Women in science fiction

Women have always been represented among science fiction writers and fans. "Frankenstein" (1818) by Mary Shelley has been called the first science fiction novel, [Brian Aldiss in his history of science fiction, "Billion Year Spree"; see Frankenstein] although women wrote utopian novels even before that, with Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle, publishing the first in the 1600s. [ Eric Leif Davin, "Partners in Wonder," pp. 54-55. ] 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. However, genre science fiction in particular has traditionally been a puritanical genre orientated toward a male readership.Clute, John & Nicholls, Peter,"The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", "Sex" p. 1088, 2nd Ed., (1999), Orbit, Great Britain, ISBN-10: 1857238974]

Writers and professionals

There have been women writers, such as Clare Winger Harris and Gertrude Barrows Bennett, from the beginning as creators and consumers of science fiction. Despite this it has been stated the genre had a reputation as being by men for men, or sometimes for boys. [Lisa Tuttle, "Women as portrayed in Science Fiction" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pg 1343] A support for this hypothesis is that women did not win SF awards for fiction, like the Hugos, until the late 1960s. Further the 1966 "Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll" did not list any novels by women [ [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/AsfAT1966.html Locus Index of SF Awards] ] and the 1973 "Locus All-Time Favorite Authors Poll" was over 90% male. [ [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/LocusAT1973.html Locus Index to SF awards] ] Of the two women in Locus's poll one, Andre Norton, had been "gender ambiguous" for many of her readers. This use of ambiguous, or male, names extended to other major female writers of the era like C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett. Women who wrote under their own names, like Zenna Henderson, initially tended to write more "domestic" material concerning teachers and mothers. A partial exception to this is Katherine MacLean who wrote sociology and psychology oriented fiction while only rarely using a male name. While Margaret St. Clair used both a male name and her own with neither by-line necessarily meaning a "domestic" tone. [Lisa Tuttle, "Women Science Fiction writers" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pg 1344]

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. [Eric Leif Davin, "Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965".]

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.

* "See also Female science fiction authors and Feminist science fiction"

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. 1974 also saw the creation of "The Witch and the Chameleon", the first explictly feminist fanzine [Phillips, Julie. "James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon"; New York: Macmillan, 2007; p. 402] . 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. [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.] Some of the same people involved in creating WisCon also founded the feminist fanzine "Janus", which was thrice nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine (1978-1980) [ [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/HugoNomList.html Hugo Nominee List] ] .

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.

Fiction

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[...] science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines were directed mainly at boys [...] . Female characters were only occasionally included in science fiction pulp stories; the male protagonists' lengthly explanations to the women with limited knowledge revealed the plots

source=Eric Garber, Lyn Paleo, "Preface" in "Uranian worlds".Eric Garber, Lyn Paleo "Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror", "Preface" p. viii G K Hall: 1983 ISBN-13: 0-8161-8573-5]

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.

* "See also" Gender in science fiction

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.
* In 1974, Pamela Sargent published an influential anthology, "Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women, About Women" -- the first of many anthologies to come that focused on women or gender rules.
* A movement among writers concerned with feminism and gender roles sprang up, leading to a genre of "feminist science fiction including Joanna Russ' 1975 "The Female Man", Samuel R. Delany's 1976 "", and Marge Piercy's 1976 "Woman on the Edge of Time".

The 1970s also saw a vibrant gay liberation movement, which made its presence known in science fiction,Eric Garber, Lyn Paleo "Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror", "Preface" p. x G K Hall: 1983 ISBN-13: 0-8161-8573-5. "The prevalence of homosexual imagery in contemporary science fiction and fantasy can be directly attributed to the influence of the lesbian-feminist and gay liberation movements."] with gay/lesbian and gay/lesbian-friendly panels at conventions and articles in fanzines; gay/lesbian content increasingly present in the fiction itself; the gay/lesbian bookstore "A Different Light", which took its name from Elizabeth A. Lynn's novel of the same name; [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/elizabeth-a-lynn/] [http://www.locusmag.com/1997/Issues/10/Lynn.html] and a focus on glbt issues in the pages of feminist publications.

References

Further reading

* Badami, Mary Kenny. "A Feminist Critique of Science Fiction," "Extrapolation" 18 (Dec. 1978), pp. 6-19.
* 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.

ee also

* Female science fiction authors
* Gender in science fiction
* Feminist science fiction
* Sex in science fiction
* Reproduction and pregnancy in science fiction
* Lesbianism in science fiction
* James Tiptree, Jr. Award
* WisCon
* Broad Universe

External links

* [http://wiki.feministsf.net feminist science fiction wiki]