Marco Farfarer

Marco Farfarer is a warrior Kung who, for reasons of religion and culture, ended up being brought up on Real Earth by kindly well-meaning foster parents.

This was an uneasy mix, as male Kung are not beset by the sort of concerns about "finding their feminine side" that can bedevil thoughtful and internally confused human males.

You could explain to Marco all about "gender politics" and "political correctness" and the notion of the "Real Man", and he might look puzzled for a moment but then understand them as abstract purely intellectual concepts which have no direct relevance to him. For male Kung are, shall we say, 100% male with no doubts or hang-ups or gender issues. A Real Kung makes Cohen the Barbarian look like a house-husband, and has much the same effect on a certain susceptible kind of human female.

Which makes being stranded on an alien Discworld (no, not THAT one) with two forthright and self-assertive females (Kin Arad and Silver) something of a trial...

(Reverse) Annotation

This sounds suspiciously like the biography of the Klingon Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by kindly foster-parents on Earth, but a member of a warrior race of which even the female members exude machismo from every pore. This is even before you consider male Klingons...

Strata was written in 1981. This contributor first saw episodes of Star Trek:TNG around 1987, in the form of imported American tapes screened at his university.

Is it possible this could be a reverse annotation?