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= Gender in speculative fiction =
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Introduction
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Gender has been an important theme explored in speculative fiction.
The genres that make up speculative fiction (SF), science fiction,
fantasy, supernatural fiction horror, superhero fiction, science
fantasy and related genres (utopian/dystopian literature), have always
offered the opportunity for writers to explore social conventions,
including gender, gender roles, and beliefs about gender. Like all
literary forms, the science fiction genre reflects the popular
perceptions of the eras in which individual creators were writing; and
those creators' responses to gender stereotypes and gender roles.
Many writers have chosen to write with little or no questioning of
gender roles, instead effectively reflecting their own cultural gender
roles onto their fictional world. However, many other writers have
chosen to use science fiction and non-realistic formats in order to
explore cultural conventions, particularly gender roles. This article
discusses works that have explored or expanded the treatment of gender
in science fiction.
In addition to the traditional human genders, science fiction has
extended the idea of gender to include transgender humans and
hypothetical alien species and robots, and imagined trans-real
genders, such as with aliens that are truly hermaphroditic or have a
"third" gender, or robots that can change gender at will or are
without gender.
Critical analysis
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Science fiction has been described as a useful tool for examining
society attitudes to and conceptions of gender; this is particularly
true of literature, more so than for other media. The conventions of
speculative fiction genres encourage writers to explore the subject of
biological sex and present alternative models for societies and
characters with different beliefs about gender. Extrapolation of an
initial speculative premise can as easily start from an idea about
marriage customs or chromosomes as a technological change. In spite of
this potential, SF has been said to present only ideas about sex and
gender that are fashionable or controversial in the present day, which
it then projects into a future or fantasy setting.
Science fiction in particular has traditionally been a puritanical
genre orientated toward a male readership, and has been described as
being by men for men, or sometimes for boys. Most of the stereotypical
tropes of science fiction, such as aliens, robots or superpowers can
be employed in such a way as to be metaphors for gender.
Fantasy has been perceived as more accepting of women compared to
science fiction or horror (and offering more roles than historical
fiction or romance), yet seldom attempts to question or subvert the
bias toward male superiority. Science fiction's tendency to look to
the future and imagine different societies gives it the potential to
examine gender roles and preconceptions, whereas the use of archetypes
and quasi-historical settings in fantasy has often included
patriarchy.
Portrayal of women
====================
The portrayal of women, or female-identified characters in the
speculative genres, has varied widely throughout the genres' history.
Some writers and artists have challenged their society's gender norms
in producing their work; others have not. Among those who have
challenged conventional understandings and portrayals of gender and
sexuality, there have been of course significant variations. The
common perception of the role of female-identified characters in SF
works has long been dominated by one of two stereotypes: a woman who
is evil (villainess) or one who is helpless (damsel in distress).
These characters are usually physically attractive and provocatively
dressed, often in scanty armor, and require redemption and validation
by a male hero. As more contemporary Speculative fiction emerges, new
gender roles and a way of viewing feminine-identified beings appear
with it. Viewers are seeing femininity in a new light as more
female-identified Authors and fans come into the speculative fiction
world. There have been female-identified characters in forms of strong
woman warriors, or even as a main character who can think for herself.
Examples of these gender rules being broken can be seen in many texts
such as �The Lord of the Rings� by J.R.R. Tolkien and even �The Man in
the High Castle� by Philip K. Dick. As more and more readers and fans
of science fiction become female identified, the portrayal of female
characters changes just as speculative fiction changes.
The first critical work focusing on women in SF was 'Symposium: Women
in Science Fiction' (1975), edited by Jeffrey D. Smith, and other
influential works include 'Future Females:A Critical Anthology' (1981)
edited by Marleen S. Barr.
Robots and cyborgs and the portrayal of women
===============================================
A gynoid is a robot designed to look like a human female, as compared
to an android modeled after a male (or genderless) human. Gynoids are
"irresistibly linked" to men's lust, and are mainly designed as
sex-objects, having no use beyond "pleasing men's violent sexual
desires". A long tradition exists in fiction of men attempting to
create the stereotypical "perfect woman". Examples include the Greek
myth of Pygmalion, and the female robot Maria in Fritz Lang's
Metropolis as well as the classic 1970s film The Stepford Wives.
Female cyborgs have been similarly used in fiction, in which natural
bodies are modified to become objects of fantasy. Fiction about
gynoids or female cyborgs reinforce "essentialist ideas of feminity".
Portrayal of men
==================
Many male protagonists of science fiction are reflections of a single
heroic archetype, often having scientific vocations or interests, and
being "cool, rational, competent", "remarkably sexless",
interchangeable, and bland. Annette Kuhn posits that these asexual
characters are attempts to gain independence from women and mother
figures, and that this and their unfailing mechanical prowess is what
gives them fans. The "super-male" and boy genius are also common
stereotypes frequently embodied by male characters.
Critics argue that much of science fiction fetishizes masculinity, and
that incorporation of technology into science fiction provides a
metaphor for imagined futuristic masculinity. Examples are the use of
"hypermasculine cyborgs and console-cowboys". Such technologies are
desirable as they reaffirm the readers' masculinity and protect
against feminisation. This fetishisation of masculinity via technology
in science fiction differs from typical fetishisation in other genres,
in which the fetishised object is always feminine.
The book 'Spreading Misandry' argues that science fiction is often
used to make unfounded political claims about gender, and attempt to
blame men for all of society's ills.
Portrayal of transgender humans
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While the ability to shift gender is common in Speculative and Science
fiction, there is very little representation of trans identified human
characters that are used as little more than a plot device for the
author. Male authors use the ability to change gender either
speculate about medical technology or to act out an ideal of
femininity. Female authors use shifting gender to discuss the
condition of being woman identified. Both create trans-identified
characters as caricatures of women, rather than full humans. This is
beginning to shift as more trans and queer identified authors are
writing within the Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction/Fantasy genres.
Single-gender worlds: utopias and dystopias
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Single-gender worlds or single-sex societies have long been one of the
primary ways to explore implications of gender and gender differences.
In speculative fiction, female-only worlds have been imagined to come
about by the action of disease that wipes out men, along with the
development of technological or mystical methods that allow female
parthenogenic reproduction. The resulting society is often shown to be
utopian by feminist writers. Many influential feminist utopias of this
sort were written in the 1970s; the most often studied examples
include Joanna Russ's 'The Female Man', Suzy McKee Charnas's 'Walk to
the End of the World' and 'Motherlines', and Marge Piercy's 'Woman on
the Edge of Time'. Utopias imagined by male authors have generally
included equality between sexes, rather than separation. Such worlds
have been portrayed most often by lesbian or feminist authors; their
use of female-only worlds allows the exploration of female
independence and freedom from patriarchy. The societies may not
necessarily be lesbian, or sexual at all�a famous early sexless
example being 'Herland' (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Men-only
societies are much less common; one example is Athos in 'Ethan of
Athos' (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold. Joanna Russ suggests men-only
societies are not commonly imagined, because men do not feel
oppressed, and therefore imagining a world free of women does not
imply an increase in freedom and is not as attractive.
Utopias have been used to explore the ramification of gender being
either a societal construct, or a hard-wired imperative. In Mary
Gentle's 'Golden Witchbreed', gender is not chosen until maturity, and
gender has no bearing on social roles. In contrast, Doris Lessing's
'The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five' (1980) suggests
that men's and women's values are inherent to the sexes and cannot be
changed, making a compromise between them essential. In 'My Own
Utopia' (1961) by Elizabeth Mann-Borgese, gender exists but is
dependent upon age rather than sex�genderless children mature into
women, some of whom eventually become men. Charlene Ball writes in
'Women's Studies Encyclopedia' that use of speculative fiction to
explore gender roles in future societies has been more common in the
United States compared to Europe and elsewhere.
Literature
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Eric Leif Davin, for instance, documented almost 1,000 stories
published in science fiction magazines by over 200 female-identified
authors between 1926 and 1960.
Proto SF
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In the early twentieth century, some women writers rebelled against
the novels in which valiant men rescued weak women or fought against
humourless, authoritarian female regimes. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
wrote 'Herland', an important early feminist utopia, and Virginia
Woolf wrote 'Orlando'. Both Perkins and Woolf identified strongly with
the first wave feminism of the period,and its call for equal rights
and suffrage for women.
The Pulp Era and the Golden Age (1920�1950s)
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SF portrayals of future societies remained broadly patriarchal, and
female characters continued to be gender stereotyped and relegated to
standardised roles that supported the male protagonists. Early
feminist SF visions of all-women utopias were inverted by pulp writers
to tell cautionary tales about the "sex war", in which brave men had
to rescue society from joyless and dictatorial women, usually to the
satisfaction of both sexes. John W. Campbell's 'Astounding Science
Fiction' was unusual in its covers not depicting men with ray guns and
women with large breasts. William Knoles wrote in his 1960 'Playboy'
article on the era, "Girls of the Slime God", that
Isaac Asimov disagreed, stating in 1969 that "until 1960 there was no
branch of literature anywhere (except perhaps for the children's
stories in Sunday school bulletins) as puritanical as science
fiction", and that Knoles had to get his quotes from one "1938-39
magazine" which, Asimov said, published "spicy" stories for its "few
readers" before "a deserved death". Floyd C. Gale in his 1962 review
of 'Stranger in a Strange Land' said that until recently
"science-fictional characters owned no sexual organs".
In the 1940s, post-WWII, female writers like Judith Merril and Leigh
Brackett emerged, reclaiming female characters and carving out respect
in their own right. C. L. Moore is an example of a woman successfully
writing pulp speculative fiction tales under a genderless pen-name.
Her story "No Woman Born" (1944), in which a female character's mind
is transferred into a powerful robot body with feminine attributes is
an early example of a work that challenged gender stereotypes of its
day by combining femininity with power. Brian Attebery suggest that if
the robot had appeared male, the gender would have been unremarkable
or even invisible to readers, as masculine figures could be expected
to be powerful.
During the pulp era, unfavorable presentations of matriarchal
societies, even dystopias were common. In John Wyndham's 'Consider Her
Ways' (1956), for example, male rule is described as repressive to
women, but freedom from patriarchy was achieved through an
authoritarian female-only society modelled on ants society.
The 1930s saw the beginnings of fantasy as a distinct publishing
genre. Reacting against the hard, scientific, dehumanizing trends of
contemporary science fiction, this new branch of SF drew on
mythological and historical traditions and Romantic literature,
including Greek and Roman mythologies, Norse sagas, the 'Arabian
Nights' and Adventure stories such as Alexandre Dumas� 'Three
Musketeers'. The conventions brought with them a tendency toward
patriarchy and cast women in restrictive roles defined as early as in
the plays of Euripides. These roles included that of the
"helper-maiden" or of "reproductive demon".
The 1930s also saw the advent of the sword and sorcery subgenre of
pulp tales, which brought overt sexualisation to the representation of
women in fantasy. Although physically more capable, female characters
frequently continued to act as helpers to the male leads, but were now
depicted as extremely attractive and very briefly clothed. The first
female lead character of a sword and sorcery story was Jirel of Joiry,
created by C. L. Moore and first appearing in "Black God's Kiss"
('Weird Tales', volume 24, number 4, October 1934).
New Wave (1960-1970s)
=======================
Whereas the 1940s and 50s have been called the Golden Age of science
fiction in general, the 1960s and 1970s are regarded as the most
important and influential periods in the study of gender in
speculative fiction.
This creative period saw the appearance of many influential novels by
female authors, including Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Left Hand of
Darkness' (1969), described as the book with which SF "lost its
innocence on matters of sex and gender", and 'The Dispossessed'
(1974); Joanna Russ's most important works, particularly 'The Female
Man' (1975), regarded by many as the central work of women's SF; and
'The Two of Them' (1978); Anne McCaffrey's prescient cyborg novel,
'The Ship Who Sang' (1969); Vonda McIntyre's two most influential
novels, 'The Exile Waiting' (1975) and 'Dreamsnake' (1978); Marge
Piercy�s 'Woman on the Edge of Time' (1976), the most important
contribution to feminist sf by an author known mainly for realistic
work; and several novels by Octavia Butler, especially 'Kindred'
(1979) and 'Wild Seed' (1980), which have been described as
groundbreaking, and established an African-American female voice in
SF.
Important short stories included many by James Tiptree Jr. (a male
pseudonym used by Alice Sheldon), for instance 'The Women Men Don't
See' (1973), 'The Girl Who Was Plugged In' (1973), and 'The Screwfly
Solution' (1977).
These works coincided with the beginnings of application of feminist
theory to SF,. creating a self-consciously feminist science fiction.
Feminist SF has been distinguished from earlier feminist utopian
fiction by its greater attention to characterisation and inclusion of
gender equality.
Male writers also began to approach depiction of gender in new ways,
with Samuel R. Delany establishing himself as the most radical voice
among male SF figures for representations of alternative sexualities
and gender-models in a series of major works, most importantly (with
respect to gender), in 'Triton' (1976). Gary Westfahl points out that
"Heinlein is a problematic case for feminists; on the one hand, his
works often feature strong female characters and vigorous statements
that women are equal to or even superior to men; but these characters
and statements often reflect hopelessly stereotypical attitudes about
typical female attributes. It is disconcerting, for example, that in
'Expanded Universe' Heinlein calls for a society where all lawyers and
politicians are women, essentially on the grounds that they possess a
mysterious feminine practicality that men cannot duplicate."
Modern SF (1980�2000s)
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By the 1980s the intersection of feminism and SF was already a major
factor in the production of the literature itself.
Authors such as Nicola Griffith and Sheri S. Tepper frequently write
on gender-related themes. Tepper's work has been described as "the
definition of feminist science fiction", and her treatment of gender
has varied from early optimistic science fantasies, in which women
were equally as capable as men, to more pessimistic works, including
'The Gate to Women's Country', in which men are the cause of war and
pollution and true equality can only be achieved by transcending
humanity altogether.
The Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke award winning Ancillary Justice
by Ann Leckie (2013) portrays a society where gender is an unimportant
detail in people's lives. It refers to most characters as female,
unless they're talking in a different language than the dominant one.
This leaves the gender of most characters unclear. The reader, used to
books that consistently use male pronouns, is constantly slightly on
edge, because of the consistent use of 'she', 'her' etc.
The September 2017 anthology, 'Meanwhile, Elsewhere', is a collection
of short stories written by transgender authors about transgender
characters. The anthology includes Jeanne Thornton's "Angels Are Here
To Help Us", which explores access to technology, money and privilege,
and Ryka Aoki's "The Gift", about a young trans girl coming out in a
world where being trans is completely accepted. The book was edited by
Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett and was published by Topside Press.
Comics
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There was a time when more girls read comics than boys, but these
comics were generally realist, with a focus on romance and crime
stories. However, for most of their existence, comic books audiences
have been assumed to be mostly male. The female characters and
superheroes were targeted towards this male demographic, rather than
towards women readers. Although many female superheroes were created,
very few starred in their own series or achieved stand-alone success.
It has been debated whether the lack of female readership was due to
male writers being uncomfortable with writing about or for women, or
whether the comic book industry is male dominated due to the lack of
intrinsic interest of women in comics.
The first known female superhero is writer-artist Fletcher Hanks's
minor character Fantomah, an ageless, ancient Egyptian woman in the
modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with
superpowers to fight evil; she debuted in 1940 in Fiction Houses
'Jungle Comics'.
In the early 1940s the DC line was dominated by superpowered male
characters such as the Green Lantern, Batman, and its flagship
character, Superman. The first widely recognizable female superhero is
Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston for All-American
Publications, one of three companies that would merge to form DC
Comics. Marston intended the character to be a strong female
role-model for girls, with "all the strength of Superman plus all the
allure of a good and beautiful woman."
Film
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Female characters in early science fiction films such as Barbarella
(1968) were often portrayed as simple sex kittens.
Professor Sherrie Inness has said that the portrayals of tough women
in later science fiction embody women's fantasies of empowerment, such
as the characters of Sharrow in the Iain M. Banks' novel 'Against a
Dark Background' (1993) or Alex in the film 'Nemesis 2', who both
physically overpower male attackers.
Television
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Early television depicted women primarily as idealized "perfect
housewives" or (often black) domestic workers. By the mid-1960s and
1970s, cultural mores had relaxed, and sexual objectification of women
became more commonplace. This period also saw diversification in
women's roles, with blurring between the roles of middle-class
housewife and working mother and the representations of women of
different age, race, class, sexual orientation. The appearance of
strong female characters, such as in 'Charlie's Angels', remained
limited by associations of power with male approval.
The 1960s and 70s also saw the beginnings of SF and fantasy elements
being incorporated into television programming.
Popular early SF programming in the 1960s reconciled the use of SF
tropes that empowered women with stereotypes of women's social domains
and femininity. This was seen in popular series such as 'I Dream of
Jeannie' and 'Bewitched', both of which have female protagonists with
magical abilities. 'Bewitcheds Samantha is a witch who chooses to use
her abilities as a home-maker, and her husband prefers that she limits
such displays of power as much as possible, particularly when they
could challenge his ego. Most of her uses of magic were to save her
husband appearing foolish in front of his peers or undoing
interference from her more empowered and feminist mother, Endora. In
contrast, the titular character of 'I Dream of Jeannie' was inept in
her house-wifely duties and was more likely to use her magic when she
felt it appropriate. However, this was always in the service of her
"Master", who demanded her nature as a genie be kept secret. Jeannie's
subservience and skimpy clothing also identified her primarily as a
sex object. Both programs showed women gaining more power and
prominence through the metaphor of magic, but that this power was
limited by women's willingness to obey male authority.
The 1960s also saw the first speculative presentations of women
outside the realm of domestic life. 'Star Treks Lt. Uhura is a famous
early example of a woman space explorer, and her race made her a
role-model for black women in particular. Her inclusion in the series
is credited with bringing more women into science fiction fandom. The
character was seen as a success of the feminist and civil rights
movements of the era, representing the ideal of racial equality and
women's ability to find meaningful employment outside of marriage and
family. However, her role never rose beyond that of futuristic
receptionist, and her uniform and prominent but generally silent
placement in the background of scenes made her the series primary eye
candy.
SF series of the 1970s followed in a similar vein, with speculative
elements used to physically empower women, while society required that
they pretend to be typical and non-threatening. Examples include 'The
Bionic Woman' and the television adaption of 'Wonder Woman'.
Notes
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SF is used throughout as an abbreviation for speculative fiction, for
convenience. Science fiction and slash fiction are written in full
when referred to specifically.
Collected in 'Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Stories of Henry
Kuttner and C. L. Moore'
Collected in 'Her Smoke Rose Up Forever'.
External links
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*[
https://prezi.com/hi6jkuwotpte/masculine-feminine-movie-genres/
Masculine vs Feminine film genres]
*[
https://www.themarysue.com/dark-beyond-the-stars-review/ Author
Defends Sci-Fi as A �Purely Male Domain� in Cringingly Sexist Review
of All-Women Anthology]
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=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_speculative_fiction
