Judith A. Little wrote:
>
> 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
>
> *************************************************************************
> Dr. Judith Ann Little Philosophy Department SUNY-Potsdam
> Potsdam, NY 13676-2294 littleja@potsdam.edu
> ***********************************************************************
Judith,
Just to let you all know, I do tend to emphasize the positive (that's
just me). However, my survey DOES include exploration of negative
effects on women / society - like the excellent points you raised in
your post.
What a savvy, lively group we have here!
Christine
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