Waterjewel's Way

As a professional writer, my two main markets are speculative fiction and alternative religions. This leads me, my characters, and my readers through some fascinating settings both physical and cultural. I enjoy looking at the "might have beens" and "could becomes" of life. My explorations of gender studies play into this as well. I would like to share with you a setting in which gender, as a social construct, exists in a far more fluid and flexible state than it does in our own world.

A few years ago, I discovered Waterjewel in my fantasy world of Hallelaine. The people of Waterjewel include both humans and elves (mostly elves), and they live in a desert called the Whispering Sands. The numerous springs and oases inside their territory give the tribe its name and its legendary wealth. In spite of this, very few outsiders bother the tribe. Besides a reputation for superlative fighting skill, these people possess some unusual cultural traits which the other tribes consider insane. Among other things, Waterjewel recognizes five distinct gender identities.

The first two are the classic female, or hrin, and male, or hrish. Then it gets exciting. They also acknowledge "both," the androgynous hirshn. The neuter nrish live as celibate, nonsexual creatures. The fifth option produces the most confusion, the mystery gender shrin, which translates roughly as "I'm not telling." In other words, the shrin may have the biological equipment of a male, a female, or something in between -- you don't know and they won't tell. Shrin do not engage their own genitals during intercourse; instead they derive their pleasure by pleasing others, and also through a magical exchange of emotions and physical sensations. These five options give maturing tribe members the chance to choose a gender identity best suited to their particular needs.

Waterjewel's culture reflects this unique gender system on all levels. They don't divide names by gender category, for the most part; instead they incorporate gender into introductions. For instance, a woman might say, "I am the hrin Yasmeena." (Children don't use any of the gender terms because they are not sexual creatures yet.) Gender roles blur more in Waterjewel, too: any combination of male, female, and "both" adults may form a family unit and raise children; shrin rarely raise children, and nrish never do, though some of them live as part of a family. Some professions and specializations appeal more to a particular gender than to others; for example, many of the nrish work with spiritual or magical forces. Waterjewel dances (inspired by Middle Eastern ethnic or "belly" dances) are gender-specific, with each gender using a different and readily recognizable style and repertoire of moves. All of this blends into a colorful culture that celebrates individuality while maintaining a cohesive group identity.

I believe the fluidity and freedom of such a system, acknowledging as it does the diversity of sexuality, will appeal to many people here in this society. I have watched the evolution of Lesbian identity from the arbitrary Butch/Femme split to the far more expressive selection including Soft Butches, Lipstick Lesbians, Androgynes, Leatherdykes, and others who refuse even the most amorphous labels. I wondered how an open-minded gender system might evolve on another world, and that led me to Waterjewel.

I hope I've managed to pique your interest. Like my characters in Waterjewel, I believe that sexuality and gender identity manifest on a spectrum rather than in a set of pigeonholes. I use various genderbending motifs in many of my stories. If you would like to read more about Waterjewel in particular, it premiered with my short story "Did You Get Your Answers Questioned?" in the anthology Genderflex (Circlet Press, 1996).

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Art on this page is from the "Colorful Bubbles" set, at Rita's Bermans.

The URL for this page is http://www.worthlink.net/~ysabet/gsas/waterjewel.html and it was last updated on November 21, 1998.