Although it's exciting that a woman/women are invloved in the Mars
expedition, I also think that it's important to look critically at the
expedition istelf, and at space "exploration" in general. To me, it is very
much a problem that billions of dollars are being spent on this, while at
the same time, there are more & more people living out in the streets,
education & arts funding are being cut, healthcare too expensive for large
numbers of people, etc. And I'm only talking about the U.S. It is ironic
that Donna Shirley named Sojurner for "a woman". The woman was Sojurner
Truth, who fought for the rights of an oppressed people, the very same
people who are now suffering because of the way govenment spending is
allocated. To me, feminism is about equality for all people, not just for a
few privileged women who get ahead in a formerly "male" profession. For
example, I don't think it was a giant step for feminism (or humanity) when
Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the UK. I've noticed that many
people on this list cite the work of Octavia Butler and Samuel Delaney; it
seems like those writers have a very critical take on issues of class and
race that is integrated into their SF work. What do other people think?
Kym Ragusa
>Tonight's NBC evening news had a feature in their "American Spirit" series
>on Donna Shirley, the Program Manager for the Pathfinder mission. Inter
>alia, she noted that it was she who named Sojourner for a woman; she also
>says she's been interested in getting to Mars one way or another all her
>life.
>
>Shirley is by no means the only woman involved at high levels at JPL, though
>it does seem that a lot of the press conferences are done by guys there.
>Shirley at JPL.
>
>
>Tess
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:26 PDT