A Question of Gender: Science Fiction

It was a question of gender, really. She wasn't sure what she wanted, but she knew it wasn't standard-she, as she'd been born, though of course nobody called kids he or she; that would be rude, and limiting. She thought she might be a she-gear, one of the creatures of grease and iron and muscle that still had a disconcertingly earthy mind and a knack for luring in he-suits that didn't know what they were getting into, or liked pretending they didn't. She wasn't sure, though. Her mother was a house-she, a woman content with childrearing and home decor and gardening, though she'd gone through a phase of being he-femme before he met her father and became a house-she.

Inspiration: That discussion Phil and I had about necessary thought-about parts of science fiction framing.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: The other key part is that this can't be the story. It *has* to be the background, where the story takes place in this. I find the notion of gender speciation interesting.