Gender in science fiction
- Gender in science fiction
Science fiction and related genres (Utopian literature, fantasy 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 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 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.
Authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Sheri S. Tepper frequently write on gender-related themes.
ee also
* Feminist science fiction
* Sex in science fiction
* Homosexuality in science fiction
* Pregnancy in science fiction
* James Tiptree, Jr. Award
* Women in science fiction
* Women science fiction authors
* Single-gender worldsQuote_box|width=25%|align=right|quote=
[...] 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] ]Further reading
* Justine Larbalestier, "The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction", Wesleyan University Press, 2002, ISBN 081956527X (review of 20th century science fiction, especially the pulps)
* Robin Roberts, "A New Species: Gender and Science in Science Fiction", Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993 (history of gender in science fiction)
References
External Links
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
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