Left Hand of Darkness

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Left Hand of Darkness

Does the presence of gender inequality reduce the love for humanity?

There has always been a struggle between the sexes. Males are often accused of being domineering and insensitive to the plight of women in the society. According to them, women should be submissive and take supportive roles at home and even in the workplace. In fact, they draw their understanding even from the biblical teachings in which the creator directs the latter to be subservient to men. However, the female gender believes that they are equally capable of handling most of the men’s responsibilities. Therefore, they do not see the rationale of being discriminated against especially in matters of governance. Such strong feelings have elicited tensions between the two entities thereby leading to a wedge in most cultural settings. However, these differences are not meant to separate them. Rather, both sets of individuals should embrace their diversity as an asset in their coexistence because they all live in the same planet and face similar challenges (Le Guin 13). In the absence of gender identities, it would be prudent to know whether humans will increase their affection for one another. Consequently, answers to the above question would significantly influence the viability of having different relationships as well as facilitate the understanding of love’s function in uniting people. As such, an exploration of the consequences of gender imbalance aids in recognizing the reasons people have varying behavior towards the opposite sex and the progress of humankind.

In the Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin delves into the asexual nature of the inhabitants and how their lifestyles are affected as well as the choices they make. In particular, she illustrates the impact that the lack of male or female characters in planet Winter has on the development of social norms. According to the narrative, people exhibit better organizational tendencies and make logical decisions that tend to create a happy and healthy environment. By shedding their sexual orientation, the citizens seem to collaborate more in their daily routines thereby simplifying the workload and achieving accomplishments in both personal and communal activities. When contrasted to other planets, occupants of winter appear to interact well with each other due to the lack of masculine or feminine stereotypes. Moreover, since they adopt preferred genders once per month, they perceive each other as equals and are more affectionate. Hence, it would be fascinating to establish the link between being asexual to an improvement of love in the universe. Furthermore, the plot indicates that these people are civilized and live in comfortable shelters (Le Guin 35). It also shows that they have better means of communication and there is a resemblance of order within their nation. Such level of normalcy is attributed to the mutual respect and love for each other and this phenomenon needs to be evaluated further. In conducting research on this subject, a comparison of the two sociological perspectives need to be made to determine the likelihood of attaining peaceful coexistence based on the absence of gender variations. Whereas humans are known to be curious about the personality, traits that make each one unique in the world, this question would focus on the viability of getting along due to having common habits. Likewise, the importance of universal values resulting from the shared destiny that people face will be examined as well. By so doing, an insight into the implications of the current gender imbalance and the quest to eliminate it will be offered for the appropriate solutions to the problem to be determined.

Work Cited

Le Guin, Ursula. The Left Hand of Darkness. London: Orbit, 2012. Print.