Retained Accustoms

Within the novel The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, the main character, Genly Ai, has difficulty adjusting to the extremely unusual nature of this planet Winter. He particularly has a difficult time seeing the inhabitants of this planet, Gethenians, as they see themselves. This is mostly due to the home planet that he is accustomed to. One of his main difficulties is seeing the Gethenians as either male or female when they in fact have no sex until they are in the reproductive state of kemmer. In this state, the individual takes on an either male or female form in order to reproduce with one another. 

In one instance on page twelve, Genly acknowledges the fact that he cannot help but see Gethenians first as a male and then as a women. He also states that he sees Estraven as a women forcing him into categories so irrelevant to his nature only to fit into Genlys' own comfort zone. He also feels the need to mention that the femininity may have been what caused Genly to have distrust and dislike in Estraven, which is extremely sexist, but that is another topic.

This habit of placing these individuals into these categories stem from his own accustoms on his home planet. It is mostly clear that Genly is a normal human being such as ourselves. He is often referred to as a "sexual freak" or "pervert" as on page 32 by the king because the Gethenians see him as being in a constant state of kemmer. This is due to Genly actually being in the form of a man all of the time. Since the planet that Genly comes from contains human beings that are assigned a sex at birth and (it is assumed) that they continue to remain that sex for the rest of their lives, he is unable to grasp the fact that these beings do not have a gender. Therefore, he self-consciously assigns a gender to the Gethenians and is unable to see them as they see themselves or even as they see him. 

Destiny Esqueda