“Women of Wonder”: The Legacy of Feminist Science Fiction

by Bethany Scettrini

Illustrations by Amelia Cleveland

There are plenty of images of women in science fiction.

There are hardly any women.

Joanna Russ (Red Clay Reader 1970)

In 1970, the Red Clay Reader (“a magazine for writers rooted in Southern soil”) devoted an issue to women writers. The Editor wrote, “This is the first generation of women who find it possible to write seriously without sacrificing husband and children.”[1] It is against this backdrop of Women’s Liberation in the 1960s and 70s that Joanna Russ published “The Image of Women in Science Fiction” and starts serious critical discourse about science fiction and feminism.

Historically, science fiction (SF) has been a boys’ club — specifically a straight, white boys’ club. In the 1970s, women authors, fans, and academics questioned whether science fiction was fulfilling its promise to “explor[e] alternatives or assumptions counter to what we normally believe.”[2] As a response, many feminists who were fans and authors of science fiction launched what can be considered the study of feminist science fiction (FSF), a field that continuously questions and provokes what the genre has been, what it should be, and what it will be.

Defining SF and FSF. Science fiction as a genre has been hard to define accurately. It almost necessarily blurs fiction and reality. Joanna Russ has claimed that science fiction shows things “as they might be…and for this ‘might be’ the author must offer rational, serious, consistent explanation, one that does not…offend what is known to be known.”[3] Donna Haraway, in her most recent work Staying With the Trouble, writes, “SF is storytelling and fact telling; it is the patterning of possible worlds and possible times, material-semiotic worlds, gone, here, and yet to come.”[4] Science fiction and science fact. We can perhaps define science fiction as different from fantasy, a genre that does not adhere to science fact. The lines obviously blur when we consider how science and our understanding of the world changes. What may seem supernatural, mythical, fantastical may yet become science fact. What we describe as magic may just be science we do not understand yet.

Many feminists have used science fiction as a way of advancing theory, in what Ursula K. Le Guin calls “thought experiments.” These thought experiments allow us to imagine new realities and envision possible futures — specifically as women living under patriarchy. In her book Why Stories Matter, feminist scholar Claire Hemmings asks how we might “tell stories differently rather than telling different stories.”[5] It is in this vein of creativity and story telling that feminists can begin to practice telling stories differently. This framework illuminates discussion about what makes science fiction feminist. After all, not all science fiction written by women is necessarily feminist.

In a letter to Frontiers magazine, feminist science fiction and fantasy author Suzy McKee Charnas argues that there is a difference between feminist and “women’s” science fiction. She argues that “women’s” science fiction is “de- vised by the over-culture (that is, the culture dominated by masculinist thinking) to convince women what a wonderful deal they have as poppets and skivvies and spirited fillies whose spunkiness is designed simply to be overcome by the masterful male who admires it.”[6] If we look in turn at what makes science fiction distinctly feminist, we find many varying opinions by scholars and authors. In her essay “A Feminist Critique of Science Fiction,” Mary Kenny Badami argues that feminism is an ideology and worldview that forms her “standard of feminism.”[7] Similarly, in Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, Justine Larbalestier argues, “Feminism is as much a way of reading as it is a way of writing.”[8] Feminism is a perspective through which one can read science fiction, as well as a perspective through which one can write science fiction. Larbalestier further notes, “Definitions of feminism are varied, as are understandings of feminist science fiction’s history.”

Science Fiction’s Past. Although science fiction can be traced back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), science fiction writing has historically been almost entirely dominated by men — written by men for men. In her Introduction to the edited collection Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women About Women, Pamela Sargent writes, “It is interesting to note the absence of important female characters in [Frankenstein], which introduced a new literary form and set the mold for later science-fiction works.”[9] Further, Shelley initially published her novel anonymously. She was first credited as the author in 1922, but many still argued that her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley must have written the novel. Sargent notes, “Women writers of science fiction have been in the minority since Mary Shelley’s time.”[10] Science fiction, with its emphasis on science and technology, logic, and discovery, became associated with masculinity and it was framed as only being read by men and boys. It was argued that women wouldn’t be able to understand the science, but perhaps it is more likely that women didn’t read science fiction by men because they could not relate to the He-man’s adventure story.

The notion that science fiction is “for boys” is rooted in its history and the stereotype remains today in the gatekeeping practices of modern geek culture, a male dominated world. In the wake of Women’s Liberation and second wave feminism in the 1970s, more women “than ever before” were writing and publishing.[11] Women like Joanna Russ, Pamela Sargent, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Suzy McKee Charnas (among numerous others) were writing science fiction and engaging in active critique of the genre. Their contributions changed science fiction in profound ways.

The disregard for intersectionality in mainstream, highly regarded science fiction urged feminists scholars and authors to carve out their own spaces through the creation of conventions, awards, academic journals, and presses. SF 3, a non-profit umbrella organization, organizes the annual feminist science fiction convention WisCon. Inaugurated in 1977, WisCon was created by a number of feminist scholars who were frustrated by their treatment at the annual World Science Fiction Convention where they were met with mockery and hostility. WisCon has run continuously since 1977 and remains the world’s leading feminist science fiction convention boasting such guests of honors as Octavia Butler, Suzy McKee Charnas, Ursula K. LeGuin, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nnedi Okorafor.

WisCon has been at the forefront of feminist science fiction. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award originated at WisCon 1991, an annual literary prize that awards science fiction and fantasy works that expand our knowledge of gender. Named after Alice Sheldon’s pen name, the award was a reaction to other prominent science fiction awards that were named after men. The Carl Brandon Society was created after discussions at WisCon 1999. Its goals are to promote representation of people of color in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The Carl Brandon Society created the Parallax Award, which is awarded to works by people of color, and the Kindred Award, which is awarded to works that address race and ethnicity. WisCon has and continues to be self-critical and open to hearing the voices of all who attend. WisCon is dedicated to attracting “people with diverse and strongly held opinions” and it continually pushes feminists to think beyond gender and to center race, class, and sexuality.

The Image Of Women And Alien Others. As a genre science fiction has become increasingly prominent in popular culture; discussions about its representations of women and people of color frequently take place on social media, blogs, and make headlines with popular news media outlets. This multifaceted approach has been a part of feminist science fiction from its start. Through fanzines, magazines, and academic journals, feminist science fiction authors began calling out the rampant sexism, misogyny, racism, and classism in science fiction. Arguably the most prominent figure in feminist science fiction is Joanna Russ. A professor and author, Russ was known for her radical critiques of science fiction and devotion to the genre as a valuable contribution to culture and society. In her seminal essay “The Image of Women in Science Fiction,” Russ argues that science fiction has completely ignored sex, gender roles, and family structure and further, has fallen into several unimaginative and stereotypical types of stories. In a literature that claims to be about possibility, she argues, science fiction has instead replicated systems of oppression in futuristic shine. Russ argues that even prominent authors like Isaac Asimov and Clarke are merely writing “intergalactic suburbia” in other words, “American middle class with a little window dressing.”[12] When women are present in science fiction they are presented variously as prizes, motives, supernaturally powerful, evil, or as the weak unintelligent companion to whom the hero can explain science and technology. Russ writes, “In short, masculinity equals power and femininity equals powerlessness. This is a cultural stereotype that can be found in much popular literature, but science fiction writers have no business employing stereotypes, let alone swallowing them goggle-eyed.”[13] Lest we think she is biased toward women science fiction writers, Russ examines science fiction by women. She critiques science fiction by women that depicts housewives saving the galaxy through domestic work (as in some works by Zenna Henderson). Russ argues that it’s hard to shake the embedded concepts of patriarchy, the idea that men are superior and women are second-class citizens.

In her article “American Science Fiction and the Other,” Ursula K. Le Guin argues that science fiction, American science fiction in particular, is bound up by capitalism and patriarchy and social power structures that alienate and create “the Other.” She writes, “What about the cultural and the racial Other? This is the Alien everybody recognizes as alien, supposed to be the special concern of SF. Well, in the old pulp SF, it’s very simple. The only good alien is a dead alien.”[14] Like Russ, Le Guin calls out the male elitism and social structures in science fiction that presents women (when they are included) as “squeaking dolls subject to instant rape by monsters-or old-maid scientists desexed by hyper- trophy of the intellectual organs-or, at best, loyal little wives or mistresses of accomplished heroes.”[15] She charges American science fiction as being “un-American” in its regressive hierarchies that depict an Alpha Male at the top, superior to all “others.” She chastises American science fiction and challenges science fiction writers and readers to “stop[] daydreaming about a return to the Age of Queen Victoria, and start[] thinking about the future.”[16] Le Guin, a celebrated author of science fiction herself, led the charge in turning over science fiction.

Following Le Guin, Mary Kenny Badami argued for the necessity of feminism in and about science fiction. She begins “A Feminist Critique of Science Fiction,” published by Extrapolation in 1976, with “The Invisible Woman” quiz in which she challenges the reader to name women science fiction authors. Her central claim is that women have not been important as characters in science fiction, fans of science fiction, or as writers of science fiction.[17] She argues that feminists cannot stop writing about women and science fiction because there is still a long way to go. It is important to dig up the history of feminist science fiction, to remember that history, to keep writing about old books because people still read them, to address backlash, and to move beyond merely having more women characters as a sufficient sign of equality.

Challenging the Image of Women in Science Fiction. Beyond critiques of existing science fiction, feminist science fiction authors of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s provided alternative narratives, speculations of the future that challenged gender roles and patriarchy. These narratives explored utopia, dystopia, separatism, and role reversal. Moving beyond these initial thought experiments, feminist science fiction authors and scholars have continued to challenge science fiction and the way we tell stories. The early feminist science fiction writers carved out a space for themselves that in turn became a pathway for future feminist writers and scholars. Science fiction was not merely challenged or changed on the surface; it was transformed and would forever be different. These women have pushed science fiction even further to explore gender identity, sexuality, race and racism, and posthumanism.

Utopias and Dystopias. In her 1989 book Feminist Utopias, Frances Bartowski examines the utopian and dystopian feminist science fiction narratives. She characterizes the utopian narrative as “the what-if of hope” and the dystopian as “the what-if of despair.”[18] She argues that community and kinship are integral to these narratives whether it is their emphasis on alternative kinship and community building or the lack thereof, as in dystopian fictions. Further, she argues that these feminist science fiction narratives are “simultaneously fictional and profoundly theoretical.”[19] She writes, “The feminist utopian novel is a place where theories of power can be addressed through the construction of narratives that test and stretch the boundaries of power in its operational details.”[20] Bartowski argues that utopian fiction bridges “the gap between feminist theory and everyday struggle…with its implicit reference to the world of the reader.”[21] Novels like Margie Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Suzy McKee Charnas’ Motherlines, James Tiptree, Jr.’s Houston, Houston, Do you Read? and Joanna Russ’ The Female Man serve as models of feminist utopia and showcase the radical challenges to utopian literature and science fiction by feminists of the 1970s and 1980s.

Joanna Russ’ The Female Man creates a utopian planet, Whileaway, that she juxtaposes with contemporary 1960s America.[22] The character Janet visits earth from Whileaway, and her reactions and experiences on earth illuminate the differences between the societies. In her article “Revising the Future in “The Female Man,” Susana Martins agues, “[The Female Man] sets out to expose and revise the operations of language that codify certain norms (such as the use of “man” or the male pronoun to refer to all human beings) as well as the conceptual binaries that reinforce and resonate with gender norms.”[23] Russ imagines a possible future of all women, a future where gender identity and biology do not proscribe or restrict the roles women can inhabit.

Bartowski includes two dystopian novels in her book in an attempt to balance the naïve hope of utopias. The first is Suzy McKee Charnas’ Walk to the End of the World. Charnas intended Walk to the End of the World to be a masculinist dystopia which she followed up with her feminist utopia Motherlines. Another important dystopia is Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaid’s Tale illustrates the logical teleology of contemporary Christian heteropatriarchy. Bartowski argues that we need the dystopian along with the utopian lest we forget the dire realities in our search for hope and escape.

Separatism. Many feminist science fiction authors of the 1970s were influenced by Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex wherein she argues for the development of technology that will release biological reproduction from sex and love and male domination. With this in mind, many feminist science fiction authors have experimented with “separatist, lesbian worlds.”[24] In her 1988 critical examination of feminism and science fiction In the Chinks of the World-Machine, Sarah Lefanu argues, “A separatist world allows women physical freedom, access to the public world, and the freedom to express love for other women.”[25] These imagined worlds without men allow women to control their sexual agency. Further, these separatist worlds allow women to enact homosexual desire free from compulsory heterosexuality. Notable examples include Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite wherein all men are killed off by a virus, and Joan Slonczewski’s A Door Into Ocean “which features a female-only pacifist society.”[26]

In her 2011 book The Lesbian Fantastic: A Critical Study of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, and Gothic Writings, Phyllis Betz argues that the congruence of the civil rights movement, women’s movement, and gay and lesbian movement (following the Stonewall Riots of 1969) instigated an increase in gay and lesbian presence in science fiction. Lesbian authors have used and continue to use science fiction as a means of destabilizing heteronormativity. The separatist narratives of the 1970s were particularly useful for writing queer science fiction narratives. Betz writes, “Incorporating homosexual characters allows the science fiction narrative to engage with issues of tolerance for the Other, reconceptualizations of gender and gendered behavior, and the creation of societies free from the limitations of a heterosexual determinism for relationships.”[27] She cautions that in order for these queer narratives to be effective they must represent and reflect “knowable signs of connection and relation” and not lose touch with what is familiar.[28] The narrative that alienates nonheterosexuality (sometimes quite literally) only reinforces dominant images of homosexuality.

Role Reversal. Another narrative form utilized by feminist science fiction authors is role reversal. This controversial strategy is largely a product of its time and a more extreme response to patriarchy and gender roles. Role reversal stories often depict matriarchies in which all gender and sex roles are literally reversed with women being superior and men being inferior. Although this style of story is largely passé, its prominence in 1970s feminist science fiction drew intense debate among feminist science fiction critics and backlash from mainstream science fiction communities. Joanna Russ and Linda Leith provide an example of the contemporary debate among feminists in “Women and SF: Three Letters.”[29] Linda Leith accuses Joanna Russ of “female chauvinism” in her exhortation of role reversal in her criticism and fiction. Leith writes, “If feminism means no more than that women in Western societies will be able to usurp the power, money, and influence that men have had for so long- i.e., if the only change is going to be from a patriarchy to a matriarchy-then it is not at all clear that utopia is the word to describe the society thus produced.”[30] Russ responds by saying Leith is “apolitical and hence confused” in her critique of role reversal and further, Russ argues that radicalism is necessary for actual change.[31]

The Future. The origins of feminist science fiction sparked important conversations for both feminists and science fiction authors. The early work of Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin among others changed the landscape of science fiction, challenging the field to be more progressive and self-reflexive in the ways we portray the “Other.” Feminist science fiction scholars and authors continue to push the boundaries of what science fiction means and what it can do. Feminist science fiction authors and scholars use the narrative forms and “speculative fabulations” to challenge hegemonic representations of gender, race, sexuality, and class.[32] Authors like Nnedi Okorafor and Becky Chambers challenge readers to imagine new futures for people of difference, futures where people of difference have agency and power. Scholars like Donna Haraway and Helen Merrick challenge us to rethink what it means to be human and to interrogate our relationships with technology and nature.

The impact of feminism on science fiction has only grown in the 21st century. The proliferation of science fiction content in mainstream media is a testament to this as well as the presence of feminist critics in the blogosphere who tackle science fiction in particular. These critics challenge writers and producers to do better; to represent women as fleshed out human beings; to normalize people of color and queer people, not just “diversify”; and to think critically about how their narratives and stereotypes represent people and impact everyday life.

[1] Charleen Whisnant, “Letter from the Editor,” Red Clay Reader 7 (1970): 3.

[2] Pamela Sargent, “Introduction,” Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women About Women, (Vintage Books, 1974): xv.

[3] Joanna Russ, “The Image of Women in Science Fiction,” Red Clay Reader 7 (Southern Review, 1970): 35.

[4] Donna Haraway, Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Duke UP, 2016): 31.

[5] Claire Hemmings, Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory (Duke UP, 2010): 16.

[6] Suzy McKee Charnas, “’Dear Frontiers’: Letters from Women Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 2, №3 (Autumn 1977): 65.

[7] Mary Kenny Badami, “A Feminist Critique of Science Fiction,” Extrapolation (Dec. 1, 1976): 13.

[8] Justine Larbalestier, “Introduction,” Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the 21st Century (Wesleyan UP, 2006): xvi.

[9] Sargent, “Introduction,” xvii.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Whisnant, “Letter from the Editor,” 3.

[12] Russ, “Image of Women,” 36.

[13] Ibid., 37.

[14] Ursula K. Le Guin, “American SF and the Other,” Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 2, №3 (November 1975): 209.

[15] Ibid., 208.

[16] Ibid., 209.

[17] Badami, “Feminist Critique,” 6.

[18] Frances Bartowski, Feminist Utopias (U of Nebraska Press, 1989): 4.

[19] Ibid., 5.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid., 14.

[22] Joanna Russ, The Female Man (Bantam Books, 1975).

[23] Susana Martins, “Revising the Future in The Female Man,” Science Fiction Studies Vol. 32, №3 (Nov., 2005): 407.

[24] Sarah Lefanu, In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction (The Women’s Press, 1988): 55.

[25] Ibid.

[26] “Feminism,” SFE: The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, (April, 2016) www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/feminism.

[27] Phyllis M. Betz, The Lesbian Fantastic: A Critical Study of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Parnormal and Gothic Writings (McFarland, 2011): 144.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Joanna Russ and Linda Leith, “Women and SF: Three Letters.” Science Fiction Studies (1980).

[30] Ibid., 234.

[31] Ibid., 235.

[32] Haraway, Staying With.