Larbalestier, Justine - The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction

[oyceter]

The bad thing about keeping track of my reading habits is finding out that I started this back in May of last year.

Larbalestier (justinelavaworm, hi!) writes about (duh) the battle of the sexes in sf, but in this case, she's writing about the genre, the fans and the community of sf, not just examining specific texts. The book looks at the role of women in sf works (usually the object of affection and accused of ruining the genre), the role of female fans in sf fandom (usually denigrated and accused of ruining the genre), and the role of female writers in sf (usually denigrated and accused of ruining the genre).

Unsurprisingly, a pattern emerges ;).

I had a lot of fun reading Larbalestier's analyses of various battles waged in latters in old fan magazines; there were quite a few moments in which I wanted to just whap the young, pretentious, and very sexist Isaac Asimov on the head. It was also rather amusing (and disheartening) to see all the old arguments: "We're not sexist but we just think romance spoils the story" or "We're not sexist but we just think female writers don't do hard science" or "We're not sexist but we think only a few, exceptional women can appreciate sf."

I think one of my favorite parts was Larbalestier constantly asserting that women (fans and writers) had been present in sf from pretty much the beginning, but because they weren't talked about often, they faded away from memory, so much so that each generation of male sf readers and writers seems to have the "Good lord! There are women reading/writing sf!" reaction.

She goes on to write about Tiptree/Sheldon and how her life in particular illuminates the lines drawn because of gender and sex in the sf world, and finally, discusses the Tiptree award.

I am afraid I am not giving the book its due, since I read a chapter a month or so. But it's fun and interesting, albeit somewhat blood-pressure-raising, due to the really sexist reprinted letters and columns, not at all due to Larbalestier's writing.

Comments

[cofax7]

One of the things I found most interesting was the way that some patterns of argument in fandom never change. I mean, 18-year-old Asimov was as trollish and straw-man-fighting as any of the assholes who occasionally descend on you or coffeeandink. It was fascinating (and a bit disheartening to see that some things never change at all).

[justinelavaworm.livejournal.com]

To give you hope, here's what's changed: Now there are so many more of us to reply and take them down. Then it was a few lone voices arguing back. Now we are sometimes the majority. Especially at WisCon. So instead of the girls-are-lame being the dominant and practically the only discourse there are all these other discourses. It makes a difference.

So pleased you liked the book, Oyce.

[oyceter]

That does make me feel better! Particularly the existence of WisCon -- I love that I was looking through the panel descriptions and how many of them were going past the whole "Yes, feminism still exists" thing. Not that that was a surprise for WisCon, but it is heartening.

[oyceter]

*snort* I know! Though Justine's comment below makes me feel better -- they may be using the same old stupid arguments, but at least there are more people to counter them now.