Is Gender Necessary? Redux

Notes

This is the original essay "Is Gender Necessary?" of 1976, plus additional commentary by the author. In Dancing at the Edge of the World, the commentary is embedded in the text in bracketed italics. In The Language of the Night, it is printed side-by-side with the original essay.
Of the reason for the revisions, Le Guin says in Dancing at the Edge of the World, "I was getting uncomfortable with some of the statements I made in [the original essay], and the discomfort soon became plain disagreement."
Dancing at the Edge of the World gives the copyright date of the "Redux" portion as 1987, The Language of the Night gives it as 1988; in Space Crown it is stated that the latter encompassed its first publication, but as to our data it was in fact first printed in the former.