questions

[jeriendhal]

Courtesy of another artist friend of mine, Meg Syv.



Edit

Want to get these ideas down before I forget them.

With the caveat that these are me throwing out ideas, not setting things in stone. Addressing the questions in no particular order:

0. Actually one of the tricky questions is: Are they mammals or not? They're too active in moderate temperatures to be cold blooded lizards, but I'm not sure if they're hot blooded dinosaurs or mammals with just lizardlike features. For lack of a better term I call them "Platypus-like" but that's only because they don't fit well into Earth taxonomies.

1. Baldness: Long hair is the cultural norm for Wazagans, but I don't think baldness would be considered a birth defect. Maybe it might considered a weird cultural thing, like the intolerance some British have for red heads.

2. Eyebrows: Yes. (maybe) Wazagans have eyebrows, but also significant eye ridges. Some choose to shave off their eyebrows to make the eye ridges more prominent, occasionally painting them or gluing on sparklies or precious gemstones (precious in our era. Modern tech make diamonds, rubies, et al cheap)

3. Fingerclaws: Wazagans can grow out their nails, but they curve inward like a bird's, so after a certain length they're more trouble than their worth. What we would call a "touchpad" in the RVA universe would be a sophisticated holographic interface that doesn't require physical contact to work. As an aside, some non-Wazagans find using Wazagan equipment difficult due to the use of "claw buttons", safety buttons or switches only accessible through a narrow slot to allow them to be touched by a claw, not a finger pad.

4. Molting and Color: In general no. Wazagans lose scales naturally like humans lose flakes of skin, but losing many at once would be a sign of serious illness. They don't shed skins like a snake when they grow. Skin/scale color darkens as a Wazagan grows older.

5. Skin and horns: Skin can be harder or softer depending on the Wazagan, though never as thick as say an elephant or a rhino. Certainly chemical treatments can harden scales for protection, but they make your skin itch and overuse can lead to mass scale sheddings as mentioned above.

5a, Horns: I want to say "no", but if you like the idea I won't argue. :)

6. Genderqueer Wazagans: I hadn't considered that. :) Okay, say physical gender is fixed at birth. Perhaps 1% of Wazagans are born "Neutral" with no defined primary or secondary gender expressions. With modern medicine switching gender for any race would be relatively cheap (if non-trivial in terms of time and medical effort). With the natural Wazagan inclination not to get stuck on the relative merits of gender roles and procreation, gender reassignment isn't considered that serious, so long as the one doing it is an adult who is capable of understanding what they're asking for.

How's that? :) Let me know what your own ideas are.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

How about Spontaneous and involuntary sex changes based on biological polling, like some fish. Unknown in densely populated civilization, but triggered by sexual disparity in isolated populations. An all-male exploration crew would return from an expedition with a 50% female crew. A sexist leader gets shipwrecked with some same-sex companions, and when rescued he has grown an ovipositor.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I'm disinclined to go that route. I've already got one gender switching species with the Foxen Blended in this universe, and that idea shades too close to MCA Hogarth's Jokka stories.

[zarpaulus.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to wonder where Blended foxen come from.

Like if it's hereditary or some kind of augmentation.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

The initial batch of Blended were the result of a well meaning but misguided genetic engineering engineering project to address gender inequality in Foxen society. Results were agreed to be "mixed" at best. (pun intended). The Blended genes are non-dominant, so a Blended mating with another Blended results in a Blended, while mating with a non-Blended (usually) results in a conventionally sexed child.

As with the Wazagans though, surgical and genetic reassignment means male, female and blended sexes can switch to whatever sex they want, though it's rare for someone born Blended to "lock in" to a single sex.