Notes : Symbian Gender and Sex
Random blithering notes.
Gender/Sex/Pref/Expression
For simplicy sake, this generalisation is made: All Symbians are bisexual, with delicate preferences for various genders and sexes additional.
Transexuality on Symbia: As found on Terra, it can happen that an individual is one sex mindfully, and another physically. This is seperate from the idea of "expression", in which a solson may live in a 'male' or 'female' way: wearing dresses, brawling, short hair, and so on. On Terra it becomes a dicotomy at times, where one 'feels' female though 'trapped' in a male form. Due to this painful and lifechanging phenomenon, the ideal of the gender/expression seperation is created. It has been said, too, that eventually many transexual Terrans feel, after some time, "less of a man-turned-woman, and instead simply a woman". Symbians benifit from the prevalance of haelen, who are for the most part capable of transforming solfolk who wish it, between physcially male, female or intersex. The deeply affecting change is not taken lightly, and is usually asked for and performed at a young age, after a great deal of conversation. Due to this, the solfolk of Symbia are delinated only by two sexually-based characteristics: sex, and gender; the physical, and the luminal. Furthermore, these can change during the lifetime of a solson, a fact that is celebrated for its freedom and mystery. As such the clash of what is "inside" and what is "outside" is not suffered, and the idea is not part of the Symbian mindset. The very ideal of the termages 'mae', 'fae' and 'nae' detail how focused Symbians are on the gender of their friends and family, and not their actual reproductive organs. What does remain is a small stigma to those who change genders. To change ones sex is to correct a wrong, and for those with the courage: as an adventure. But to change ones gender is to change one's very light-within: their habits, tastes, fashion, tone of voice, and a plethora of other details. Doing this is not purely unaccepted by Symbian society, but it is frowned upon, and in some cases causes great emotional strife.
A common trait is found between the species, in regard to sex/gender combinations, which is highlighted in the table below. A combination is given a solson example, which is a member of a species that is very commonly found to have the combination.
Sex Gender Example [species,common-name] Male Mae Phant [fel,cat] Male Fae Rose [equ,horse] Male Nae Volfy [lupe,wolf] Female Mae Pan [drake,dragon] Female Fae Adia [lape,rabbit] Female Nae Sefton [ave,bird] Null Mae Holden [enn,tree] Null Fae Dere [raff,girrafe] Null Nae Symn [dae,'robot'] Inter Mae Tyorl [naga] Inter Fae Henna [taur] Inter Nae Deep [delph,dolphin]