So “genderpocalypse” is a typically postapocalypic, but not always sci-fi subgenre where one gender survives and another gets some disease, turns into a zombie, disappears, etc. Sometimes there’s meaningful reflection on the relationships between men and women. Sometimes it can be really trashy.

I noticed among the books I’m aware of, I can’t think of any where trans women are treated the same as other women, whether through the established rules of the story or through specific confirmation in the book. So this typically means that if an author wants to explore a woman-only society, they inadvertantly or otherwise depict all the trans women dying in the process. I have those listed below to head off those being suggested. That doesn’t mean I think any book that establishes the genderpocalypse based on birth sex is inherently problematic or anything – I think The End of Men handles it really well. But I was wondering if anyone knew about any stories in this genre that bases it off of gender and not sex.


Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King: The sickness tied to women falling asleep is tied to chromosomes, so trans women would stay awake based on the establed rules of the story.

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan: All the trans women die with the men.

Afterland by Lauren Beukes: All the trans women die of prostate cancer along with the men.

The End of Men by Christina Baird: The virus in the book targets trans women and men, but there is a trans woman character and it’s depicted sympathetically, in terms of the dysphoria that would come from a y-chromomosome disease targeting them.

Manhunt by Gretchen-Felker Martin: Men and trans women turn into mindless zombies, unless the trans women eat licorice, for some reason.

The Men by Sandra Newman: All men and trans women mysteriously disappear one day, despite the title.

Femlandia by Christana Dalcher: A non sci-fi apocalyptic example. The premise is that society and economics collapse at the hands of men, leading men and women to segregate and form separate societies. In the book, trans women are kept out of womens’ societies.

  • Nutteman@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    My fiancee read one where trans women had to make sure they kept up on their estrogen or the disease would affect them. Ill ask her what the name of it was.

  • Mickey@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley is suppose to be about a society where all the women died some time ago and the last generation of men are trying to survive and cope with that. I have not read it yet though so I am not sure if they include any trans characters and their fates, but maybe it will interest you.