Improvising Gender: A Study of Octavia Butler's “Imago“

Abstract

Is gender born or given? Are there only two genders-male and female in this world? Is dualistic gender a rigid identity? Being the last part of Lilith Brood (aka Xenogenesis trilogy), Octavia Butler's Imago is pondering upon these questions. Lilith's Brood, in three parts, tells a story that human is almost wiped completely in a nuclear holocaust. From the ruins and fragments, Oankali, an alien species, save human from becoming extinct; however, people have to pay a very high price: to exchange genes with the Oankali. Likewise, human is able to survive, but in a quite different manner- people can no longer be ”human” anymore if they choose to have their genes exchanged. Instead, they will become a new kind of hybrid that exceeds all the boundaries of being human, especially in gender. In the process of gene trade, interaction, and mating between human and Oankali (a kind of alien) three major problems arise: First, human can no longer identify the gender of the new generation with existing criteria- with or without phallus. Second, in the mating process, the Ooloi's (another kind of alien) role and gender performativity have already transgressed the boundaries of heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and even other unknown kind of sexuality. Third, the visual codes and genetic codes that decide the identity of both human and alien are liquefied because of various internal and external factors, blurring the definition of being human as well as alien.Imago is mainly about a pair of twins, Jodahs and Aaor, who metamorphoses into adults. When they are born they do not have any identifiable sex. Nor do they have any assigned gender after birth. Instead, their sexes/genders shift in accordance with the environment and the people they meet. For example, Jodahs can change into a male, female, or even third gender because their sexes/genders change all the time, exceeding human's gender norm. This essay attempts to employ Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity and Nigel Thrift's concept of identity as improvisation to interpret the matters of sex/sexuality in Imago in order to fathom whether gender is a kind of improvisation or not? Will gender change because of different views and different environment? Will gender shift in the process of improvisation? Does gender dualism come to its limitation so that it is unable to explain the complexity of people's gender?