A FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF GENDERED POWER IN URSULA K. LE GUIN’S "THE MATTER OF SEGGRI"
EGE 15th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL SCIENCES, İzmir, Türkiye, 12 - 14 Haziran 2026, ss.789-797, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: İzmir
- Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.789-797
- Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Widely known and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The
Matter of Seggri” is a science fiction story that presents an alternative reality in which gender
roles are reversed in an attempt to interrogate the social construction of gender and the unequal
distribution of power between the sexes. Set in a society where women vastly outnumber men
due to a genetic anomaly, the story depicts a matriarchal social order in which men are
marginalized, objectified, and confined to narrowly defined reproductive roles. Drawing on
feminist critiques of patriarchy and gender essentialism, this study argues that Le Guin’s
imagined world functions as a critical mirror through which readers can recognize the
oppressive mechanisms underlying gender-based hierarchies. Rather than presenting
matriarchy as a desirable alternative to patriarchy, Le Guin demonstrates that any social system
founded on rigid gender binaries and asymmetrical power relations produces exclusion,
domination, and inequality. Through the reversal of conventional gender roles, Le Guin’s story
exposes the arbitrary nature of socially constructed norms that assign value, authority, and
agency according to biological sex. Accordingly, this study concludes that “The Matter of
Seggri” proposes a feminist critique of hierarchical gender systems by envisioning the
possibility of transcending binary structures and creating a more egalitarian social order.