This is the kind of discussion I was hoping to foster! Regarding The One Power being gendered, even if we decide that, actually, The One Power is not essentially gendered, it's just in a 'gendered mood right now', or what have you, there is still all of the social aspects. The vast majority of men who channel (men born with male bodies and souls) are channeling Saidin, and their they describe their experience very specifically; they need to seize it. If a trans man goes to channel, and finds that, actually, in order to channel, he has to do all of the things that the women talk about needing to do, like surrendering, when channeling saidar, then I imagine that could make him dysphoric. It is like how, despite skirts and long hair not being inherently feminine, they're still socialized as feminine things in western culture, so most trans men feel dysphoric about wearing a dress. I also feel that it also opens the door for fanfiction to explore how channelers could bridge that gap. Okay, say a trans man does want to channel, but he doesn't want to channel saidar. At the end of the third age, it was discovered how to heal a severed soul. Could they find a way to 'surgically' connect such a soul to the other power? Particularly since, it seems those with a connection to saidin or saidar are able to see the power itself, not to mention interacting with it directly, such as with The Cleansing of Saidin. It also presents opportunities for other kinds of gender diversity to be explored. For example, I think it would have been interesting to explore a turning where, instead of Nynaeve being forced to learn how to embrace saidar on her own, she instead learned how to work with a power that kind of worked better with her personality, and learned how to seize saidin. That isn't to say that Nynaeve would have been a trans man in such a turning, or even a trans woman. She could just be an otherwise cis woman who channels saidin. (This touches on a topic I care a lot about, that being genital dysphoria in cis gender people, such as an otherwise cis woman who wants a penis). But one big aspect I want to talk about is how it reflects my experience as a trans woman. You see, much of my dysphoria is actually neurological. I can literally tell that my brain is functioning in a manner that feels wrong. You see, when I was in high school, I had a strange jealousy of all of the depressed girls I knew, and I never even realized it. I later realized that, it's because I was depressed, but it felt wrong, because my depression wasn't manifesting in my brain the same way that it was for them. That is to say, while I don't think that I would feel dysphoric about channeling saidin, I think that I could relate to somebody who does feel dysphoric about channeling saidin, a kind of "I don't know what it feels like to channel saidar, but I know this power feels wrong." kind of thing.

I understand what you're talking about. What you're talking about is the dominant perspective among those who've considered transgender identities in the setting. What I'm saying, is that I prefer to interpret souls as sexed, rather than being gendered. Gender is psychosocial, whereas sex is biological, and if we extend to the setting of The Wheel of Time, then sex would also be spiritual. Part of my 'justification' for this interpretation (which again, I don't strictly feel is necessary because fandom is all about nonsense), is that, despite her initial revulsion, Aran'gar actually acclimates, and eventually seems to enjoy her role as a woman. Deliberately invalidating pseudoscientific paraphilia notwithstanding (if you don't know, look up autogynephilia), I do think this has interesting gender diverse implications for her character, particularly since she continues to be fine with channeling Saidin. The reason I prefer to interpret it this way is because it strips the gender essentialist lens from the setting. Interpreting souls as cosmically validating of trans identities is fine, but it makes me uncomfortable because it implies that there ever could be a way to validate such things, and also fails to recognize those who fall outside of the gender binary, and those whose gender is dynamic. Saying that "there just wouldn't be any people with 'male' souls who identify as women" just completely disregards much of the trans experience for a lot of folks.

This is the prevailing interpretation of the setting. I know this. I explicitly say that in the original post. This thread is explicitly about an alternative take that I relate to more, that being that a persons gender need not match the sex of their soul. I ultimately do not care whether or not one interpretation has more precedent; the interpretation I am presenting better reflects my experience as a trans woman, and would prefer to keep this thread focused on the interpretation I have presented.

I want to talk about how transness is often discussed in the fandom. Because of Aran'gar, many folks treat it as a foregone conclusion that a trans person would have a gender that matches the sex of their soul, and this is reflected in most of the fanfiction I've found which addresses the topic. I have taken to calling this the cosmic validation interpretation. There is no issue with this interpretation, however I personally struggle to relate to it. I prefer interpretations which acknowledge the inherent messiness of gender as a social construct (never mind the whole kerfuffle that is the intersex spectrum). As a trans woman who does not experience bottom dysphoria, I want to see trans men who are comfortable embracing Saidar, and trans women who enjoy seizing Saidin. But I also want to see trans sparkers who experience power dysphoria, where the ability to sense Saidin or Saidar makes them experience dysphoria, and would rather be severed altogether. I like the idea of exploring trans channelers who try to burn themselves out. Many folks use Aran'gar to 'justify' the cosmic validation interpretation, which I don't like, largely because I don't think any interpretation needs to be justified, but also because I feel that Aran'gar can just as easily be used to justify the opposite interpretation. Aran'gar very quickly adapts to, and comes to enjoy her new role as a woman, but is unbothered by her ability to channel Saidin. This could be used to argue that her gender is fluid. Now, while the text does suggest that this is more out of her capacity to be a creep, I still don't think it is ignorible. Also, IIRC, it has been stated by Jordan or some other authority that the personalities a soul has had in the past does not necessarily allow one to predict the personalities that one would have in the future (it is my understanding that the Forsakens' projections of Lews Therin onto Rand are just that; projections). Again, I'm don't think there's any issue with the more popular interpretation. Fandom and fanon is all about having fun, and if you have fun with any interpretation, explore that. I just haven't seen anybody speak up about this kind of interpretation, the one that says "you don't need to have a male soul to be a man, or a female soul to be a woman". One's gender is not tied to their biological sex, so why should it be tied to that of the soul? So I thought I'd be the one to bring up such an interpretation.

Ah. I apologize for having misled anybody. My name is purely a coincidence; I am not asexual. I am a trans woman (I hate TERFs for taking 'transwoman' from me; I liked saying it because I think English should do the Germanic thing more often, but no, TERFs had to ruin it. But I digress), and I specifically wanted to talk about exploring transness within WoT in a manner atypical of most within the fandom. With that said, I definitely would be interested to discuss asexuality within the setting as well.

Greetings! I read The Wheel of Time with a discord-based book club last year (finished up in March this year), and I loved it. I'd love to discuss stuff about the story, specifically some missed opportunities in regard to queer depiction.