Jean and the Female Gender

There have always been angels to whom gender has been a bit irrelevant: quite a few, in fact. Indeed, it is somewhat interesting that there are angels with a dominant gender identity, considering that their species has a reproductive cycle that barely qualifies as 'sexual'. Many (if not most) of the Host were created either fully fledged, or else evolved from a, well, larval form: one would expect that they would treat gender as just another aspect of vessel/Role maintenance.

The fact that gender is relevant to many of them can only be ascribed to human influence (some angels would mutter, 'bad example'), coupled with (or 'exacerbated by') corporeal experience. Even the most rudimentary vessel is usually deliberately crafted to simulate standard corporeal biochemical emotional drives, as it has been found that not having them is often fatal for those attempting to maintain a Role or even keep a low profile. Indeed, the limiting factor is the celestial itself: most angels simply cannot handle the complex biochemical soup of emotions and drives that the average human routinely deals with every day.

Of the currently active Choirs in Heaven, the Elohim are probably best at handling this perennial problem: the Mercurians would dispute this, but it can be argued that the Friends of Man are the worst at working around inappropriate emotional reactions. Being so close to the humans that they are simulating, they are most prone to sharing human motivations: the Mercurians' unique problem is that they often cannot rise above their innate bias. To an Elohite, all sensations or states of being are the same: of interest, but never to be allowed to affect one's judgement, no matter how fundamental these sensations or states might be. This includes gender, of close.

All of which explains why Jean finds the various reactions to 'his' increasing tendency to appear on Earth in female form to be inappropriate, at best.

The Archangel of Lightning has excellent reasons for such a change in methodology, of course. First of all, Jean recognizes that, while 'he' has no lingering gender issues, other celestials do. While Jean may not particularly care whether the entity that 'he' is currently communicating is male, female or neuter, others do not share 'his' detachment - and that the prelude to efficient communication is to have a medium conducive to it. If that requires trivial changes in feature and body type, then so be it: it is infinitely easier for Jean to change 'his' form than it is for others to shed their prejudices, it seems.

Second, Jean has found that appearing in female form has increased the overall efficiency of 'her' female Soldiers and Saints by a significant portion, without a corresponding drop in efficiency among 'her' male Soldiers and Saints. It is in the Archangel of Lightning's best interest to encourage the proper intellectual development of the human race whenever possible: one obvious avenue is to fully eliminate the odd human habit of under-educating up to 50% (in some places) of their available population. Even leaving out the dubious morality of such behavior, humanity can hardly afford the loss of efficiency. Jean recognizes that assuming a female guise should make no perceptible difference - but it does, and Elohim do not argue with what works. If appearing as a woman will positively affect a Soldier's attempts to identify more fully the Word and principles of Lightning, then Jean will appear as a woman. The effort is trivial and the result significant.

Third (and most interesting), Jean has noted the effect that a regular appearance in female form has upon the Enemy. Many demons apparently consider this new behavior pattern to be an indication that the Archangel of Lightning is beginning to lose 'her' equilibrium: this has resulted in widespread attempts to further the process through various types of temptations. While this belief is, of course, deeply flawed, it has had at least one positive result. After all, it is difficult to provide a temptation at a distance - but attempting to do so directly invariably results in the immediate destruction of the would-be experimenter. Jean is quite interested in seeing how long it will take for Hell to work this out.

Indeed, at this present time Jean is beginning to speculate on changing 'his' default gender to female: if present trends are any indication, the result will be a small, yet significant, positive change in the efficiency levels of 'her' Word and various workers. The change in Jean's efficiency levels, of course, would remain unchanged: thus, logically, there is no real reason not to, at least on a temporary basis.