What Turns Women Away? Surely not the Spaceships.

Ah, the early 20th century. 

 

Not many things escaped the sexism of that era, did they? Science fiction is certainly no exception. Think about pulp magazines. What comes to mind is likely those (somewhat gaudy) magazine covers with a pinup girl fighting off an alien or monster, while her male friend looks on. And while this isn’t a definitive descriptor for every sci-fi magazine or publication, it’s safe to say this is the reality of many of the early science fiction works.

“LivingWorld” by Ricky Grove via Flickr, is licenced under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“If – Worlds of Science Fiction” by Tim Sox via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Chaos in Arcturus” by Ricky Grove via Flickr, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The difference in the presentation between men and women in these pulp magazines I think is a culmination of a still prevalent issue in science fiction. 

 

I’d think that 95% (not a real statistic) of all early science fiction authors, editors, artists, critics, et cetera. were men. And there lies the fault in the genre. When the source material is all coming from a male perspective – it’s easy to ignore the female audience. This is not to say that men write horrid or entirely sexist fiction (because they definitely don’t), just that a large portion of the population will be left out of the considerations made for the audience, i.e. it was just assumed that the main readers of science fiction were men, because men were the only ones producing it! 

 

As time goes on – science fiction prevails. Scientific and technological advancements never let up, and so neither does the momentum or excitement for the genre. However, it doesn’t help the case for women in sci-fi when the stereotype of a science fiction enjoyer is of a nerdy guy, who shies away from women and social interaction. Further alienating or isolating female readers of the genre. 

 

Why is this the case though? The purpose of science fiction is to speculate about what could or might realistically happen (regarding society, science, and technology). Science fiction isn’t made to be exclusionary of women, nor is it made for the sole purpose of enjoying the image of women. Science fiction, in reality, ought to be accessible and representative of everyone. 

 

Still, even to an extent today, it’s difficult for women to find a footing in the genre – both as authors and as representations of themselves. Women authors find more success publishing with gender-ambiguous names, and most developed female characters often came from female influences.

 

As the legendary Joanna Russ once critiqued of the genre, 

 

“There are plenty of images of women in science fiction, there are hardly any women.”

 

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