Christine Roane's project sounds interesting. She appears to be
emphasizing positive influences and this made me wonder if others were
negatively influenced by early Sci Fi...I was. In my teens I read 1930's -
early 1960's Sci Fi, which generally portrayed women as empty-headed,
scantily clad sex objects. The few fully clothed women were described
either as coy, submissive, though attractive, women more interested in
trapping a husband than in saving the universe or plain, irritating,
domineering women no man would want. I can't recall a female character in
Robert Heinlein's works whose goal in life was anything other than
marriage. Even Asimov's (my favorite author) intelligent robot-specialist
character, Dr. Calvin, was weird--she didn't want to marry but preferred
robots to humans. I.e., early Sci Fi definitely reinforced patriarchal
stereotypes and attitudes about women.
I was already an adult by the time Star Trek appeared. But the
female characters on ST didn't depart too much from the same stereotypes.
Judith
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Dr. Judith Ann Little Philosophy Department SUNY-Potsdam
Potsdam, NY 13676-2294 littleja@potsdam.edu
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