I quite agree with you that MB's difficulties with social interaction are very relatable when you're not neurotypical. The number of times that I have wished to walk into a corner and face the wall while having a conversation are high. How convenient to be able to have drones so you could still see what was going on! MB's "I had to look at them with my actual eyes!" is also very relatable. It's remarkable that that expresses so well a feeling that I 100% understand, when having multiple hovering video inputs is not exactly widespread in real life. The whole 'don't touch me' thing and 'gender = not applicable' and 'sex, ugh!' things are also very relatable to me as an agender asexual person.
But I suspect that the books could still be read by a cis straight woman who would find MB's protectiveness and ability to enact violence on any threats attractive, and would find it's emotional difficulties endearing in the sense that that's what men are supposed to be like, while a woman knows that underneath they're just big babies who want to be loved. That reading would make some sense too (as long as she felt that it would develop into seeing itself as a man once it had learned enough.) And cis straight men can read it as a power fantasy, as long as they also think of it as male and ignore its asexuality (maybe by thinking of it as a robot in those circumstances. Idk, I'm making this up on the fly.)
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Date: 2021-07-24 10:51 am (UTC)From:I quite agree with you that MB's difficulties with social interaction are very relatable when you're not neurotypical. The number of times that I have wished to walk into a corner and face the wall while having a conversation are high. How convenient to be able to have drones so you could still see what was going on! MB's "I had to look at them with my actual eyes!" is also very relatable. It's remarkable that that expresses so well a feeling that I 100% understand, when having multiple hovering video inputs is not exactly widespread in real life. The whole 'don't touch me' thing and 'gender = not applicable' and 'sex, ugh!' things are also very relatable to me as an agender asexual person.
But I suspect that the books could still be read by a cis straight woman who would find MB's protectiveness and ability to enact violence on any threats attractive, and would find it's emotional difficulties endearing in the sense that that's what men are supposed to be like, while a woman knows that underneath they're just big babies who want to be loved. That reading would make some sense too (as long as she felt that it would develop into seeing itself as a man once it had learned enough.) And cis straight men can read it as a power fantasy, as long as they also think of it as male and ignore its asexuality (maybe by thinking of it as a robot in those circumstances. Idk, I'm making this up on the fly.)