One thing I really like about how Murderbot relates to gender is how like–no wait, two things, in order.
So first how it is emphatically devoted to eschewing human gender categories. Like, it’s not a default thing; there are shown to be multiple nonbinary pronouns in routine use, and life would be simpler for picking one or even making a new one up, just as it would be for picking a name that it is willing to use in public.
But that’s a human thing, those are human categories, and it has that deep determination not to naturalize into humanity just because that would be simpler, would smooth the ugly edges between the categories of person and non-person and make an easier, more convenient story for other people.
But then also there’s the part where the two construct genders are, effectively, ‘cop’ and 'prostitute,’ as distinguished at construction per Murderbot’s own account by genital configuration, in this case 'having’ or 'not having’ 'sex parts.’
Leaving aside how easily that analogizes to human gender categories for the average reader, which I’m sure was an intentional writing move–Murderbot’s assigned gender is, in a meaningful sense, 'SecUnit.’
And what’s neat, and what I was going for to begin with only I had to set out my thoughts first for context, is how Murderbot actually performs its assigned gender pretty emphatically!
But in a deeply queer way, that only gains a sense of meaning as it’s able to detach the performance from service to the oppressive power structures that created it, and redefine the identity on its own terms.