If you have read Dune or watched any of its on-screen iterations, then you know all about Paul Atreides. The son of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica, trained in the Bene Gesserit ways, adopted by the fremen of Arrakis to become the legendary Muad’Dib. Paul is the culmination of a deeply unsettling eugenics program to create something called the Kwisatz Haderach, a being who can see into the future and project himself backwards and forwards in time.
And he could have been science fiction’s best known non-binary protagonist.
According to the plot of Dune, the Kwisatz Haderach had to be created via millennia of special breeding directives from the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. The all-female organization was working toward what all great shadowy organizations work toward—absolute power, namely their own puppet on the throne as emperor. Wrapped up in this desire was also a long-standing problem; spice offered the sisterhood some prescience and race memory, with the Reverend Mothers capable of looking back in time through the line of other sisters… but they could not access the male knowledge and experience in their past. It was believed that the Kwisatz Haderach would be able to look into their full history, both sides of their race memory, and also to see far into the future.
This figure was meant to arrive a generation after Paul—his mother was supposed to have a daughter who would wed the Harkonnen male heir, producing the Kwisatz Haderach. But Jessica went against the sisterhood, giving her partner Duke Leto the son he wanted, and somehow, this resulted in the fated figure appearing ahead of schedule. Paul took the water of life, a poison from the sandworms that the Reverend Mother is capable of changing, and learned of his destiny, saying:
“There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it’s almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed.”
According to Paul, he is the fulcrum between those two points, able to give without taking and take without giving. That is what makes him the Kwisatz Haderach.
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Here’s the thing: The world of Dune is bound by an essentialist gender binary that doesn’t do the story many favors, despite its careful and often inspired worldbuilding. Aside from the fact that gender isn’t a binary, the insistence upon it isn’t a clever story juxtaposition that makes for great themes and plot. It’s an antiquated perspective that reads as out of place, especially in such a far-flung future. This is especially true when you couch maleness as a “taking” force and femaleness as a “giving” force. Men and women are not naturally those things because people overall are not that easily categorized—they are expected to be those things by society. Stating it as some form of spiritual truth, as Dune does, is an awkward declaration that only gets more awkward as time passes.
In addition, Dune is a story that spends much of its narrative currency on battles between binaries. They crop up everywhere in the book: the tension between the Bene Gesserit and the Mentats; the age-old feud between Houses Harkonnen and Atreides; the conditioning of Arrakis’ fremen forces against the conditioning of the Emperor’s sardaukar; the struggle between the ruling houses and the spacing guild. While there are countless groups vying for power, and the political complexities of that do not go unnoticed, Dune still dwells on that ‘A vs B’ dynamic in all the places where it really counts. Without these binary antagonisms, the tale wouldn’t function.
For a story so taken with binaries, there is something arresting about Paul balancing male and female aspects as an implicit factor to being the Kwisatz Haderach. The real confusion lies in the idea that the Kwisatz Haderach always had to be male, as though counterbalancing generations of Bene Gesserit sisters; if the figure is meant to be a fulcrum between those two specific genders, then their own gender should be insignificant. More importantly, if that is the nature of being the Kwisatz Haderach, then coming into that power should ultimately change one’s perception and person entirely. If you’re going to be the balancing point between dual genders, then why would you be solely either of those genders? Paul literally says that being able to do what he does changes him into “something other than man.” It doesn’t make him a woman, clearly, so what’s the alternative here?
It would have been a sharper assertion for Paul to have awoken into a different gender entirely, perhaps genderfluidity or even a lack of gender altogether. This wouldn’t have altered his key actions within the narrative, but it would have added another dimension to his journey. A non-binary protagonist for a story that obsesses over binary thinking would have been a stunning wrench to throw into the works. In many ways, it would have made more thematic sense than what Dune currently offers its readers.
While the upcoming film is unlikely to go that route, it’s tantalizing to think of the story that might have been, of all the possibilities contained therein. A story set in the future that accounted for the complexities of gender identity and how it might pertain to an awakening of consciousness and purpose. Even if Paul was the first person in their time period to consider non-binary gender, that would be a powerful statement that would shape their reality for centuries to come. Perhaps others would embrace non-binary identities to honor Muad’Dib, or it would become a sacred way of being, looked upon with religious fervor due to Paul’s importance. And there are further questions as to how that would have affected the sequels as well—would Leto II also have gone that route? He turns into a sandworm, you can’t tell me they’ve got clear and separated binary genders. They’re worms. In the sand. Try again.
In a story that turns on binaries, particularly as they pertain to gender, it would have changed the whole scheme to consider Paul as a non-binary protagonist. Moreover, it would have been fascinating to see how his perspective changed as a result of being that fulcrum, not just as it related to time, but as it related to people. While the story is quick to zero in on what Paul sees in the flow of time, his “terrible purpose” in putting humanity on the Golden Path, there is no consideration for how this shift in state might effect how he sees other humans. It’s a missed opportunity to really explore what absolute power would look like in a being who can project himself into the experiences of men and women equally. Would he understand his mother better than before? His sister?
It’s not the story that we have, but there will always be a part of my mind preoccupied with these possibilities. Because it’s fun, and because it’s intriguing, and because I will always wonder about what the world would look like if more people didn’t take the concept of binaries for granted.
Emmet Asher-Perrin will be stuck on this point for forever. You can bug them on Twitter, and read more of their work here and elsewhere.
Since the concepts of non-binary genders didn’t exist when Herbert wrote he can’t really be blamed for not including it. However well it would have fit.
“This wouldn’t have altered his key actions within the narrative,”
Given Paul’s intense love for Chani, it also would have been unnoticeable in the narrative. Genderfluid or not, he would have been with one person.
Duncan Idaho, now, that would be workable. You’d have to change (well, delete) one scene in God-Emperor, but otherwise Idaho could be very fluid.
After he became God-Emporer sure. As Paul? No.
I doubt that Herbert would support your assertions.
Its pretty clear from the quote you provided from Dune that Paul is referencing turning into something other than Man, not as something other than a man.
As for why the KH had to be a man, its because the BG had to operate within the constraints of the political system; the Emperor, by definition, is a man.
Or, we could be content with this immensely rich character portrayal, as it stands.
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I could do with less gender essentialism in my epic sci-fi, thank you! (Also in my fantasy, please. I’ve had quite enough of ‘men do magic X, and women do magic Y,’).
That being said, I’m not sure how much of the beliefs, spiritual or otherwise, of the characters in Dune we’re meant to take entirely as accurate. Not to give Frank Herbet undue credit- I can think of no particular reason to assume that he was writing against gender essentialist tropes- but when you say that the essentialist gender binary is “an antiquated perspective that reads as out of place, especially in such a far-flung future,” I can’t help but remember that this is a far-flung future which also involves a feudal empire, slavery, gladiatorial combat, and formalized rites of vendetta (reminiscent of codes of chivalry that dictated how the rich and powerful could utilize violence against each other, but made little provision for the lives and deaths of the rest of people?)
I’d have to reread Dune again to make the argument, but I’m also not entirely convinced that Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach (give the dog a bone) of Bene Gesserit prophecy. Certainly, he has the prophetic gifts, but so, to a lesser degree, have former failed results of the Bene Gesserit’s breeding programs, such as Count Fenrig. Certainly the Bene Gesserit seem to hold out hope that they may yet produce the child they were hoping for- their attempts to salvage Paul’s gene line to this end make up one of the many plot threads that continues in the books after Dune.
In any case, I’ll stop my rambling here- thank you for what’s clearly been a thought-provoking article!
@1: Not sure that’s true (cross-culturally there are all sorts of gender roles and options in human societies, some of them centuries old or more – heck, there was extensive research conducted even in Weimar Germany into the ranges of genders and orientations out there, and the only reason this isn’t better-known is that some very destructive people came into power who didn’t approve of any of that). Even if it were true, though, I think the point here is that nothing in an extensive SFF worldbuilding project stood in the way of coming up with a character who isn’t either male or female – except uncritical projection of a rigidly defined modern European status quo in terms of the gender options. By my reckoning this is less criticism of Herbert specifically and more a ‘darn, such a missed opportunity’. That collective European attempt at assuming that gender is nothing more than sex and that both come in two narrow boxes and nothing else is now falling apart quickly (neither of those is binary, and they’re not equivalent either). One of the big reasons it’s doing so is that it’s become apparent that there are so many people who are never going to fit into those boxes and any attempts at forcing them into one or the other will leave them miserable, confused, angry, and/or pretty much brainwashed. Underscores how arbitrary and stifling those options were – which also means that this view of sex/gender has caused a lot of suffering. That, in turn, means that every bit of fiction (or cross-cultural anthropology) along the way that has (from a respectful viewpoint) considered an alternative set of gender roles has been helpful to people the status quo hasn’t worked for – and there are many.
Arguably Paul was not the Kwisatz Haderach. As I recall we are never given any interior dialogue between him and a prior memory. Leto II on the other hand does and as has been stated ended up nongendered. Then there is Alia; she either has access to Baron H. or is simply insane.
Why not just turn him into a sexless worm while you’re at it.
Well that certainly has put the pidgeon amongst the cats.
From fallible memory, the earliest non-binary I recall might be Jerry Cornelius. So the possibility did exist before Herbert. However I don’t think it would work in Dune without changing the book beyond the limits of the author.
Although it might be a fun to try, I think it might not work since this seemed to be a very fuedal society Maybe the Bene Gesserit would be the place to be start.
A couple of comments implied that readers don’t want NB characters. I don’t agree but I do expect a decent yarn where gender/preferences don’t dominate the narrative. Remember the later Heinlein books. Only last week Number of the Beast was articled here on Tor. One of the criticisms being the pointless sexuality.
Per The Dune Encyclopedia, sandworms do have two genders. The difference is just only important if you’re a sandworm.
(Also per the Encyclopedia, the Tleilaxu once sent Leto II a female Duncan Idaho ghola. Leto did not react well.)
Another way to look at this would be to reverse the question. Suppose that Frank Herbert wrote the character so that, by becoming the Kwitsatz Haderach, Paul did explicitly become both male and female. That only by incorporating elements of multiple genders was Paul capable of accessing both male and female experiences across time. Suppose then someone suggested that Paul remained exclusively male after this phenomenon – this would clearly be an absurd analysis.
The story actually makes more sense if we consider Paul to be nonbinary. Frank Herbert obviously wasn’t thinking that way 55 years ago, but it is an entirely natural interpretation.
@12 B0b I hesitate to ascribe any particular modern term to historical persons who may not have understood their own identity in those terms, but as a reminded that gender and sex have long been more complicated than a simple binary (yes- even in Western Europe!) one might examine the life of the Chevalier d’Éon, who, in the eighteenth century lived at various times as a man, a woman, and (according to their memoirs) a man disguised as a woman for purposes of espionage.
I’m fairly certain Paul isn’t the KH… Leto II fits the description but Paul is more of the one ‘setting the stage’ for the KH.
Leto II does go in the non-binary direction by becoming the God-Emperor. If I recall correctly, there are passages describing the loss of his reproductive organs as well as his being heirless (forgive the lack of quotes, it’s been a while) — occupying a clearly different gender-space. Perhaps not gender fluid but asexual.
My only concern with this is that Paul was not the Kwisatz Haderach and I’m not sure I like changing the narrative to make him so.
There’s at least one place in Dune where he’s described as the Kwisatz Haderach, and several in the follow-on novels. The Bene Gesserit certainly treat him as the Kwisatz Haderach.
In the first book, it was assumed that Paul is KH, however by end of Messiah and in the Children it was shown that Leto II is the true KH and Leto was gender neutral plus asexual. Paul as pre-KH could not be non-binary because he had to father true KH.
The issue with the modern liberal discourse on gender, is that, like most modern and post-modern social/philosophical discourses, is that it has no place for metaphysics and roots everything in the empirical. Gender, while not completely binary in the world as we see it, male and female do indeed exist as principles, and the pure male principle is taking, and the pure female principle is giving. The key for the human being, both men and women, is to find an inner balance of both principles.
Perhaps in 20,000 years or so we will come full circle and have a place for metaphysics again ;)
@18, 19: These two comments are sending my brain spinning into possibility. Paul was certainly not the KH, but because of his maleness he was assumed to be so. The BG were so convinced that just because Jessica gave birth to a male one generation early, he had to be the KH. It was Leto II, who transcended gender limitations, that broke free of the expectations put upon them.
This whole article and the ensuing discussion gives me hope that Emmet will finally do a reread of God Emperor.
First this is not intended to be a reactionary comment on the question of non binary characters in literature. If you read it that way then so be it. Works of fiction are just that works of fiction. Science fiction tends to take some ideas throw them together and sees what could happen. Dune was written when non-binary ideas were not the rage. More to the point it was written when binary ideas, philosophies were. Its a 60’s novel taking ideas vibrant in that time and particularly in the counter culture. It’s a BINARY novel through and through. Yin and Yang, Carl Jung Archetypes, anima-animus, Zen, Alan Watts other psychological theorists/practitioners ideas. Ecology [though not binary or non-binary] same as anti-war, Vietnam and an examination of some religious driven culture. Not to mention 60’s consciousness rising via drugs and meditation. All the above are documented as motivating Herbert. There you have it a melange. Look at that list. If Frank Herbert missed adding non-binary humans to it then I think he could be forgiven. I an overall sense gender was not part of the mix as a physicality but it was as a philosophical and psychological construct. Adding non -binary as a physical entity would risk the dilution or confusion of that psychological/philosophical speculation But in addition, I maintain if you want non-binary characters in fiction then write them in new fiction Let the original author a writer set in time-space and culture have their due, faults lapses et all. That’s not to say cant be critiqued, which I take this article to be. But if its a rallying call to change genders in books and film/tv representations of them [which is a trend growing ie The Watch, then I for one object. Let the authors work stand for what it is without, let’s face it it is the right term – Censorship
As others have said, Paul was NOT the KH. It is important to remember, as well, that just because the Bene Gesserit were working toward that goal, there was no guarantee that they would get there in the next generation. But as far as Paul being non-binary, Paul saw Chani at the same time that he saw visions of everything else that was going to be in his future. And there is no evidence in Herbert’s work that Paul felt any erotic love for a male. So I don’t think it’s canonical to base the discussion on what is there in the texts.
Regarding the KH, I think David Lynch’s Dune screwed popular perception because Alia says, at the end of the film, “Because he IS the Kwisatz Haderach!” But that quote is not in the book.
I don’t agree that Leto II was the KH, either. Leto broke the Bene Gesserit breeding program and created a new one. There is no way the BG could have foreseen Leto merging with the sandworm’s ancestors (can’t remember the name of the little fish at the moment).
After he merges with the worm, he becomes what Herbert might have considered asexual, but in Dune Emperor, he mourns not perhaps giving himself the chance of having a wife and children, and he feels love for a woman. So again, nothing in the Herbert text about that. Whether Herbert cared or wanted to discuss gender issues, he did not do it in these works.
That said, the non-binary discussion is very interesting and worth thinking about critically, no matter how old the work is; I think it would be interesting if Villeneuve went there. And even if he doesn’t, thinking about it in terms of humanity’s evolution 10,000 years into the future as a space-exploring race with the power to physically shape our own binaries–remember that Jessica can change and shape her own cells, and the Tleilaxu can certainly do things with DNA and genetics that we can’t even imagine, let alone try–humanity’s control over their own physical and emotional destiny could be very, very fascinating to explore.
Nicola Griffith’s first novel, Ammonite, explored a similar destiny, in which “women” on a planet being explored by humans can alter their own biology to give birth in the absence of males. I would love to see a movie of that book.
I know in the TV movies Paul explicitly says he is not the KH but something “greater” (not sure what word they used) but I don’t know if this came from the book.
If you read the books by Kevin Anderson & Brian Herbert that follow Chapterhouse they make it clear as well that Paul is not the KW but SPOILER! is. Yes they are to be taken with a pinch of salt but were based on Frank’s plans for book 7.
Ummm, Leto II was a worm.
Paul is not the KH. The Bene Gesserit simply did not get the result they wanted from their breeding program because Jessica derailed it — which didn’t stop Jessica and Paul from using the KH prophecies planted among the Fremen to their own benefit. (And when the real KH shows up later on, the BGs still don’t get the result they wanted.)
As for what the BGs *were* looking for, the BGs needed a male for emperor, and further a male physically and mentally capable of fathering children. They wouldn’t have been looking for a non-binary result, and given the level of control BGs can exert over their wombs, it’s hard to imagine getting anything other than what the mother intended, at least biologically.
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I believe that the narrative has been largely inspired by a Zurvan frame of Persian ancient mythology. Binary opposites are the key essential elements in this mythology and Zoroaster’s theology. It begins with good vs evil, and goes deeper into a network of interrelated binaries, like the house of songs (Heaven) vs the house of lies (Hell) in addition to many other binaries like creation vs. annihilation, Giti (physical world) vs Minoo (mental world), wisdom vs. ignorance, order vs chaos, true vs false, etc. The similarities don’t stop here. Also, the character of Paul who changes his name to Muad’dib is much similar to the real true historical story of a prominent figure, a military strategist and Zoroastrian Magi from Persia, Salman the Persian, who helped with the emergence of Islam in the Arabian peninsula. Using the help of Arab tribes who became united under the cause of Jihad, Roozbeh turned Salman, was able to overthrow the King (Padishah in Persian) of the ancient Persian empire and became a ruler of the capital city of the former empire, Ctesiphon, after the conquest of Persia by Muslim Arabs. Isn’t Melange a symbol of Haoma which brings another element of Persian mythology to the narrative? So in brief a better understating of the fictional world of Frank Herbert should be studied by reading the non-fictional story or history of the ancient Persia around the emergence of Islam in the Arabian peninsula.
@19
You can be nonbinary and still have kids. Gender identity and sexual orientation are different things.
@26 The name for a young [tadpole] sandworm is sandtrout.
One of my problems with the idea of Paul being non-binary is the very clear agenda the BG have for humans – which really does include the ideals of a binary system as well keeping humans to what they consider to be the “human” template (male/female [both in gender and sex] as well as heterosexual). It’s endemic in the test of pain and strength the old Reverend Mother gives Paul before the Atreides depart from Caladan. I’m not against the idea personally, but it just doesn’t fit the character nor the story being told.
Agree with the overall view that Leto II is much closer to what the BG wanted. However, he’s not one to take their tampering in his life willingly and he works to set humans on a new path.
I do find the idea of changing the Liet Kynes character female in the new movie intriguing. How does this affect the (admittedly barely there) relationship between Liet and her daughter Chani?