I've always preferred to read it as dwarfishness being equated with maleness by outsiders who thought "if there's only one gender, it must be male" (especially bc dwarf culture has more characteristics associated with human masculinity). I'm not a big fan of "oh look at those backwards dwarves who don't even allow their women to show themselves" (implied: "everybody does gender the way (certain) humans do"); rather, the introduction of local human gender systems (all binary on the Disc, apparently!) brings out a desire for some dwarves to express gender in similar ways. The translation of "dwarf" as "male" means that those who would hypothetically identify as male don't necessarily even notice it, let alone consider it deviation from tradition, whereas those who prefer to experiment with local-human femininity are marked.
Yeah, I know that's not what Pterry intended, but I prefer a more nuanced interpretation which doesn't center Western gender systems while quashing other possibilities. /BITTER
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-05-28 04:25 pm (UTC)Yeah, I know that's not what Pterry intended, but I prefer a more nuanced interpretation which doesn't center Western gender systems while quashing other possibilities. /BITTER