History Main / BizarreAlienSexes

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* In Leslie Fish's classic FilkSong "Filk/BannedFromArgo", the captain ([[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]]) was found "with five partners, each of a different world and sex"

* The dominant race of the Empire of Azad in IainMBanks' ''TheCulture/ThePlayerOfGames'' has three sexes: One is male, the 'apex' has ovaries and "a kind of reversible vagina", and the female has a womb. The only non-sexual difference between the sexes is the [[KickTheDog eugenically bred-in]] lowered intelligence for non-apices. Sexism here sees females as breeders and domestics, males as workhorses and disposable soldiers.

* In PiersAnthony's ''{{Cluster}}'' series, the Spicans have three sexes - impact, undulant, and sibilant - of which all three are required for reproduction.

* In Leslie Fish's classic FilkSong "Filk/BannedFromArgo", the captain ([[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]]) was found "with five workers, each of a different world and sex"

* The dominant race of the Empire of Azad in IainMBanks' ''TheCulture/ThePlayerOfGames'' has three sexes: One is male, the 'apex' has ovaries and "[[NightmareFuel a kind of reversible vagina]]", and the female has a womb. The only non-sexual difference between the sexes is the [[KickTheDog eugenically bred-in]] lowered intelligence for non-apices. Sexism here sees females as breeders and domestics, males as workhorses and disposable soldiers.

* In ''TheTrueMeaningOfSmekday'' by Adam Rex, the Boov aliens who attempt to enslave the human race have 7 sexes that translate in English to: girl, boy, boygirl, girlboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin An alien species' sex system is very bizarre in comparison to terrestrial ones]]. Perhaps it has two sexes are not identifiable as either "male" or "female" in terrestrial terms, or perhaps it has ''three or more'' sexes, each of whom is indispensible for the species' reproduction process.

** In the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'', Andorians have four sexes. There isn't any evidence of this within the LiveActionTV {{Canon}} though.

* The [[TheBlob Soft Ones]] in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''TheGodsThemselves'' have three sexes: Rational/left, Emotional/mid and Parental/right, which reproduce by fusing their bodies together and "melting".

* The [[TheBlob Soft Ones]] in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''The Gods Themselves'' have three sexes: Rational/left, Emotional/mid and Parental/right, which reproduce by fusing their bodies together and "melting".

* Creator/BruceCoville's ''{{My Teacher is an Alien}}'' series mentions one species that requires "seven genders [sic] to produce an egg, and three more to hatch it".
** From the same author, Tar Gibbons from RodAlbrightAlienAdventures insists on gender neutral pronouns because referring to it as male or female is offensive to it. No details are given.

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* In Leslie Fish's classic FilkSong "Filk/BannedFromArgo", the captain ([[StarTrek James T. Kirk]]) was found "with five workers, each of a different world and sex"

* The dominant race of the Empire of Azad in Iain M. Banks' ''TheCulture''[=/=]''The Player Of Games'' has three sexes: One is male, the 'apex' has ovaries and "[[NightmareFuel a kind of reversible vagina]]", and the female has a womb. The only non-sexual difference between the sexes is the [[KickTheDog eugenically bred-in]] lowered intelligence for non-apices. Sexism here sees females as breeders and domestics, males as workhorses and disposable soldiers.
* BruceCoville's ''{{My Teacher is an Alien}}'' series mentions one species that requires "seven genders [sic] to produce an egg, and three more to hatch it".

* The Tralfamadorians from KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' claim to have five sexes; also, because they can see through time as well as space, they claim humans have ''seven'' sexes. It doesn't really make sense from the human perspective when some of the "sexes" are "male homosexuals", "women over sixty-five" and "baby". However, it could be that the other 5 sexes we don't percieve contribute to reproduction in ways we aren't aware of/can't percieve in the dimensions our senses work on. Each human would thus have 7 individuals who contributed to the act of procreation even though we can only detect 2.

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels by Diane Duane, there is one race, the ''Sulamid'' that is described as a bundle of bright purple tentacles about six to seven feet high, topped off with a sheaf of pink-stalked and tentacled eyes with triangular pupils and a purplish, "bloodshot" look. According to Dr. [=McCoy=], they have twelve sexes, and ''all'' of them claim to be male, ''especially'' the ones that bear the children. The ''Enterprise'' has at least two of them among the crew, Mr. Athende in Maintenance and Lt. Meshav, from Data Management.

* In PierXanthony's ''{{Cluster}}'' series, the Spicans have three sexes - impact, undulant, and sibilant - of which all three are required for reproduction.

** In the ''StarTrekExpandedUniverse'', Andorians have four sexes. There isn't any evidence of this within the LiveActionTV {{Canon}} though.

* The Grekim from the RTS ''Achron'' have three genders (octo, pharo, and sepi). They also have three 'classes' (basic, pod class, and ligo class). Any two different genders can mate to produce a member of the third gender of the same class or the next one up. E.g. a pharo and a sepi can produce an octo or an octopod, or an octopod and a pharopod can produce a sepipod or a sepiligo. This is actually the species' primary method of producing units in the game. Ligo units cannot mate (or 'progenerate'), but can 'split down' into two basic units of the remaining genders. E.g. an octoligo can split down into a pharo and a sepi.
* ''CthulhuSavesTheWorld'' has party member Paws, a cat-like alien, explain that his species technically has every member as a unique gender. However, for sake of convenience, he allows the party to refer to him as "he".
* Done with two different species in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]''. The [[FishPeople Boron]] have three sexes: male, female, and Lar. The presence of a Lar during reproduction is highly valued, though not strictly necessary. Meanwhile, the [[TheTheocracy Paranids]] have ''eleven'' genders, and while not all of them are required for any individual act of reproduction, the combination of parents will affect the development of the young.

* In OctaviaButler's ''Xenogenesis'' books, there are male and female Oankali, but the third gender Ooloi does the genetic mixing.

* In ''The True Meaning of Smekday'' by Adam Rex, the Boov aliens who attempt to enslave the human race have 7 sexes that translate in English to: girl, boy, boygirl, girlboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.

* ''Literature/ChanurNovels'': The ''stsho'' have "bizarre sexual trimorphism"; their sexes are called "gtst", "gtste", and "gtsto". If emotionally disturbed, they will undergo "phasing" and [[GenderBender change sex]] as well as personality.

* The aliens in''Literature/TheGodsThemselves'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov have three sexes which roughly correspond to Superego + Ego + Id. But each triplet only has 3 children.

* The [[TheBlob Soft Ones]] in Isaac Asimov's ''The Gods Themselves'' have three sexes: Rational/left, Emotional/mid and Parental/right, which reproduce by fusing their bodies together and "melting".