"Coming of Age in Karhide" is a science fiction short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 1995. The story is set on the fictional planet of Gethen, the same as Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness, and is a part of Le Guin's Hainish cycle. The story explores themes of growing into adulthood on a planet where individuals have no fixed gender identity. Reviewers stated that the story went further than Left Hand in its exploration of gender and sexuality, and was a "quietly feminist" work. It was also described as lacking the "dizzying impact" of Left Hand. In 2002, it was anthologized in the volume The Birthday of the World, along with many other stories exploring marriage and sexual relationships.
Setting
"Coming of Age in Karhide" is set on the fictional planet of Gethen, a part of the Hainish universe, created by Le Guin. The planet is also the setting for Le Guin's Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. In this alternative history, human beings did not evolve on earth, but on Hain. The people of Hain colonized many neighboring planetary systems, including Earth and Gethen, possibly a million years before the setting of the novels. Some of the groups that "seeded" each planet were the subjects of genetic experiments, including on Gethen.
In the language of its people, "Gethen" means "Winter", and as its name indicates, is a planet that is always cold. The inhabitants of Gethen are sequentially hermaphroditic humans; for twenty-four days (somer) of each twenty-six-day lunar cycle, they are sexually latent androgynes. They only adopt sexual attributes once a month, during a period of sexual receptiveness and high fertility, called kemmer. During kemmer they become sexually male or female, with no predisposition towards either, although which sex they adopt can depend on context and relationships. This absence of fixed gender characteristics led Le Guin to portray Gethen as a society without war, and also without sexuality as a continuous factor in social relationships. On Gethen, every individual takes part in the "burden and privilege" of raising children, and rape and seduction are virtually absent.
Plot
The story is told from the point of view of Sov Thade Tage em Ereb, a teenager who lives in a large communal home in the Karhidish city of Rer. The 140 people in the house are all a single family. None of its members form long-lasting marital bonds (known on Gethen as "keeping kemmer"); instead, individuals go to a communal "kemmerhouse" when they are sexually receptive, and any children that are conceived are raised in the "hearth", or communal home. As a result, Sov grows up among a number of cousins and siblings, none of whom know who their sire is.
When Sov turns fourteen, Sov witnesses the "Somer-forever" party of their mother's sibling, who has reached the age where sexual activity is no longer possible. Witnessing this makes Sov wonder about their own sexuality, which Sov was not concerned about before reaching sexual maturity. That same spring Sov begins an apprenticeship at a carpenter's workshop, and begins to feel like an adult. At the same time, Sov begins to experience mood swings and symptoms of illness. Sov goes to their mother, who tells them that Sov is coming into kemmer for the first time. Sov discusses this with their cousin Sether, who is having the same experience, and they both express fears that being in kemmer is dehumanizing, and involves being a "sex machine".
On the day Sov is due to kemmer, their family takes them to the kemmerhouse after presenting them a new set of clothes and going through traditional celebratory rituals. Sov is welcomed into the kemmerhouse with elaborate ritual. The first person Sov encounters is already in kemmer as a male, and his pheromones and touch lead to Sov kemmering as a female. Over the next few days she has sexual experiences with a number of different men and women, and enjoys herself, although she is nervous and afraid. After coming out of kemmer Sov makes friends with another in the kemmerhouse, and a month later enters kemmer with Sether. Sov concludes by saying "The old days or the new times, somer or kemmer, love is love."