I thought the members of this listserv might be interested in the following
discussion on the IAFA list. Someone remarked about her students'
rejection of what seemed to be the return to the "subjection" of women in
Bujold's works.
>I do think I know where the reaction you note in
>your students is coming from. Partly, it's the inverse reaction of
>quite a lot of history when women were told that getting married and
>raising kids was the only thing they could do; you're students (was this
>in the last section of SF you taught?) are, at a guess, only recently
>exposed to feminist history and still reacting strongly because of it.
>I know that's how I would probably have reacted at that age (not so long
>ago), andit doesn't really surprise me.
>Another big factor is, quite frankly, that many of them are now being
>socialized to reject the arbirtrariness of such gender role assignments
>and being told, with our society's higher value on wage-earning over
>child-rearing, that it really is a waste of their time to raise
>children. It is, after all, the world's oldest, unremunerated
>(financially) profession.
>Yes, I agree -- it's not a very highly paid profession (in money), but
>-- from my own experience -- it has its own rewards, and I hope to keep
>on pointing this out to my students.
While reading the discussion above, I couldn't help but remember what
happened when I attending an SF writing seminar YEARS ago on the west
coast. We had just moved to town, my husband was a brand-new asst. prof.,
and we had our first, brand-new mortgage which was killing us--and of
course, I couldn't find a professional job for awhile--money was tight! My
babysitter was suddenly unavailable, and since I was NOT going to miss the
seminar, I attended, two-year-old in tow. I sat in the back so she could
roam about a bit and not bother anyone, but I got up my courage to ask a
question of a female writer (one of my favorites) on the panel who had
grown children. I asked her how on earth she had managed to find the time
to write. Her reply? Just let your housekeeper take care of the kids!
The "toddler" is now 19, and I'll have to admit it took about half of that
time before I could pick up my FORMER favorite writer's works again!
Getting back to Bujold, I can understand the initial reaction too, but that
initial reaction can be used and played off of to uncover the strengths of
the female characters. Just picture the strength Miles' mother displayed
to, as a female enemy officer, marry an important member of the
aristocracy--and over the years totally subvert many of the prejudices
against females in the ruling family! Strength of character and courage of
convictions don't have to be dominating and overpowering.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:56 PDT