I'm going to be teaching (if the class makes -- I need 12 students) a Science Fiction class in the spring. This is classed as Contemporary Literature, and I've set myself apart from my colleagues by trying to get texts as recent as I can. I've been working on the syllabus for a while now, but I've got a large gap that's driving me nuts. I could use your advice.
Here's the subgenres I'm covering: The Space Opera -- Frank Herbert's Dune (This genre is a bit frustrating because Dune is from 1975 and a bit hefty, but the space opera genre has moved from books to movies -- I can't find any new ones.)
Military: John Scalzi's Old Man's War.
The Post-Scarcity/Utopia: Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
Dystopia and Cyberpunk: William Gibson's Neuromancer.
If I have time, Parody -- Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide (again, a bit dated, but I thought it would be a fun way to end the course).
Now what is missing is Feminist Science Fiction. It's an essential part of the genre, but I can't find a text that really thrills me. The one most often selected for this subgenre is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, but I want something else. This might just be me but I'd like to see one where the women aren't beaten down. The other is Sherri Tepper's Gate to Women's Country, but I've worked with that one before and bless her heart, it's just not well written. Can you think of any science fiction novels that deal with the place of women in the future that you thought were particularly well written? I looked at Mercedes Lackey, but most of her work sounds like fantasy rather than sci-fi. I worry that Ursula Le Guinn is too old, with Left Hand of Darkness in 1969. I haven't read anything by Octavia Butler. When I've tried searches of new books and new authors, I'm not getting many new feminist sci-fi novels.
The problem is, there aren't very many feminist sci-fi books published, at least, not so much any more. Feminist anything been given such a bad rep that people stay away in their flocks.
Have you tried looking for the award winners? Like the Nebula etc? There could be a few in there.
Well thanks for confirming what I suspected. Which is not to say that there aren't great female science-fiction novelists writing today. For example, Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow is one of the best contemporary books I've come across, period, but it's a critique of religion through the eyes of science-fiction. At the moment, I have Social Critique as one of the subgenres, and The Sparrow there, but I still can't let go of the notion that Feminist Sci-Fi was just such an important genre. I'm tempted to do like I'm doing with Space Opera, and include Ursula Le Guin's work and ask, "Now where did Feminist Sci-Fi go?"
Another trend I've noticed is for strong female characters and for discussions of gender to appear in Fantasy as opposed to Science-Fiction. I find that curious but I'm not ready to start making assessments on it.
Unfortunately, both genres are dominated by male writers and not too many of them even understand what feminism is these days let alone be prepared to write about it. It's also possible that strong female characters are easier to write in fantasy than sci-fi because in fantasy there are far fewer limitations and much greater scope to write what you want. No matter how you phrase it, sci-fi suggests an extrapolation of where we are now. Fantasy can toss everything we know out of the window and start from a fresh page.
I only just recently read Left Hand of Darkness and absolutely loved it. One of the best things about it being a feminist book is that it's first and foremost, a good cracking story, and a feminist discussion board second.
And more annoying than anything, even good female writers tend to write stories about male characters - and even when they include a female, it's the male who is central, and usually tips the 1 to two or two to five ratio - Harry Potter is a perfect example of three main characters, the central is male and of the three, only one is female. You see this ratio repeated everywhere on tv in cop shows, legal shows etc.
Okay, I've got an assignment due on Monday so I'll get off my soap box now. Sorry, you've hit a bit of a sore point with me. I hope you include Handmaid's Tale anyway, given the current interest in how women are treated in the middle east. And asking the question about where feminist sci-fi has gone is probably not a bad question to ask.
And you know what? This should be your hot button issue. It's certainly in my top ten.
Check this out. I came online just to write this up. I'm sitting on my couch this morning, grading my students' weekly writing. Each week I give students about 15 questions to ponder, and to write 250 words in answer to one of those questions. I'm clear that I don't judge or assess the content, just the writing skills. Here's what I got from a female student:
"Women should not be allowed to join the armed conflict. Women should be home taking well care of their families while the husbands fight in the war. Women, mothers, and wives are for bearing children and sending their children off to daycare and seeing their child's first steps. They shouldn't be fighting in battles for our country. It has always been, "a man's thing" to fight in the military, army, navy, marines and working altogether. . . . I'm not one to be sexist, but I just don't believe it is a female's duty to fight in any war or battle."
Sigh. This coming from the student who scored highest on the grammar test.
Reminds me of the semester when I had three separate female students say, without talking to each other and in answer to the question, if you could live in any historical era which would you pick, that they wanted to live in the 1950s because the women in all the pictures look so happy.
I just finished reading The Women's History of the World (Rosalind Miles). Perhaps you could suggest it as a book to read for this woman. There's countless examples of woman that did a great deal to fight, especially in the War of Independence and on the frontier. That's not even talking about the women in various stages in Europe and UK etc.
But women have been brainwashed again about their role in society, and feminism has successfully been denounced so much that you hear the term femi-nazi as being common. As though there is a perfect correlation between a bunch of torturing, murdering, gas-chambering bastards who took the whole world to war for a racist ideal, and women who simply want equal rights to men. My own brother thinks feminism is actually about women being superior. This from the man who bought himself Bertrand Russell's seminal work on philosophy as a birthday present for himself!
Truth is, not a day goes by these days when I'm not composing a novel in my head to tell the about some of the amazing women that history has conveniently written out. Sad thing is, the chances of getting something like that published - especially if it doesn't contain a love story - is unlikely to get published. Not that that will stop me.
I know a female sci-fi/fantasy author who writes rather astonishing: (Gail Z. Martin) She's written a few nice novels, and I just finished reading one titled: The Blood King (book two of the chronicles of the necromancer) You can also check this website for many more female authors: www.solarisbooks.com
I truly agree that Feminist science fiction writers are needed. They can bring a unique emotion to their work-the kind of emotion that us males find difficult to comprehend.
Very great points by the way Tracey...the truth is like poison for those who run from it!
Thanks for the suggestion, Moses. I ran over to Amazon to pull up her books. I thought that name was familiar. Every time I'm in a bookstore, I pick up her books and debate buying it. I usually talk myself out of it by thinking of the huge stack of books I already own that demand I read them.
Do you know Martin personally? If so, tell her the next time you talk to her that she's got a fan in the waiting, soon as I can get to her.
I came across a critic a few days ago who argued that after the 1980s, all sci-fi texts are feminists. Her argument was that the sci-fi audience had already accepted women as heroes, rather than as damsels in need of distress, that too many sci-fi novelists of both genders wrote frequently on genderless societies, and that female sci-fi writers no longer felt the need to write solely on gender. Mary Dora Russell would be a good example. An interesting argument. I can say that the books I've got ready for next semester's class on sci-fi that were written after 1980 all have strong, well-developed female characters in unquestioned leadership roles and have storylines in which gender differences aren't even a part of the background.
Though I'm still thinking there's a scholarly article here. So many female writers are going to fantasy and not sci-fi. As Tracey's already mentioned, that reveals a lot about our current culture.
Hey guys...thanks for that well said history on Feminist authors CR. I agree with Tracey, it is easier for a woman to turn to fantasy-simply because of the freedom. Sci-fi would be more complex to create...I was reading your first chapter "Jovia" and I was blown away! It will definitely take me a couple of months to catch up.
And no, I never met Gail personally, but I talk to her via-email from time to time. She is a very deep thinker, loves to blog, and has an original-chronological orders in her books-that is amazing to read! She creates her own reference to time! Here is her recent blog: http://blog.myspace.com/chronicleofthenecromancer
Thanks Ken, although I know you have the best two teachers...I am just a noob!
There's no doubt that there are books out there with strong female characters, but there always have been. Look at the Brontes, at Austin etc - the list goes on. Elizabeth Bennett is my hero. Stories with strong female characters, as opposed to damsels in distress have never been lacking, even in the sci-fi genre.
The problem is not the appearance of good female characters - it's the stories themselves. In order to see a female character as strong, she has to be as good at everything as the guys are. Only she never is. At best, she's only ever almost as good as the hero. But the point is - we're talking about female characters who compete in a male environment using male characteristics.
What about female characteristics? What about female characters who do not tell their stories by shooting things up? What about strong female characters who aren't trying to be men in order to prove that they're equal? Or for that matter, aren't the three classic stereotypes for women - the nun, the mother and the whore? Is this really the best that sci-fi literature can do? We're either men, religious and virginal, mothers or whores.
This is actually one of the things I like about Jen's Hannah - she doesn't fall into any of those categories. She's just Hannah. Sure, she can fight. But she can also do other things and she isn't defined by her ability to fight - nor is she constantly competing with the men.
Like I said, we've lost track of what feminism is actually about - equality. But until we see equal numbers of females to males in a story, and equal representation of female stories in sci-fi novels, then it ain't happening. I suspect it will be a while before we see much more of it written in sci-fi. Unless, of course, I get a really great idea .
Welcome aboard, Moses. I'm afraid I'm a bit behind in my reading again too. May I just say, you have some treats ahead of you.
Very nice points you have. I think that there is a high level of difficulty trying to write a female protagonist, if you are a man. Simply because we are just writing from what we think we know about a woman's characteristics. Only a woman can express such complexity. If you look at Sigorney Weaver in Alliens, she became tough because she was a survivior, and then there is Aeon Flux an old anime that use to come on MTV. I loved her character because even though Aeon was in a war, she still expressed a soft sensual side. These characteristics must be addressed with sensitivity.
Tracey, there are so many days (over the past nine years -- can you believe it's been that long since 1999?) when I wish you were over here so I could hug you.
I make my students read this essay from They Went Whistling by Barbara Holland. She argues that the feminist movement made a wrong turn in the 1970s by insisting that women and men are "exactly the same" when it comes to industrial-financial corporate careers. Doing so first of all chained women into the conservative mindset of "don't rock the boat," which is the exact opposite of what women had been doing all along and what women need to be doing even today. As she writes, a woman can't protest if it will cost her her job and career. More importantly, she argues, the feminist movement took on the "role" or "behavior" of men. Women in essense became men, or at least models of men. Doing so also marginalized any woman who tried to be different, who tried to explore the other qualities that before were seen as valuable "feminine" traits -- nurturance, communication, non-competitive social structures, child-rearing, etc. Those traits became "weakness," "vulnerablity," even domesticated victimization (aka the housewife).
Holland says, instead of going into the corporate world, why don't women want to chuck it all out the window and explore the Amazon? Why don't they become artists or poets? And then she cites my truest hero--Freya Stark--a woman who in the 1920s decided that she would just up and be the first Westerner to explore northwestern Iran. (Now that note is for everyone else--I fell so much in love with Freya Stark that I mailed Tracey a copy of her biography.) That she is a woman is irrelevant to me. She is just one of the best and brightest of humanity. Her life leaves me in a glossy-eyed state of wonder--I wish I had been her. And so each semester I introduce students to her. One day I'm going to have a female student look at me and say, "That's it. I'm off."
She's the kind of female hero I'd like to write.
But, Tracey, you skewered Farah Mendlesohn's argument, and I was a poor scholar not to see it myself. I look at John Scalzi's Old Man's War, and though the soldiers are lead by women and there are women in combat roles, they are still only "male" soldiers in "drag." I look at William Gibson's Neuromancer, and though Molly is an enforcer, she is still portraying the male stereotype of the brutal thug/assassin.
Moments like this remind me of a summer afternoon on my grandparents' porch. My grandfather made some comment about a woman who had given a speech at one of my grandmother's functions. Now, my grandmother is Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances. She barely even paused after my grandfather finished his critique and replied, "Yes, I thought she was full of shit, too."
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