Women in science fiction

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Women have always been represented among science fiction writers and fans. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley has been called the first science fiction novel,[1] although women wrote utopian novels even before that, with Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle, publishing the first in the 1600s.[2] In fantasy, the rich heritage of myth and religion and folktales emerged from oral cultures transmitted by both men and women, and early published fantasy was written by and for both genders – for example gothic romances, ghost stories, and similar stories. Other examples of speculative fiction include utopias and surreal fiction, both of which, again, were written and enjoyed by women as well as men.

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[edit] Writers and professionals

While women such as Clare Winger Harris and Gertrude Barrows Bennett were present from the beginning as creators and consumers of science fiction, the genre had a reputation as a men's genre.[citation needed] However, some critics have argued that the reputation is unjustified. 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.[3] Women were among the early winners of significant science fiction awards, such as the Nebula, Locus, and Hugos, although certainly not perceived as present in large numbers.

Unquestionably, however, the advent of second wave feminism in the 1960s, combined with the growing view of science fiction as the literature of ideas, led to an influx of female science fiction writers, and some saw this influx as the first appearance of women into the genre.

In the 1960s and 1970s, authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin (who debuted in 1963) and Joanna Russ (who debuted in the 1950s) began to consciously explore feminist themes in works such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Female Man, creating a self-consciously feminist science fiction.

[edit] Fans

While science fiction fandom has been an organized phenomenon for decades -- presaging the organized fandoms of other genres and media -- the study of science fiction fandom within cultural studies and science fiction studies is relatively new. Consequently, assertions about the prevalence of women in fandom are largely anecdotal and personal, and sometimes contradictory. Most prominent among these assertions is the claim that it was the advent of the original Star Trek television series which brought large quantities of women into fandom.

What is known is that female fandom began organizing in the 1970s. The slash movement among fans began, as far as anyone can tell, with Diane Marchant's publication of the first known Star Trek "Kirk/Spock" story in Grup #3 in 1974. The fanzine Khatru published a "Women in Science Fiction" symposium in 1975 (one of the "males" who participated was James Tiptree, Jr.). In 1976, Susan Wood set up what was apparently the first identity-oriented panel at a science fiction convention: a panel on "women and science fiction" at MidAmericon, the 1976 Worldcon; this ultimately led to the founding of A Women's APA, the first women's amateur press association. Also in 1976, WisCon, the world's leading -- and for many years, only -- feminist science fiction convention and conference was founded: an annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin.[4]

However, the perception of science fiction as a men's genre continues to be widespread. As the inclusion of women within science fiction and fantasy more broadly has become obvious, the specificity of the perception has evolved. For instance, the commonplace that "science fiction (and fantasy) are a man's genre" has been refined by some to distinguish between science fiction as a men's genre, and fantasy as a women's genre. Others have refined this distinction still further, attempting to distinguish between hard science fiction (e.g., based on physics or astronomy) as a men's genre, and soft science fiction (e.g., based on biology or sociology) as a women's genre. Little formal study has supported any of these distinctions, whether based on readers, writers, or characters.

[edit] Fiction

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The portrayal of women, or more broadly, the portrayal of gender in science fiction, has varied widely throughout the genre's 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 women, men, and sexuality, there have been of course significant variations.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the utopian movements in Europe and the United States led to exploration of utopian and visionary sentiments in fiction. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland is often cited as an early feminist utopia of this sort.

Publishing trends in the first part of the century -- specifically, the ability of relatively cheap printing and publishing operations -- led to the pulp tradition, which offered some of the most common images of women in science fiction even today: a presumably alien woman in a metal bikini astride some fantastic creature, or perhaps menaced by such a creature. Science fiction and fantasy artists such as Boris Vallejo, who got started as a professional science fiction artist in the 1960s, built on the old pulp traditions, creating what they imagined to be hyper-masculinized or hyper-feminized portrayals of men and women.

[edit] Influence of political movements

The study of women within science fiction in the last decades of the twentieth century has been driven in part by the feminist and gay liberation movements, and has included strands of the various related and spin-off movements, such as gender studies and queer theory.

In the 1970s, a number of events began to focus on women in fandom, professional science fiction, and as characters.

The 1970s also saw a vibrant gay liberation movement, which made its presence known in science fiction; the gay/lesbian bookstore "A Different Light", which took its name from Elizabeth A. Lynn's novel of the same name; and a focus on glbt issues in the pages of feminist publications.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brian Aldiss in his history of science fiction, "Billion Year Spree"; see Frankenstein
  2. ^ Eric Leif Davin, "Partners in Wonder," pp. 54-55.
  3. ^ Eric Leif Davin, Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965.
  4. ^ See generally Helen Merrick, "From Female Man to Feminist Fan: Uncovering 'Herstory' in the Annals of SF Fandom," in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminism, ed. by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, 1999: pp. 115–139.

[edit] Further reading

  • Larbalestier, Justine. "The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction." Wesleyan University Press, Middleton, Connecticut, 2002.
  • Merrick, Helen. "From Female Man to Feminist fan: Uncovering 'Herstory' in the Annals of SF Fandom." in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminism, edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, 1999: pp. 115–139.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links