" The fact is, the only time a man is really and entirely a man is when he's just had a woman or just killed another man. That wasn't original, he'd read it in some old books; but it was true. That was why he liked to imagine scenes like that. Even if the creechies weren't actually men. "

― Ursula K. Le Guin , The Word for World Is Forest (Hainish Cycle, #5)