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<blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 9386495" data-attributes="member: 70">Murderbot refers to itself as I or Murderbot or SecUnit. It is never &quot;he&quot; or &quot;she&quot;. I don't think it outright &quot;states a preference&quot;, although I might be wrong. I think the second book makes clearer how absolutely gross Murderbot finds biological functions, and people, and people's biological functions, and how deeply deeply grateful Murderbot is to not have such. I think the second book also has a sexbot, which might be referred to as a &quot;she&quot;.It's never outright stated, but I think SecUnits are peak androgynous-presenting, because while they can (with much much care) present as human, they're never assigned gender.I think it's really interesting and well-done in large part because Murderbot never questions &quot;what&quot; Murderbot is in that sense. Other people are male, female, straight, queer, etc., etc. within the stories, and Murderbot is Murderbot. It's a personal state, not a universal one (compare to Anne Leckies Ancillary series), and while Murderbot is very VERY fascinated by people, it doesn't want to be them in the sense that we are (IMO) somewhat conditioned to expect (others aspire to be human/human is optimal). For all very real intents and purposes, the closest thing Murderbot has to a gender is SecUnit, and its identity is Murderbot.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nellisir, post: 9386495, member: 70"] Murderbot refers to itself as I or Murderbot or SecUnit. It is never "he" or "she". I don't think it outright "states a preference", although I might be wrong. I think the second book makes clearer how absolutely gross Murderbot finds biological functions, and people, and people's biological functions, and how deeply deeply grateful Murderbot is to not have such. I think the second book also has a sexbot, which might be referred to as a "she". It's never outright stated, but I think SecUnits are peak androgynous-presenting, because while they can (with much much care) present as human, they're never assigned gender. I think it's really interesting and well-done in large part because Murderbot never questions "what" Murderbot [I]is[/I] in that sense. [I]Other[/I] people are male, female, straight, queer, etc., etc. within the stories, and Murderbot is Murderbot. It's a personal state, not a universal one (compare to Anne Leckies Ancillary series), and while Murderbot is very VERY fascinated by people, it doesn't [I]want[/I] to be them in the sense that we are (IMO) somewhat conditioned to expect (others aspire to be human/human is optimal). For all very real intents and purposes, the closest thing Murderbot has to a gender is SecUnit, and its identity is Murderbot. [/QUOTE]

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