Gender Roles in Science Fiction
From LoveToKnow Sci-Fi
Examining gender roles in science fiction is the stuff of doctoral theses and lifestyle articles alike. What's the big deal?
The Big What-If Playground
One of the biggest attractions of science fiction as a genre is that it allows the author unparalleled flexibility. Want to imagine a world where the plants are intelligent and eat the animals? The effects on society if we had Star Trek-like transporter technology? It's only available to the writer of science fiction.
This flexibility is often used for the development of Cautionary Tales - depictions of life after Peak Oil, or the collapse of civilization attendant upon global warming, perhaps. But nowhere does this What If? capability show to advantage as much as in the exploration of social gender roles in science fiction, and to a certain extent, in fantasy.
Gender Roles in Science Fiction: Some Shining Examples
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula Le Guin's now-classic 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. It follows the journey of Genly Ai, a diplomat from what can be presumed to be the 'earth' part of the galaxy as he attempts to persuade Gethen, a much colder planet than ours, to join the galactic federation.
Gethen is populated by biological humans with one major difference; there is only one gender. Their entire society is made up of people who, in 'season', become one or the other gender. Since the same person can be both a biological father to one child and a mother to another, gender roles are completely smoothed out - everyone raises children, everyone has an earning role.
The social order that supports this incorporates much of the best of human society. But some things remain constant and there are forces that don't want Gethen to affiliate with the rest of the human population.
Le Guin's characterizations are subtle yet distinct, her handling of otherwise-touchy subject material sensitive. This book is a Must Read, a recommendation I don't offer lightly.
Wraeththu
Wraeththu, by Storm Constantine, was originally published as three novels, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, and The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire, but is now more often seen in omnibus form, called simply Wraeththu.
The Wraeththu are a mutant form of humanity that have gradually taken over from the formerly dominant species - us. Wraeththu have both male and female sexual organs, and can take either role in sexual intercourse. They outwardly appear to be male, but androgynous, 'pretty' males.
They either reproduce sexually with other Wraeththu, or, in their earlier years, by converting a young-enough human male to a Wraeththu by transmitting a blood infection. Thus Wraeththu were thought to be similar to vampires by the humanity they overtook.
The Wraeththu books have conflicted, complex characters, a plot that is fairly convoluted, dense descriptive passages and over-adorned prose, and (perhaps not coincidentally) have a cult-like following among certain young sci-fi readers, particularly those who identify as Goth.
The Gods Themselves
An unusual entry into our gender-bender category - a novel by Golden Age icon Isaac Asimov, known for years for the chasteness of his prose, The Gods Themselves was published in 1972 and won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
It features a race against time as mankind must discover what is making our sun unstable, before we are obliterated when the sun, a white dwarf incapable of it by all the known physical laws, becomes a supernova.
The culprits are creatures living in a universe parallel to ours, and attempting to tap our sun as an energy source to replace their dying one. These aliens are semi-permeable, almost gaseous beings, and have three genders required for reproduction.
From the author who never featured aliens in his novels until this point, the Grand Old Man jumps into the alien inventing market with a vengence. A great book by a great author.
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