Becky Chambers is the only author I know who can do this without making me cringe (and has been doing it for several years now). That’s because she created a universe where “people” are from about six or seven different alien races along with humans. Some have up to six genders, and others change gender over time (female when young, male after childbearing). Hence, it works to have most adults be just “ze” because there are plenty of intelligent and active characters that, in human terms, have no gender at all or more than one at the same time (or are born from eggs).
Humans adopt this system after a time, but they realize it takes an egg and a sperm to make a human baby. They also know that isn’t the case for some of their crewmates, whose evolutionary backgrounds may differ completely. I have noticed that almost all of her aliens have some counterpart in the animal reproductive world on Earth though it is never mentioned. From seahorses, where the female gives birth, but the males care for the babies, to certain types of birds and lizards who lay their eggs and forget about them.
But this doesn’t work in most books, except in military science fiction when everyone is “Sir,” even the females, or in Becky Chambers’s world, the Captian is “Zer,” as a title of respect.
Becky Chambers is “woke,” but I like her work anyway. She’s writing science fiction and fantasy, and she creates a universe where these titles make sense. Also, she was doing this to make her world work long before the current craze made it an “in” thing.
