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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future 
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Sample answers
for Part 2:
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Breanna Runnels
Questionable Roles of Women in
Science Fiction
Throughout time, women’s role in society
and the general world has changed and evolved to become more present and
necessary. Genres and novels often match the change of societal norms, and such
is true with the role of women. For futuristic literature, the role of women is
a changing feat within its works. In many of the pieces we’ve read, it seems
that women often suffer as the collateral damage to the damage that men bring to
the narrative.
The book of Genesis in the bible is one
of the first instances where women are placed in a position that causes a reader
to question “what is the woman’s impact in this work?” Since Adam is the first
man to be created, the is a common fact that without the man a woman couldn’t
have been created since she is made from his rib—“This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken
out of Man” (MacArthur). This places a female character in the position to be
seen as below the male character, which is further displayed in the necessity of
obedience from a female to a male. By saying something is created
from man, it makes it unequal and can
be seen as a product of man. The most often remembered part in Genesis is an
instance of woman’s disobedience, when Eve decides to eat the fruit. This truly
demonizes all of the other things that happens to and because of Eve through the
rest of the book and chapter.
The next case of sexualization of a
woman was the character June Tannhauser in “Stone Lives” by Paul Di Filippo.
Though June did at first have a role as an assistant for the head of the Citrine
Tower, her high status was quickly dropped once the male character, Stone,
enters the story. She is immediately subjected to the image that Stone sees her
as, which is just a sexual being, rather than a business professional. We see
the first instance of Stone’s intended possession of June when she introduces
herself and he quickly follows by replacing her last name with his own first
name by saying, “June Stone. June and Stone and lilies of the valley….”. He has
immediately pushed her identity out of the way and replaced it with his own.
From their very introduction, June’s character has been subject to male
dominance. We can also see that as soon as June becomes a sexual toy for Stone,
her character is no longer mentioned, but it is instead replaced with her
sexuality. In the middle of the sexual encounter, June says “You’re so foolish
for someone so smart… Just like Alice”. Stone then “does not consider her
meaning.” Due to the sex fueled position that Stone has placed June in, he no
longer will consider her as an intelligent person, rather he will see her as
something to disregard.
In
Parable of the Sower, the female
character is described in a different light. With the main character being a
strong female, almost every other female that she encounters can fit into the
sexualized role that has been laid out for them. She often runs into people on
the street before she has even left the wall that are dirty and obviously
sexually abused as they were described as “raped so much that she was crazy”
(Butler, 9). The first women characters that we see, other than Lauren, are
automatically introduced based on their sexualization. Though this description
of this woman is hard to take in, there are not many other ways that women
outside of the wall are described. With Lauren being the only opposition, most
women in this book are placed under female stereotypes like being dumber and
less athletic than the boys, while also being tools for marriage and procreation
for the men. Even the children are sexualized, and she later sees “a little
girl, naked, maybe seven years old with blood running down her bare thighs. A
woman with a swollen bloody, beaten face….” (Butler 13). From an early age, the
women of this futuristic society are placed in a spot to be only sexual beings,
whether they unwillingly take the role or the willingly marry someone young due
to the fact that there isn’t much else to do besides have sex in that society.
In
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, we
have an obvious lack of female characters with the only female character being
Weena. Though Weena is the only female character, she is often cited as having
only “above average” intelligence, again placing the female character in a
position to be judged by the standards of the men around them. Also, her
character was introduced into the story when the Traveler “caught the poor mite
and drew her safe to land” when she was seemingly drowning. Though the Traveler
does not engage in a sexual relationship with Weena, it is obviously
flirtatious. Weena is not sexualized, but is instead treated like a pet which
may perhaps be worse, but how can you decide which is the lesser of two evils.
In an article by Marianne Kac-Vergne, she is considering the roles of female
sidekicks that are not sexual beings. By placing them in a non-sexualized
position she states, “In so doing, the presence of women points to a major
weakness in the male heroes: their sexual impotence. Women are indeed cast as
buddies because of the impossibility of sex.” (Kac-Vergne). The faithful partner
type in this story is instead seen as a child than a lover, still demeaning her
role as a female but not going as far as to sexualize her as well.
There are also a few instances where a
woman is ultimately killed or died and are just kind of brushed off as
collateral damage. We see this in the case of Alice Citrine from “Stone Lives”,
and her untimely death that seemed to only occur to push Stone into a position
of higher power. Alice’s only role in this entire story was to die to create a
position of power for Stone. Alice was a woman that was in higher power, which
is a good advancement for the role of women in science fiction, though this
display of a powerful woman is short lived, and it was intended to be that way.
As a reader, we did not know that Alice was soon to be killed so we were rooting
for her to be successful. Instead, she was killed, and her success was quickly
brushed to the side to become collateral damage in the storyline that benefited
only Stone.
We also see this in Mozart in Mirrorshades with Marie
Antoinette. Marie was thrown into the story to play two roles: the love
interest, and the con-artist. These two roles are stereotypical roles of women
that do not promote character growth or advancement in any social group. Though
she was part of a masterminded plan, her role in it was to play the lover who
didn’t get her side of the deal fulfilled. Her character plays a huge role in
the attempted takedown by Mozart, but instead of following up on his deal he
leaves her to be trapped in that dimension. Another representation of the
sexualization and mistreatment of women is in the short story “House of Bones”.
Not only do the cave men sexually harass the women in their community, but when
the time traveler has a chance to contrast from their culture as a modern man,
he fails by viewing his wife’s value strictly by her attractiveness.
Not every woman in science fiction is seen as collateral
damage or as a supporting role for the male characters. As mentioned before, the
character Lauren from “Parable of the Sower” is one of the strongest women
characters I have seen in science fiction. She creates her own world and is
empowered enough to lead a group of people out of a dystopian world into a new
utopian society. We are also introduced to Molly Millions in “Johnny Mnemonic”.
William Gibson does a great job of moving away from representing women as purely
sexual object, but instead creates a sexual character who is independent and
necessary to the plot of the story. Though Molly is the attractive woman role in
the story, she is much more important then just her appearance and creates major
changes in the storyline. From a previous classroom observation and conversation
I had with the teacher there, I learned that she often scours shelves of
bookstores or online sites to find female driven science fiction books as there
are not many prominent ones out at the moment. She was thankful when I shared
these pieces with here, because she only had a few that were worthy of the
“powerful female role” tag.
Science was a field previously dominated by males when
the works of science fiction literature became prominent. Due to that fact, and
the oppression of women’s rights, it makes sense for women to play meaningless
or sexualized roles in those pieces of literature. But the times have changed.
As a woman as a reader I am happy to see the roles of women slowly changing and
to see science fiction become less of a “boy’s club” and more of a place for
people of all genders to come together.
Works Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. New York:
Warner Books, 2000. Print.
Filippo, Paul Di. “Stone Lives.” 1985. Handout.
Kac-Vergne, Marianne.
Sidelining Women in Contemporary Science-Fiction Film.
2016. Web.
https://journals.openedition.org/miranda/8642
MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible English
Standard Version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles, 2010. Print.
