The Women Men Don't See

The Women Men Don't See is a short story written by Alice Bradley Sheldon under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr.^[1]

Originally published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1973, it subsequently was republished in 2011's "The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology".^[2]

Plot

The short story is told from the perspective of Don Fenton, an American government agent, and revolves around Ruth Parsons, a woman he meets while on vacation in Mexico. Ruth and her daughter Althea charter a plane with the Mayan pilot Esteban and allow Fenton to travel with them. When the plane crashes, Don and Ruth split off from Althea and Esteban in order to search for fresh water. Throughout the ordeal, Don becomes increasingly annoyed when Ruth does not panic or act in a way he expects of a woman. His conversations with Ruth reveal that she feels alienated since she is a woman, though Don is unable to understand her views. During an encounter with aliens, Ruth pleads with them to take her and Althea away from Earth while Don tries to “save” her from the extraterrestrials. In the end the aliens leave with the Parsons, leaving Don bewildered and questioning why the two women would rather leave with aliens than stay on Earth.

Reception

Gardner Dozois has said that "Women" should have won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, despite not having been on the ballot.^[3]

PZ Myers describes the narrator of "Women" as not just unreliable, but "irrelevant" — "a man who comes along for the ride and really doesn’t understand anything that’s going on, because he can’t see the real protagonists as anything but a couple of women."^[4]

References

External links

• The Women Men Don't See title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database