Looking into a One-Track Mind:
White-Male Hegemony in Science Fiction
William Gibson’s “The Gernsback Continuum,” and Donald Fagen’s cheerful song, “I.G.Y.” both illuminate how science fiction works as an illustration of the stewardship of “our” society. Science fiction has always been the pathway onto which cultural, political, and public social matters could be explored freely without discretion (Huber, par.5). In 1959, a writer by the name of Robert Heinlein made a young Filipino man his main character in Starship Troopers (Huber, par.2). In 1968, the popular TV show Star Trek made history by debuting American television’s first interracial kiss (Huber, par.1). When thinking of these two instances, why were they so important? The answer to that question is rather self-explanatory, a lack of diversity in popular culture.
Hegemony is leadership, dominance or authority, especially by one social group, over others. In the Marxist philosophy, “cultural hegemony” depicts the domination of a diverse culture’s society by the ruling class. This ruling class manipulates the subordinate class’s beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores. As a result, the ruling class’s worldview establishes the cultural norm (“Cultural Hegemony”). In both texts, the ruling class is the white-male. The white-male is the status quo, or norm, when it comes to the image of public culture, especially science fiction.
In discussing chapter 2, “Reader-Response Criticism,” Phillip Sipiora emphasizes to “engage the text at many levels, because it is the nature of any literary text to open itself up to a wide range of interpretations” (25). William Gibson’s, “The Gernsback Continuum,” and Donald Fagen’s “I.G.Y.,” exemplify the hegemony in the popular science fiction genre by exhibiting solely white-male characters and making these characters the prominent figures in their creations.
THIS WAY LIES MADNESS
Gibson’s “continuum” of the story refers to an alternate reality that exists alongside our own. Throughout the story, Gibson makes different references to Hitler. The main character begins to imagine himself in Dialta Downes’ world right after his visit with her. In “her America,” stadiums made by Albert Speer, for Hitler, are jutting. This reference by Gibson is the first hint to the true ideal alternate world that is being shown in the story.
Gibson depicts, “They were blond” (Gibson 32), describing the couple that the main character of the story sees after he goes “over the edge.” Even the clothes that the blond couple in the story is wearing symbolize the “pure” Hitler propaganda image. The statement, “They were the children of Dialta Downes’s ‘80-that wasn’t”(Gibson 32), signifies that the alternate world that the protagonist is going back and forth from, is a reality of all white, blond, and blue-eyed individuals who would fit perfect in the Marxist’s ruling class’s white-male superior’s world.
The story goes on to state how the blond couple were, “smug, happy, and utterly content with themselves and their world” (Gibson 33). When the main character of the story approaches the couple, they do not see him. This incident conveys to the reader that the couple is incapable of viewing anything outside of their “idealistic” society. Merv Kihn even had “thinning blond hair” (Gibson 30). This image shows how all the characters, after the protagonist goes “over the edge” into Dialta Downes’ alternate world, are of the white-male’s image.
In the genre of science fiction, women are often belittled and not treated as equals. Women appear defined and described by their physical qualities in comparison to their talents. Dialta Downes is immediately described as “a very fashionably dressed young woman” who “was virtually chinless” (Gibson 24) when she enters the story. This action by Gibson defines Dialta by her appearance before anything else. Moreover, when Kihn is explaining to the protagonist of the story about how a sixteen-year old girl was assaulted by a bar hade, he begins to demean the girl. Kihn tells how the girl is a witch and how, “there’s just no place for her to function” (Gibson 29) in their society. The question then becomes why is there no place for her to function in their society? Maybe it could be because the girl is female, or maybe it is simply because the girl does not fit into the idealized, blond hair, blue-eyed theme throughout the story.
It’s Clear…
Donald Fagen’s song “I.G.Y.” is an abbreviation for “International Geophysical Year” which is a span of 17 months in 1957 and 1958. “I.G.Y.” jabs deeper than its sweet, jolly lyrics. Fagen’s beginning line, “Standing tough under stars and stripes,” is a line that meant more to minority groups of the 50’s. A “beautiful world” to African-Americans consisted of equal social and economic rights, not breakthroughs in science. The cover image to “The Nightfly” album depicts the white-male, illustrating exactly who his album is for. Even Fagen himself stated that the songs from his album, “The Nightfly,” “represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build.”
During Donald Fagen’s entire song, the lyrics repeat the word “we.” But who is this “we” that the song repeats nonstop? The answer is self-explanatory again. This “we” is the white-male. The idea of women being a part of this “we” is doubtful with the “I.G.Y.” line, “Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision.” The tone of the entire song is for a white-male. If the “we” of “I.G.Y.” is compared to the Constitution of the United States, there is a better picture. The statement, “We the people,” in the Constitution, was also unrealistic at its time because all people were not included. Women were unable to vote when the founding fathers ratified the Constitution, and slaves were not even regarded as a whole individual. So in retrospect, the phrase “We the people” involved women who were invisible, and slaves who were just three-fifths of the compromise.
The Whole Beautiful Thing Is Starting To Fade
There’s hope for more diversification in the science fiction genre yet. Marvel and DC have made great strides to diversify their characters. There is even talk that Thor is to become a woman. In America’s society, it has always been easier to go with the less controversial ideal. But in the digital culture of Facebook and Twitter, everyone, regardless of race, culture, or sex, is getting a chance to change things. Karl Max would suggest that challenging the hegemony of the white-male institution in science fiction culture is the only way to change the status quo. And maybe challenging the status quo will make, the beautiful, or “idealistically” beautiful, world that we live in almost perfect.
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