Work Text:
I wanted to know what Murderbot has canonically said or thought about sex and gender, so I did a search of the epub books for 'sex' and 'gender'. I have excluded cases where the word use doesn't tell us anything about Murderbot's views, such as most of Artificial Condition's references to 'sexbot' and Network Effects mentions of 'gender: male' for feed profile information.
I'm sure there's a lot of interesting information to be pulled about touch/contact and relationships, but the below was a quick search. My conclusions at the end.
All Systems Red
Page 19
I'd watched three episodes of Sanctuary Moon and was fast forwarding through a sex scene when Dr. Mensah sent me some images through the feed. (I don't have any gender or sex-related parts (if a construct has those you're a sexbot in a brothel, not a murderbot) so maybe that's why I find sex scenes boring. Though I think that even if I did have sex-related parts I would find them boring.)
Page 60
He said, "Why don't you want us to look at you?"
My jaw was so tight it triggered a performance reliability alert in my feed. I said, "You don't need to look at me. I'm not a sexbot."
Artificial Condition
Page 18
The only SecUnits in entertainment media were rogues, out to kill all humans because they forgot who built the repair cubicles, I guess. In some of the worst shows, SecUnits would sometimes have sex with the human characters. This was weirdly inaccurate and also anatomically complicated. Constructs with intercourse-related human parts are sexbots, not SecUnits. Sexbots don't have interior weapon systems, so it isn't like it's easy to confuse them with SecUnits. (SecUnits also have less than null interest in human or any other kind of sex, trust me on that.)
Page 25, ART proposing to alter MB's configuration and MB saying SecUnits were never altered
"No. Sexbots are altered." At least the ones I had seen had been altered. Some were mostly Unit standard with a few changes, others were radically different.
Page 27
I tried to think about why I didn't want to change my configuration, even to help protect myself. Maybe because it was something humans did to sexbots. I was a murderbot, I had to have higher standards?
Page 30
ART had an alternate, more drastic plan that included giving me sex- related parts, and I told it that was absolutely not an option. I didn't have any parts related to sex and I liked it that way. I had seen humans have sex on the entertainment feed and on my contracts, when I had been required to record everything the clients said and did. No, thank you, no. No.
Page 37
I had backdated my entry to look like I had come in on an earlier passenger transport, listed my job as "security consultant," and my gender as indeterminate.
Page 54
I was looking at a sexbot.
That is not the official designation, ART said.
The official designation is ComfortUnit but everybody knows what that means.
Rogue Protocol
Page 27, speaking of limited surveillance
It was almost like nobody here cared what anybody said or did as long as they weren't trying to blow up the station or crash the lifter-bots. (After thousands of hours spent analyzing and deleting video of humans eating, having sex, performing hygiene, and eliminating excess bodily fluids, it was a relief, but still.)
Exit Strategy
No mention of sex or gender.
Network Effect
Page 7 (about the water planet raiders/pirates)
Even the individual humans' feed signatures only contained info about sexual availability and gender presentation, which I didn't give a damn about.
Page 20, MB lists some reasons why it was suspicious of Amena's new friend
he stared at her secondary sexual characteristics when her attention was elsewhere
Page 28
When the company owned me and rented me out for surveys, my security protocol included datamining, which meant monitoring and recording the humans every second for the duration of the contract, which was excruciating in a lot of ways. Pretty much all the ways. (All the ways involving sex, bodily fluids, and inane conversations.)
Page 118
"So, you have a relationship with this transport."
I was horrified. Humans are disgusting. "No!"
Ratthi made a little exasperated noise. "I didn't mean a sexual relationship."
Page 149
I knew from threat assessments on Ratthi's associates that he had a lot of relationships with all genders of humans and augmented humans and he and they all seemed very happy about it. Amena should ask him for advice.
Page 189 (about Arada and Overse having private time)
I hadn't bothered to monitor them on ART's cameras or try to slip a drone in; the chances that they were having sex and/or a relationship discussion (either of which I would prefer to stab myself in the face than see) were far higher than the chance that they were saying anything I needed to know about.
Fugitive Telemetry
Page 26
I posted a feed ID with the name SecUnit, gender = not applicable, and no other information.
Indah had blinked, then said, "Well, I suppose that will have to do."
Compulsory
No mention of sex or gender.
Home
No mention of sex or gender.
Murderbot is an unreliable narrator. Looking at the context, most of Murderbot's sex-related experiences have been under orders, media-related, or have demonstrated interesting prejudices such as that toward 'sexbots'. That said, I think it's irrefutable that canon Murderbot is sex-repulsed. It doesn't want to have sex. It doesn't like thinking about sex. It doesn't like looking at sex. (I want to point out that no fanfiction is strictly canon-compliant and all forms of Murderbot, including explicitly sex-favorable versions, are valid.)
However, it's not sex-negative. It reports Ratthi as having relationships with all genders and they are all very happy about it. It goes so far as to think of Ratthi as a good source of relationship advice. It's fine with humans having relationships and/or multiple partners, so long as those relationships are not a security concern. It is aware enough to know that unreciprocated, covert sexual attraction is not cute or unimportant - it's a security concern.
A bit from this phrase jumped out at me (italics mine): SecUnits also have less than null interest in human or any other kind of sex, trust me on that.
What other kinds of sex are there, Murderbot? Is it talking about humans ordering SecUnits to go through the motions of sex as a visual entertainment? Is it talking about some form of purely cerebral positive feedback loop, either self-experienced or with another system? How broad is the definition of sex in a universe where a non-specialized MedSystem can add genitals to a SecUnit? And where machine intelligences roam the space ways, entertaining one another with bribes of media and who knows what else?
As I said at the beginning, there's a whole 'nother intriguing meta to be written about affection, loving feelings, melting insides, warm chest feels, hand-holding, and potentially other forms of touch. Whether you categorize these as platonic or romantic, they can exist in parallel with a sex-repulsed, agender person.
I celebrate all forms of Murderbot, but it's nice to stay clear on what's canon and what's transformative fanon.