“Asimov's choice of genders for the Soft Ones?Asimov was obviously using the Soft Ones to explore sexual taboos, sexuality, gender roles, and the concept of gender itself. I find his choices for the genders resoundingly odd, however, and wonder what kind of point he was trying to make about gender roles.The aliens could have been referred to as "it", or they could have been given a male or female pronoun randomly, but instead, each of the three Soft-One genders is assigned the pronoun "he" or "she."The Rational, a.k.a. Left, member of the triad was male, and this makes perfect sense in terms of reproductive sex, because the Left contributes the "seed." It also makes sense in terms of stereotypical gender roles, which cast logical thinking more of a male trait than a female trait.The Emotional, a.k.a. Middle, was given the female gender. The Middle's role in reproduction was to facilitate the process, which I think has little bearing on biological gender. However, the Middle's role as the Emotional clearly makes it stereotypically female, and the Middles are characterized as having stereotypically female traits, flirtatiousness, flightiness, etc.The one that stumps me is the Right, or Parental member of the triad, which is referred to as "he." Wouldn't the logical pronoun be "she?" The Parental is the one that receives the seed and bears young, making it the closest biological analog to the terrestrial female. The Parental also rears children, a stereotypical female role.Is this supposed to be the exception that brings to light the arbitrary nature of human notions of gender and sexuality? In other words, was making the Right's gender male just a rejection of the "obvious" choice? If so, then why not make the Left female or the Middle male?There is a lovely moment when the young Parental, Tritt, wants to experiment sexually with Odeen. Was assigning the pronoun "he" to the Parental gender just a set-up for this provocative "homosexual" encounter, intended to challenge the reader's notion of sexuality?Or maybe Asimov decided each one with the flip of a coin. What do you think?”
“It is important to understand that Asimov is trying to describe another UNIVERSE with actually different physical laws. It takes a lot of imagination on the reader's part to actually grasp this to its fullness. Probably the genders are assigned in a counterintuitive way so as to act as another shock to help the reader think beyond the obviousness of everyday life - as a signpost telling the reader not to assume anything as natural or obvious in this completely different world.”
