[Hi. Just a reminder that there are some men who are interested in
these topics, too :-) I'm also copying my wife on this as I don't
believe that she's subscribed to this list yet.]
Qhyrrae Michaelieu wrote:
> "I also identified with the male protagonists. I wonder how that affects
> one's sense of being a woman, when the positive role models you have are
> almost all male. Does it lead to a rejection of the female or a
> transcendence of gender?"
To which "Judith A. Little" responded:
> Excellent question! In speaking with women about childhood and teen
> reading habits and the lack of female models, some say they never ID'd with
> male "heroes."
I find that rather interesting as I tend to identify with the
protagonist--which is why I found Piercy's _WOtEoT_ to be painful (but I
loved it). Perhaps it's easier for a male since the vast majority of the
protagonists in books are male (I expect that's still the case, anyway).
In hindsight (perhaps blurred ;-), I don't recall even being disoriented
by relationships, although I do recall rolling my eyes at the weak and/or
1-dimensional ("dimensionally-challenged"?) female characters.
Moving back to an earlier thread of discussion...
I read a lot of Heinlein growing up, and still love his books, but in
the last 5-10 years (I'm going on 27 years of age), I've been noticing
more his characterizations of men and women. I believe that someone
made the point that his women seem to all (eventually) aspire to
motherhood above all else. I can't recall any counterexamples,
off-hand... I am curious, though, what women thought of a couple of his
female characters--specifically Maureen Johnson and Hazel Stone. I'm
also curious what folks think of _I Will Fear No Evil_. I'll reserve
comment on them for now.
I also find it interesting how different people react to Heinlein. My
father is gay and he remembered Heinlein as being very anti-homosexual.
I rather got the opposite reaction.
-allen
PS. As a bit of introduction... I'm a computer programmer who has read
a fairly wide smattering of sci-fi and some fantasy. I'm starting to
read more critically these days. I consider myself a feminist, but I
haven't read too much by women. Some authors that I like (and remember
right now ;-) are Marge Piercy, Patricia Wrede, Pat Murphy, Sheri Tepper,
Diane Duane, and Octavia Butler
--
Allen Briggs - end killing - briggs@macbsd.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:56 PDT