Androids & AI in sci-fi disrupt the idea of a gender binary: what purpose is there for an android and/or AI to have gender? Could an android/AI be trans, gender-fluid, and/or non-binary? How will that affect how we as a society see gender as a construct? Participants: Naomi Kritzer (mod), Leigh Hellman, Justin Edward Grays, Nate Bird, Elliot Besmann
Content Warnings:
Mention of sexual harassment towards AI.
References to the dehumanization of indigenous peoples.
Creating actual diversity requires a great effort to avoid unintentionally tokenizing your characters. Tokenism, even when unintentional, is what leads to adding "diversity" for the sake of diversity. How do we engender true diversity in our literature?
Panelists: Tamora Pierce, Justin Grays, Kerry Peterson (mod), Jei Herald-Zamora
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, almost 3 months ago now. I had planned on getting this post done last week as I have been trying to get posts out on a regular basis, but certain events tied up my brainspace last weekend. Now that I am back on track, I am getting Day 3 (Saturday the 7th) up for you all. I was on the panel “Polyamory 101” and attended “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”. For Part 1, I present to you the audio recording of the polyamory panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed, a link to “Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities” from MarsCon 2018, and various resources. Listen to the raw recording of “Polyamory 101” here.
