"Science
fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly
as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite
representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism,
worlds in which women's contributions (to science) are recognized and valued,
worlds in which the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that
move beyond gender."*
For next class (Friday May 17th), come
prepared to discuss at least one the following writing prompts. These questions
just serve as a guide to aid your thinking. If you have a topic/idea that you
wish to write about, please feel free to do so. You are also welcome to share
your “world builder”. The essay is informal but I would encourage you to
reflect back on your experiences in this class and your thoughts in some way prior
to next week’s class.
Essay Ideas:
· Why
are feminist science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, magical realism,
surrealism, myth, and other supernatural genres so important?
· What
is the role of story telling in our culture? How do these stories shape and
reinforce our existing paradigm(s)?
· In
order to envision a different future, we need stories that feed our
imagination, our psyches and our hearts with a different paradigm. Explain how
these genres break up the mold. Use the readings to illustrate your argument.
· Feminism
cannot exist if we didn't have new myths and stories that reinvent and explore
all the possibilities of our world — both as dystopias to warn, and utopias to
dream. In this day and age, what is the role(s) of feminist scifi? How can it
be used as a tool to further the feminist cause(s)?
·
If we had societies that were not built on
unequal relations between the sexes (and races) what would they look like? How
would they function? Would science and technology be done differently?
·
What is the role of “thought experiments” in
science fiction? Have these experiments exaggerated or reversed sexual orders?
Have the writers been successful in dismantling the existing relations between
the sexes? How/how not? Use the texts to illustrate your argument.
·
One of the major challenges of modern
feminism has been to the idea that gender roles and relations are in some way
permanent, arising from a universal Truth, natural Laws and Biology. Has
feminist scifi successfully challenged these ideas? How/how not?
Science Fiction Story Ideas:
Gender Roles
·
In
a society where women are in charge, the men are taught from infancy that
having opinions or trying to make your own decisions is “effeminate” and
“girly”
·
In the future, humans are born neuter but
pick their gender in college, like a major.
·
A medical research company genetically
engineers a group of children who are both sexes. How will they behave? How
will the children dress? How will they interact with “one-sex” people?
·
After the invention of the artificial womb,
newlywed couples begin to have arguments about which one of them will carry the
baby.
- After being denied a job, a young man sues a fertility clinic for his right to become the first male surrogate “mother.” A liberal judge’s ruling forces the fertility clinic to implant him with an artificial womb.
- In the distant future, evolution dramatically changes the meaning of gender. When humans gather in groups, individuals change gender until there is an even mix of males and females. Cocktail parties become an unpredictable mass of shifting relationships.
- After World War III, the female survivors decide that, as men caused the war and did most of the fighting, it is simply too dangerous to allow them to be in control of the governments any longer. Men are banned from government and military service and, after a few years, banned from voting, having an education or having a job outside the home. A young boy, depressed by his limited prospects at home, decides to pose as a girl so he can join the navy.
- Variation – After World War III, the female survivors decide that, as men caused the war and did most of the fighting, it is simply too dangerous to allow them to be in control of the governments any longer. In fact, it’s too dangerous to allow men to continue living. They offer the few remaining males a choice: become women or die.
Polygamy
- Earth sends a spaceship full of colonists to populate a new planet. In order to populate the new planet as quickly as possible, they send ten women for every man. Some women adjust, adapt to the new culture, accepting their role as one wife of many. Other women rebel, and have to fend for themselves on the new planet.
- Aliens attack the earth and take the majority of the women back to their planet to be part of their interspecies breeding program. (The alien women are infertile.) So, the remaining women are left with their pick of mates. Some become incredibly choosy, dating one perfect male. Some women marry multiple husbands, so many that they can live in luxury, waited on hand and foot.
- An epidemic outbreak of a new virus makes all men “shoot blanks.” The men must come to the doctor for fertility treatments to fix the problem. The treatments solve the problem, but create two kinds of males: “A” and “B.” Women must sleep with both an “A” male and a “B” male to get pregnant.
- Variation – A disease makes women unable to carry an infant for a whole nine months. So one woman carries the baby for four, and then has the baby moved into another woman’s womb, who then carries it until birth.
Sexuality and
procreation
- A disease renders all the women infertile. Scientists genetically engineer women who are super-fertile, like human insect queens.
- After the invention of artificial sperm, women start to view men as unnecessary
- A medical research firm invents an artificial womb. Soon procreation is outlawed. Instead of sexual reproduction, corporations grow genetically engineered “perfect” babies and sell them on the open market.
- An outbreak of disease kills everyone under twenty years old. Doctors discover that the only way to keep babies from dying is if they extend the length of the gestation period from nine months to twelve years
- A bachelor is discovered to have a rare mutation that would make all of his offspring geniuses, physically beautiful, and nearly immortal. His sperm becomes the most valuable substance on earth.
- Wanting to destroy the US economy, a terrorist group designs a “baby bomb,” a device that will keep women continuously pregnant
- On a distant world, the land is filled with men. Once a year, the men journey to the beach, where they encounter the only females on the planet: mermaids.
- On a distant planet, the corner bar is the most stressful place a man can be. Men approach women knowing that, if their pickup lines fail, the robot guards will drag them outside and beat them to death.
- A race of aliens takes control of planet after planet, not through warfare, but through breeding. The aliens have airborne spores which can get any females pregnant with an alien baby. The babies are so adorable that any female would feel compelled to raise them as one of her own. The aliens fill the earth’s atmosphere with their spores, and simply wait for their offspring to grow up and overwhelm humanity through sheer numbers.
- After
researching reincarnation, a man discovers a way to be reborn but retain
his memory of his old life. After a particularly passionate night of
lovemaking, he has a heart attack and dies. A few months later, the man is
reincarnated… as his own infant son.
*Elyce Rae Helford, in Westfahl, Gary. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Greenwood Press, 2005: 289-290http://www.writepop.com/science-fiction-story-ideas/1001-story-ideas-part-13-sex http://www.femspec.org/books/index.html
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