6. The Pequeninos and Father Trees
Much like their creator, noted homophobe Orson Scott Card, the pequininos of his novel Speaker For the Dead are quite preoccupied with ideas about masculinity and what it means to be male. What the humans who first land on the pequininos’ home planet do not understand initially is that the aliens’ pig-like appearances are only one of the three stages of life they progress through. What the humans see as the male “piggies” murdering and disemboweling their brethren is actually the pequininos’ helping their honored peers take root in the soil in order to become Father Trees, massive sentient trees that can communicate with one another telepathically.
