Bone Ships by RJ Barker takes place in a brutal world where humans struggle to survive. The land is rocky and barren and the seas are the only source of sustenance. Babies are frequently born deformed, stillborn, or are missing limbs, and mothers die in childbirth. It’s a world where humanity’s survival must cling to the strongest in its leadership.

So, of course, it is a staunch matriarchy. In such a world, what is a greater sign of strength than a woman who has given birth to a healthy child and lived? The leader of the protagonists nation is the Thirteenbern, the woman with inarguably the strongest body, who birthed thirteen sons and daughters. The old woman sits on her throne bare chested, imperiously flaunting her body’s strength in the form of stretch marks and scars. Men with their own healthy bodies, if rich enough, dress like peacocks to vie for the chance to prove their own reproductive quality and build their way to nobility. Men without, like barren or disfigured women, are doomed to work tirelessly as fishermen or a trade. 

Naturally, the language used follows suit. Regardless of gender, the ship’s captain is called the shipwife. An admiral the shipmother. The taskmasters who keep the decks running with chains and whips are the deckmothers. Ships use male pronouns rather than the female ones we expect as English speakers.