In the Ancillary universe some characters are defined as “conventionally attractive”, but I was wondering how this intersects with their understanding of gender but more importantly race. Many current standards of “conventional beauty” are heavily gendered but also racial biased, and I was wondering how a common Radchaai standard of beauty would be defined without these restraints?

Ann Leckie So, you're right that gender wouldn't be a restraint. But ethnically based standards of beauty? Totally a thing. Seivarden's "aristocratic looks" are aristocratic because she's related to certain people--more importantly, her family's forebears belonged to a particular set of families that belonged to a particular Radchaai ethnic group, and the powerful players in Radchaai space, early on, were members of that group.

Of course Radch space is huge, and they've assimilated lots of other groups, so there are local standards, and standards of beauty that have been absorbed from annexed populations, and of course lots of those would be ethnically based as well.

And, of course, never dismiss the influence of fashion. Which sometimes is a function of what marks you as wealthy or powerful, but can also be odd, and inexplicable.

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