[polytely]

>there are themes in the book which are sexist (weak willed females/effiminate men are at fault for dooming humanity...)

Huh, that wasn't what I took away from it while reading, might be lack of awareness on my part but I feel like saying that is a theme of the book which is sexist seems a bit much to me. could be interpreted as maybe, if you could name examples?

[readarticle]

The detailed commentary on the noticeably androgynous physical and “mental” characteristics of the future males in a society that has decided the trisolaran issue doesn’t exist anymore and has fully accepted defeatism (through non natural means, but still).

IIRC, this society then attempts to pursue diplomacy only to get massacred before the archaic male heroically sets up a MAD situation.

The archaic male then controversially hands over control of the MAD response to a weak willed/nuance entertaining female, and the trisolarans immediately attack.

Apologies if I’ve mixed the timeline, it’s been a while and the human story draped over the skeleton of an interstellar war was a bit thin.

[QuesnayJr]

I think the message of the book is more complex than that. The character who sets up the MAD situation spends half of the book having already given up, before discovering the MAD solution. At the same time, Earth pursues a straightforward military strategy of building a large space fleet to stop the Trisolarians, but are unable to anticipate the aliens' superior technology makes their efforts futile.

Ultimately, Earth sends the MAD signal, and ends up destroyed. The goal of the artificially installed defeatism was to make humanity flee the Earth, and it's only the those who fled the Earth who survive its destruction.

[polytely]

Huh, I guess I have to do a reread then I never connected those dots.

[Roritharr]

Maybe "are" was too harshly worded. I don't share that viewpoint myself but that's what the most complaints were about that I'm aware of.

I probably should have written "can be interpreted as"