Michael lee taylor

10/17/2021
English

Gender and science fiction

Science fiction has an obsession with gender roles. Plain and simple. In story
after story set beyond stars and deep into the future most stories seem to swirl around
the author's relationship with their own body and identity. Wither it's genly in the “Left
hand of darkness” trying to navigate interactions with beings seemingly beyond out
conceptions of traditional gender or moving further back on the literary timeline, the less
than human nature of the doctor's daughter in “rappaccini's daughter” whom according
to the author could not participate in expressing parts of femininity due to their toxic
nature.
So why is that? Obviously theres the stereotypes of the sci fi nerds stooped in
the dark basements of their guardians abode pondering the existence of the opposite
sex amoung their memoribilla. Though this leaves a lot lacking not only for the reductive
nature of stereotypes but in how the topic is explored.
To set some standards for this paper, im using the term gender not in the frame
of biology but in terms of culture. How we express our femininity or masculinity within
the boundaries of society as it is expected. Which can change radically from country to
country or even region to region. Luckily with the selection of novels explored within this
paper, we only need a very familiar expressions of gender. This being Victorian, 1800s
America and turn of the century literature.
The standard formula for the exploration of gender within the realm of sci fi is as
such. A quote on quote normal human or human equivalent travels to a foreign plant
and or land and comes in contact with the natives. Said natives have strange customs
and relationships that peak the curiosity of the traveler. There's some postulating and
the traveler leaves with some form of revelation about their own home.
The following books that seem to follow this story structure are “the left hand of
darkness” which I mentioned in the opener, “The machine stops” and finally “the coming
race”. Each one takes a look at their own separate revelations in three possible ways,
either positive, negative or neutral.
Starting with the left hand of darkness, it views the main character's stagnated
view of gender in strictly “terren” terms as a major obstacle for the character to slowly
overcome throughout the story. “Thus as I sipped my smoking sour beer I thought that
at table Estraven’s performance had been womanly, all charm and tact and lack of
substance, specious and adroit. Was it in fact perhaps this soft supple femininity that I
disliked and distrusted in him?”. He can't help but view things in a binary given that's
what he was most comfortable with.
 This though limits him in being able to fully understand estavan as estavan
attempts to understand them. This violation of the binary and its subsequent spawning
of distrust may be the author's own experience. It doesn't take much for someone to
suddenly see you in a brand new light. That exploration of yourself can be an
experience that leaves you in some isolation from those you trusted. Thus where the
fantasy comes from. Genlys slow acceptance of what they cant understand in order to
feel the love of someone willing to try to understand them ends up trumping the those
pesky notes of confusion and the fear that spawns.
Next is the negative revelation in “the machine stops.” which focuses mostly on
the degeneration of humanity at the hands of a machine made to take care of humanity
in perpetuity but it's a good example of my topic in the turn of the century expansion of
the genre. Coming off the backs and entering the scientific romantic period in which real
life discoveries were explored through fantastical texts.
Though you can still draw some ideas on gender from the story. Mostly in the
idea that with the machine doing everything, there's a certain hegemony among the
populous as they begin to lose their identity in their luxury. The idea of men and women
in this way become more and more blurred as everyone is set to the same level of
ability, knowledge and roles. That being of scholar which is then heavily contrasted with
kuno who attempts to maintain some level of physical ability through seemingly
masculine acts of “wilderness exploration”. “Those funny old days, when men went for
a change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!” as it were. This can also be
noted in the way he makes his remarks, referring to humanity mostly through the male
lens.
He's shown to be disgusted with how society venerates and worships the
machine and the inability of mankind as their coddled. Thus rejects the society he was
raised in and escapes to the wild where other humans have seemingly gathered. This is
a far more volatile rejection of the oddness or blurring of gender and uses the binary in
an almost nostalgic way. Like an old man harking back to the time where they had to
fight bears to get a happy meal with a toy. He wants to reimplement old societal norms
on a society that had progressed (or in the case of the story's tone, regressed) past
them.
What becomes more explicitly interesting about e.m fosters work is to see that it
was made during his struggle with his own sexuality and in fact, the way older british
men could express their masculinity. With this lens we can see kuno as someone
attempting to reclaim their ability to present in a masculine sense.
The final novel is the new Atlantis which has a somewhat neutral approach to it.
The idea of a society that is far and away perfected humanity with superior culture,
technology and abilities. Also, a lot of weird ties to neo nazism but that's an entirely
separate paper.
 Regardless, the topic of gender here is seen as an alternative instead of a
definitive improvement or downgrade, the way of showing it is still in some ways
recognizable but expressed in a different way that the narrator comes to terms with after
trying to explain how their own interpretations works. The way that the women pursue
the men then just choose whether to keep together or not.
It doesn't decide whether the interpretation is in fact right or wrong. Though I
could argue that the framing of it with the hyper advanced society may be meant to
show it in a more positive light, it's not as explored as the culture, technology or social
structure, plainly described as “No happiness without order, no order without authority,
no authority without unity.”
So what does all this mean? It means that sci-fi is a genre based around
exploration in both the sense of literal story tropes and the author's experiences. They
use the medium of sci fi to explore what could be and what can be and frame it within
the context of an alien world with human explorers to essentially walk us, the reader
through what they may have discovered in themselves.
As we have seen throughout the history of the genre, regardless of how
fantastical the stories may be in the long run, it's all based in some form of reality.
Whether it's the mocking of hypnotism or the exploration of darwinian concepts. There's
also a bit of blood from the author that drips in. that inherent bias of how they
experience these subjects that then form in their writing that then metamorphs into the
long history of gender in science fiction.