Ursula K. Le Guin has created an interesting society in her book, “The Left Hand of Darkness” by trying to escape gender roles, or so it appears. On the planet Winter, the inhabitants are androgynous unless during the mating cycle called kemmering. In designing a world where the people have no gender, one would think Guin would have successfully created a utopia (at least for a women’s studies minor) since the gender binaries would be destroyed. Surprisingly, though, Guin or at least her narrator, Genly Ai, fails at escaping gender stereotypes.

The most obvious example of this is the usage of the pronoun he throughout the novel. The English language lacks a neutral pronoun, creating a problem for individuals who are transgender or prefer not to be labeled by he/she. In “The Left Hand of Darkness,” the characters, except Genly, are genderless but are only ever referred to in male pronouns. Guin could be doing this for several reasons. The most straightforward one being the lack of a neutral pronoun thus, Guin using the default, he. If this is the case, then this is a topic right up a post-structural feminist’s alley. Another reason could be due to Guin writing in Genly’s voice and since Genly is a male from Earth his default pronoun would mostly be he.

The latter reason seems the most probable due to several reasons. First of all, it would be unreasonable that Guin, who has created a genderless society, would then go and accidentally introduce gender binaries. I was once told that an author never writes anything (a word, sentence, scene, etc.) without a reason and I believe that to this day. Thus, Guin is making a statement by her or per say Genly’s choice of pronouns. Perhaps, Guin is using Genly as a vessel to point out the flaws of our society and the box we have put ourselves in by loving our binaries.

Genly also projects gender roles on other characters in the novel, giving more evidence to the usage of the pronoun he being due to Genly’s mindset regarding gender. In meeting new people on the planet Winter, Genly has a habit of referring to their physical and behavioral traits either in a masculine or feminine way. For example, on page 60, Genly refers to Goss as “graceful as a girl.” Again, is this because Genly is experiencing a society without gender and is in the habit of classifying things through a gendered lens or is Guin unknowingly reinforcing gender roles?

Genly, though, does show an interesting and more developed side of himself on pages 252 and 253 when explaining women to Estravan. When asked if women and men are different species, Genly struggles with the answer and finally replies with a no but explains that the difference between the two sexes is one of importance. He does describe women with common stereotypes but proceeds to say one of my favorite lines in the book — “It’s extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones.” This is a perfect line since it speaks truth to our society but also shows that even though Genly can appear to have a mindset built around gender binaries he is able to question the origin of these ideas.

One can never know Guin’s true intentions but one can speculate. At a glance, I believed Guin was accidentally reinforcing gender roles but with a deeper analysis it appears that Guin was reinforcing gender roles through Genly to illustrate the mindset we humans have regarding gender and how it limits us. Well, at least the feminist in me does.