Author Topic: Is Science fiction feminized or is it Sexist (headline from i09)  (Read 19134 times)

Heradel

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Reply #50 on: December 07, 2009, 09:20:18 PM

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DKT

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Reply #51 on: December 08, 2009, 06:16:52 AM
Well, this is pretty damning of Marvel.

Interesting. In general, I'm glad I'm not keeping up with Marvel (or DC) too much these days.

That said, I think the writer was a bit mistaken about Cap's motivations for Civil War.

Quote
The first major "Event" CIVIL WAR began when Captain America was asked to submit to the authority of a woman named Maria Hill.

Captain America then initiates an all-out superhero civil war rather than take orders from a woman.

Eh, no. It had nothing to do with taking orders from a woman and everything to do with refusing to disclose people's secret identities so they could be hunted down.

That said, I have 0% faith in Joey Q. encouraging something that would actually come off as empowering for women (including young women).
« Last Edit: December 08, 2009, 06:23:27 AM by DKT »



Yargling

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Reply #52 on: December 10, 2009, 01:19:24 AM
I've not keep up with this thread, and I've not read all of what's been said so far (as there is alot of long comments). But my thought on this is that sci-fi has been abit of a boy's club up until recently (I may be wrong, but generally I recall male sci-fi authors from the classics, not any females). As such, sci-fi (and fantasty, now we come to look at it) has had 2 sets of stories; the stories that are primarily aimed at boys/men (the action, military type stories), and stories for people in general (i.e. social commentaries, exploration of new idea's, etc, etc).

Now, with more female authors coming into the field, the third branch as grown; the stories aimed at women (romances, etc). Because of this, they seem very obvious because they are new and they bring a large market of previously underserved customers (hint hint; this is what Twilight did in fantasty).

Now, the point is, stories aimed at men, and stories aimed at women AREN'T 'true' scifi. The men stories are Action stories with a sci-fi setting. The women stories are Romances stories with a sci-fi setting. Its the other branch, where scifi is at its 'purist' that scifi explores what it can do.

Because of this, these new 'women stories' are seen as fluff because they aren't 'proper' scifi. But we have a double standard because we ignore the 'men stories' are typically as fluffy as the 'women stories'. Women authors are fully able to write good 'pure' scifi as much as the men, I reckon, but their numbers aren't equal because of the historical association of 'men write scifi', which is only lately heading towards a more equal standing.

Just because a story is aimed at men or women doesn't make it a bad story, nor does it exclude them from the field of scifi; for that matter, being pure scifi isn't the same as being a good story

Anywho, some examples of what I mean from Escape Pod - note: its pretty hard, on reflect, the establish hard and fast lines dividing these three 'stereotypes' of scifi story, so you may not agree with my choices, but its late at night when I'm writing this and I don't have time to properly go through the Escape Pod archive, so there maybe better exampled:

"Men" stories:

"Bright Red Star" by Bud Sparhawk - EP136 - Sort Halo-eski themes; space marines, advanced alien enemy, action focused, no really exploration beyond that or beyond what the Halo 'universe' has covered. Alright story, but not a favourite.

"Navy Brat" by Kay Kenyon - EP180 - Not a favourite of mine (and generally not liked from what I've read), but its action oriented and really doesn't explore much outside of standard military fiction. Ironically written by a female author

"Women" stories:

"βoyfriend" by Madeline Ashby -  EP216 - Explores teen/young adult romance in a near future with semi-sentient software and how it can mess with the kids. Could be argued that the exploration of the socialogical effects of bring it into the realm of 'pure scifi'

"People" stories:

"Arties aren't stupid" by Jeremiah Tolbert. - EP179 - Explores a world of specialised individuals and advanced bio-technology through the eyes of young people - argubly not 'pure' scifi as it focuses in on the actions of the characters, not really on the scifi exploration.

"The Legend of St. Ignatz" by Samantha Henderson. - EP203 - Shows the foundation of a mythos agmonst a primitive alien species through the interferance of advanced humans. Covers religious themes and the affects of human-alien connact.

"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang. - EP194 - Just listen to this story, and try and tell me it doesn't explore scifi themes without trying to appeal more to men or women :)