L.J. Writes

Aw, I love the Turtle and the Phoenix. I had it read for my chunk of the wedding service, just because so much of it can be tweaked for multi stuff in a way that entertains me. Stay universal, Shakespeare! But I'm not sure it'd fit for what you're doing, since Avatar has a lot of cultures, but none of them are really Shakespearean. My vote goes for chasing down stuff from one of the cultures the Avatar-verse is based on.

If you felt like being really hardcore about it, maybe you could kinda invent your own sorta gender mythology to base it on? And then reference from something you discuss in the fic? I would argue Sun/Moon stuff would work pretty well--since the Sun is associated with the Fire Nation and Lord Ozai, while the Moon is associated with the Water Nation and... um. What'sherface. The girl who got turned into the moon.

Which to me naturally brings to question what gender/roles/celestial bodies are associated with Earth and Air! A four-gender system would be pretty fucking cool, and not unheard of in societies. I mean, the Air Nomads seem to be all about giving up various earthly things; I wonder if they would see gender similarly, as something earthly?

I'm sure I'm not helping you make the choice easier. :p I'm trans, my automatic impulse with genderswap is to think about trans and alternative gender structures.

--Rogan

PS: by the way, I randomly found a local paper for Chinese expatriats, and there was an article about the simplification of the Chinese writing system and much pearl-clutching over it. Reminded me of some of the politics of Chinese in Korea you discussed! It was interesting.