BONUS - "I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter" by Isabel Fall (2020)
07/15/2025
Our bonus episode this time is on “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter” by Isabel Fall. Deep in the Year in the Shell, it seemed like a good time to revisit this incredible short story that looks at the intersection between state-sanctioned violence, bodies, specialized machines, and gender.
Content warnings for this episode: frank discussions of bodies, military reconditioning, gender and gender dysphoria, war, sex and sexuality, allusions to gendered and sexually violence, social media brigading/dogpiling, and mental health issues.
Audio in the introduction is an excerpt from the Clarkesworld podcast reading of the story, linked in archive below. Our theme is “She Loves Your Fusion” by PartyFactor on Pixabay. Other sound effects also sourced from Pixabay. Any and all clips of copyrighted media are included for transformative use or commentary, and On the Shoulders of Giants makes no claim of ownership on the sampled audio.
Further Reading...
You can read Isabel Fall’s story archived on this NeoCities site, and the archive of the Clarkesworld podcast where it was read aloud thanks to the Internet Archive here. The article about the aftermath of the Twitter meltdown around the story from Emily St. James with VOX is here.