Murderbot. Not exactly a lovable name. But that’s what Murderbot chose to call itself. Go figure.
Did you notice the pronoun I used? Itself. It sounds kind of clumsy to me, but Martha Wells, the author of The Murderbot Diaries, had no such problem. The seven books in the series are all written as diaries, so the only pronouns Murderbot needs are I, me, and mine. Does that bother the readers? Nope. From the first pages, they seem to have naturally understood the character to be female. Or male.
Reading the reviews and online comments, it appears that everyone who read the books had an image of Murderbot that was either male or female. And that image stayed with them all the way through the seven books.
Those who thought he was male couldn’t believe anyone would have even considered him to be female. And those who saw her as female, just couldn’t conceive how anyone could possibly have assumed she was male.
The other option: it. Nope. Nobody wanted to go with “it.” And yet Murderbot is not human. It’s a SecUnit (a security unit), a construct of generated human tissue and machine parts. Albeit a very lovable SecUnit.
I wonder, did we readers feel the need to gender Murderbot because it was the subject of the stories? Or because it was so likable? Or maybe because we most feel comfortable with the male-female divide. It just feels natural to us. Heck! In Spanish, even non-living nouns are given a gender.
Night (la noche) is feminine.
Day (el día) is masculine.
Of course, maybe it’s just hard to call Murderbot “it” because it’s not your average robot or cyborg. Murderbot, having secretly hacked its governor module, has agency. Although it protects the group of humans who rented it, sometimes it chooses for itself how to do so. And in its spare time it downloads its favorite space operas and watches them (inside its head, of course.)
I got started on The Murderbot Diaries thanks to what we call our family book club. We only meet about once a year depending on travel plans. The Murderbot Diaries was chosen to be of interest to the teenage and 20-something grandkids.
A few months ago, Apple TV came out with a Murderbot series. It’s pretty good and lots of fun. Of course, the books are better. If you want to see if Murderbot is male or female for you, read at least one book before you see what Apple thinks.
Cats and Dogs and Their Pronouns
There was a cat in my novel, When in Vanuatu. It was a male cat, but my publisher insisted I call it “it” not “he/him.” She said it’s policy to refer to all animals as “it.”
Oookay. But we all know where kittens come from.
The pronoun discussion is interesting but is the book any good? And using “it” for animals – outrageous! But then I do work for an animals charity
I liked the book, in fact the whole series. And since I’m not much into science fiction, maybe that’s a good sign.
I didn’t like using “it” for the cat, but I obediently did so. After writing this article, I looked up the standard usage. It looks like “it” is standard only for wild animals or animals of unknown gender. My editor was wrong.
Belatedly, I approve!
I’ve not come across MurderBot, but what an interesting way to avoid gendering a character, and it seems to have been hugely effective.
Becky Chambers who writes Space Opera did a wonderful book where children grow up gender neutral until they decide what gender they want to adopt as an adult. It really changed the way I thought about the whole subject. Her books are also great reads!
As someone who grew up taking it for granted that we were all either male or female, it’s hard to understand the desire to choose your gender. Everything that goes along with gender roles is deep in our culture and deep in our understanding of ourselves and others. Any effort to change that has met and will probably continue to be met with strong resistance, anger, and division. Then there’s the backlash, the springing up of the angry bro-culture. I suppose there could be a gradual acceptance of more gender neutrality, but I don’t think it will come easily. I see it as one of the culture-war things that helped get Trump elected.
Our pets have all been he or she . . . never it. But an unnamed bird or cow or snake would usually be an “it” to me.
I have never heard of Murderbot. Maybe I’ll request a copy from the library.
I’ve since realized that my editor was wrong. The general guidance seems to be to use “it” only if you don’t know the animal’s gender. And if the animal has a name, that may tip you off.
The Murderbot series was something new for me, but I did enjoy it.
I did start the Murderbot series and am in the middle of book 3. Don’t know if I’ll ready past book 4 (the original conclusion) or not. I am enjoying it . . . but mostly because the books are a quick read with only 150 or so short pages. After book 4, they’re longer and I’m not sure I’m motivated to keep going. Did you keep reading?
On the issue of male/female, Murderbot had this to say on p. 50 of book two:
“ART had an alternate, more drastic plan that included giving me sex-related parts and I told it that was absolutely not an option. I didn’t have any parts related to sex and I liked it that way.” I had seen humans have sex on the entertainment feed and on my contracts, when I had been required to record everything the clients said and did. No, thank you, no. No.”
So, I’ll refer to Murderbot as an “it” rather than a he or she. After all, I wouldn’t want it to get annoyed with me. 😀
I did keep reading. I read to the end of the series.
It’s obvious that Murderbot is neither male nor female. He’s a bot who can’t stand to even think about sex. And yet, many of us readers thought of him as either “he” or “she.” I suppose it had something to do with his thoughts and his personality.
Remember the “Pat” skits on Saturday Night Live? ~ an androgynous human who could not be viewed clearly as male or female based on hair style, clothing, comments, etc. Pat drove viewers crazy because they wanted to put Pat in the appropriate slot. 😀
Thanks for sending the video. I must have been living overseas during that time. It’s a shame they made Pat so clueless and unpleasant. But then, SNL never promised to be “nice.”
When I grabbed the clip off youtube this morning, I saw 3 to 4 other Pat skits in the queue. I can’t remember if Pat was alway unpleasant . . . but Pat was off-putting, making folks uncomfortable with the inability to assign gender.
I always saw Murderbot as an androgynous “it.” Probably because Murderbot itself is so appalled at anything gendered or sexual. Which led to much hilarity in the books. I tried to watch the series, but it didn’t live up to the books or even the trailer.
Yeah, you’re right. The books were better. I’m still enjoying the series, though.
It’s funny. Even though I knew Murderbot was an it, I still thought of him as “him.”
Oh those cats – they don’t care what pronouns you use!!
They don’t care what pronouns their humans use, but, in defense of cats, I think they do care about their humans, more than most people think.
Huh, I (the not-quite-20-something-anymore grandkid) didn’t realize we were reading Murderbot for the next book club installment. But the series is a good choice, there are lots of interesting topics to discuss, and each of the individual books is short. I have already read them all.
As for the pronouns, I hadn’t had a strong gender association while reading, but in my head I was thinking in ambiguous they/them pronouns until it became clear that the SecUnit preferred “it.” There are a lot of interesting questions that the books explore on what about a person makes them a person.
No, this was a long-ago book club selection. Sometimes we choose a book and don’t get around to discussing it. This may have been one of those. The leading suggestion this time comes from those interested in medical school, Better.
You were one of the readers who took the author seriously and went for “it.”
I think most animals are genderized. Mickey Mouse is male, Minnie female and there are lots more like that. I think the Road Runner is male but I’m not sure.
Yes! I was flabbergasted when the editor told me that.
I heard of this series. I think I still have the first book on my wish list. I’m glad to know you are enjoying it.
How weird that your publisher refers to all animals as “it.” Any reason why?
I highly recommend the Murderbot series. It’s interesting and funny, and Murderbot is likeable.
According to AI, in publishing, animals are referred to as “it” unless they have a name or their gender is known. I did give the cat a name, so I should have argued with the editor.
An amusing yet profound pronoun discussion
I’m glad you found it profound, Derrick. The whole idea of gender and of the natural tendency to anthropomorphize robots gives us something to think about.
Indeed