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Gender in the one hundred seventh century
#1
There are several articles pertaining to the multiple genders of hu. Most are stubs. All share a single image.

I'd recommend combining them into a single article, with separate chapters.  I'd also mildly recommend incorporating in the article on Pronouns, which repeats one of the charts, which is only tangentially on topic, or cleaning up that article.

Pronouns.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/495360fba7a46

Herm
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/46707c23cd537

Ferm.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/464d065ba6453

Merm.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/47b3b16770101

Neut.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/46d4ba7302b28
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#2
I agree with this consolidation.
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#3
Quote:I'd also mildly recommend incorporating in the article on Pronouns, which repeats one of the charts, which is only tangentially on topic, or cleaning up that article.
We need to retain the Pronoun article since it explains the use of the various pronoun types. It is useful to include the gender table in that article, since there might be some confusion over the definition of these terms. I would like to see the other pages consolidated, however; there are many other possible sexual variants we could include as well - (for instance someone off-list has suggested that we differentiate more precisely between neuts, asexual organisms and asexuality as a lifestyle choice).
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#4
Consolidation would be good. Also swapping the term gender for biological sex. We have 6 common sexes for nebs but different cultures could have a variety of views on gender.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
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#5
The terms Herm, Ferm and Merm seem to have originated in a book by Anne Fausto-Sterling, and refers to various kinds of intersex condition.
https://arlenetaylor.org/brain-reference...-and-ferms

Quote:According to Professor Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist and gender theorist, if people ought to be classified in sexes at least five sexes rather than two, are needed. For some time medical investigators have recognized the concept of the intersexual body. But the standard medical literature uses the term intersex as a catch-all for three major subgroups with some mixture of male and female characteristics: the so-called true hermaphrodites (herms), who possess one testis and one ovary (the sperm- and egg-producing vessels, or gonads); the male pseudohermaphrodites (merms), who have testes and some aspects of the female genitalia but no ovaries; and the female pseudohermaphrodites (ferms), who have ovaries and some aspects of the male genitalia but lack testes.(Fausto-Sterling, Anne. The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough. The Sciences March/April 1993, p. 20-24.)

It seems that we might be using the terms slightly differently to Fausto-Sterling. Our Ferms are capable of bearing children, despite having a penis; but Fausto-Sterling's Ferms generally wouldn't have a working womb. Similarly an OA Merm can father children, despite having no penis, whereas Fausto-Sterling's merms would not be capable of fathering children without medical intervention. It seems likely that in the OA universe these types of intersex conditions are managed medically so that they are fertile when this is desirable.

I can imagine a culture consisting of male bionts and Ferms, where both sexes resemble males, but the Ferms can bear children; similarly there could be cultures where females and Merms can bear children together, but all resemble females. My own Parthene clade is an all female clade, but they can reproduce parthenogenetically, producing clone children - but they can also use medical intervention sometimes to simulate sexual genetic reproduction, combining genes from two (or more) females to create a new (necessarily female) individual.

And on top of the actual sexual types that exist in OA there are people who have sexual relations with members of their own sex, or with sexes they are not interfertile with - these are all sexual lifestyle choices, which are manifold and complex. Even OA Neuts, who have no sexual apparatus, can have sexual relationships; conversely bionts with working sexual equipment can choose not to use it, and follow the asexual lifestyle mentioned earlier.
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#6
For some time now, I've had it in the back of my mind to do some additions/updates to the EG around the area of gender and sexuality. While my primary focus is still going to be on the EG remodel for the foreseeable future, I can work this in as I go along, probably in the Fall and Winter after the current work insanity blows over.

Todd
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