April 2006

The "Why" of Promoting Feminism in the Genres
by Lettie Prell

Two events in 2006 have bolstered my resolve to promote women science fiction, fantasy and horror writers. The death of Betty Friedan on February 4 reminded me that women were not always encouraged to pursue their individual interests and careers on par with men. Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963, the year I turned three. Growing up in the '60s, my sister and I spent hours playing at being single career women sharing an apartment, mimicking the new feminist dynamic at least as often as the old mommy-daddy-baby family scenario. As a result, I am at times a "so what" feminist that takes these things for granted. I never once questioned whether Maslow's pyramid, the hierarchy of needs culminating in self-actualization, fully applied to me as a woman. In fact, Maslow based his pyramid, published in 1943, on his studies of prominent people to include Jane Addams and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Several years ago, I helped judge elementary and middle school papers submitted to the "Write Women Back into History" contest, sponsored by the State of Iowa's Division on the Status of Women. I was struck by story after story of women's accomplishments in Iowa's pioneer days. Did you know the first woman lawyer was granted admission to practice law in Iowa, in 1869?

It's not that women lacked accomplishment; it's an issue of lack of acknowledgement, and lack of encouragement of women to freely pursue these attainments. It's like pointing to Judith Merrill, for example, and arguing that women science fiction writers have been around since the 1950s (earlier, counting Mary Shelley!), so there's no need to form an organization promoting women in the field. Friedan's work was an accurate lens onto the culture, revealing its lack of support for women's own lives, and sparking a movement whose work is still relevant today.

Within the same week as Friedan's death was another event well worth mentioning. Nancy Jane Moore spoke at the Library of Congress on "The Resurgence of Feminist Science Fiction." Moore is author of the novella, Changeling, and numerous short stories that have appeared in places like Ideomancer, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and nearly a dozen anthologies. I was unable to attend her talk, but Moore was willing to share a summary for this editorial. "I came up with three reasons why I see a lot more feminist science fiction being published," she writes. "They are also reasons why I think feminist SF is still very important and very relevant."

The first of Moore's reasons is this: "Put in the context of human history, the rights women now enjoy in the US and many other countries are very new. (In fact, there are still a few things off limits to women.) For example, both my grandmothers were adults before they got the right to vote, and the real expansion in women's opportunities has come in my lifetime. It's going to take time to integrate these changes and right now we're trying to figure out what they mean." Speculative fiction has long been a means to compare and contrast assumptions within our culture we otherwise would not question.

Second, Moore notes, "There's been an explosion of discovery in biology and medicine, and many of those discoveries directly affect gender. As we change our understanding of gender, we change the meaning of male and female. This is a classic SF issue."

Finally, "The religious fundamentalist movements--of all the major world religions--tend to oppose women's rights. SF has always had a dialogue with religion." Moore also lists four kinds of stories and books she defines loosely as feminist:

1. SF and fantasy adventure stories in which women are the lead characters having the adventures.
2. Complex works that tell the stories of women acting in the world in a much broader scope than the roles allowed them in the past.
3. Works by and about men that address issues of gender--such as that by recent Tiptree winners. John Kessel's "Stories for Men" is one example.
4. Sophisticated science fiction that takes on the possibilities opening up from biology--and artificial intelligence as well--and makes us re-think everything we've ever thought we understood about gender.

The feminist movement is no longer radical in nature because its goals have achieved legitimacy, and now pervade the status quo. But that's hardly a reason to declare "mission accomplished." Continued support of feminism within the culture is necessary to sustain it, especially given those opposing fundamentalist voices Moore reminds us about. But also, Moore's talk highlights feminism as a vibrant and vital element, worthy of continued exploration in speculative writing.