She also holds out more hope for men and boys than another predecessor in the same lineage: Sheri S. As such, the book’s message aligns with contemporary findings of the American Psychological Association. Rather, she critiques patriarchal cultures that victimize boys themselves. Yet Bergin does not blame Mason for his disturbing aggressive behavior. By building a fictional world in which women and girls might not be completely safe, yet need not fear men and boys, Bergin illuminates the twisted beliefs that permeate our real world.
Award from Wiscon, that venerable grandmother of feminist Sci Fi / Fantasy conferences. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, the book was awarded the prestigious James Tiptree Jr. A provocative thought experiment in the same vein as classic feminist science fiction like Ursula K. Virginia Bergin’s The XY is a post-apocalyptic puzzlebox that raises important questions about gender, sexuality, and toxic masculinity. Everything in her safe existence starts to unravel. Caught in the middle, River finds herself lying for the first time in her life. The appearance of the first XY to survive the virus for more than a day reveals rifts in this community of women. It takes three hours, but she carts Mason back to her village. Her community’s code requires her to put him out of his misery. She’s given mercy to injured animals before.īut she just can’t bring herself to draw her blade across his neck. Watching him writhe on the road, River knows this male creature – this boy named Mason – is going to die. Losing his faculties, he releases her once again. The XY – his name is Mason – says he’s been on the run in women’s country for five days. River has never encountered anyone who would behave so badly before. When River rouses the XY to consciousness, he attacks her, steals her knife, threatens to kill her, and eats her food without permission. Any boy or man who leaves one of the Sanctuaries dies within 24 hours. The rest of the planet has been given over to women, who are immune. Boys and men all live in hermetically sealed Sanctuaries where they won’t contract a lethal virus. River has never encountered an XY before. There’s hair on its face, and a strange lumpiness rises between its legs.
It’s clearly human, but it has no breasts. The body doesn’t look like any she’s ever seen. But when she sees a body lying in the middle of the road, her first emotion isn’t fear.
River drives her horse and cart through the woods as night falls.
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