cranberrysconesandherbaltea asked:
recently for a sociology unit in one of my college classes, we were assigned to read your short story "Changes." what was your inspiration for this? has the message or your opinion on it changed since you wrote it? would you choose to take the pill? what if you had to in order to save your life?
as a nonbinary person, this is such an interesting concept, one i sometimes wish were real. given the choice, i would take it recreationally, but sparingly and with great caution.
none of these questions are related to work for the course, just my genuine curiosity.
thank you for reading this, even if you never respond. your writing is so fascinating. please keep being your incredible self. i am patiently waiting for the next seasons of your shows :)
I love that this story has gained a new life. Nobody seemed to notice it or comment on it when it was originally published, then I got people being upset about it circa 2010, and then about eight years ago people rediscovered it and started using it as a thought experiment, which is what it is.
In some ways I think of it as a novel I didn’t write.
My inspiration was probably mostly being around a lot of friends in the 80s who pushed gender boundaries, and looking at society and wondering what it would take to dismantle the entire concept of gender. Or it was reading Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness when I was 11.