On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Elizabeth Pandolfo wrote:
>
> That's one of the patterns that has struck me about feminist fantasy and SF
> too, the idea of more than one protagonist, all equal, working together and
> pooling strengths so that all reach the end of the quest, rather than
> having one protagonist with an obvious support group. Do you think that
> this kind of pattern holds true, or is it something I've just seen in the
> books I've read? I'd be curious to know, and most of you on this list are
>
> Elizabeth
>
I think that's probably one theme in feminist quest literature, though a
lot of the women's adventure sf that I've ready by women with strong women
characters (I would call feminist) still embraces the central character
struggling against difficult odds in a relatively lonely quest, proving
her -individual- strength and intelligence and wisdom.
I just started Freedom's Choice, the sequel to Freedom's Landing, by Anne
McCaffery, and I was thinking about the female protagonist, who is
certainly smart and strong and driven. Despite the future setting, she is
one of few women in the front ranks of the 'refugee' society attempting to
survive and discover the mystery of the planet they've been dropped on.
It got me thinking that one common aspect of many women heroes is to be a
kind of pioneer, the sole woman in a man's world, needing not only to
prove herself with relation to the quests goal but also to prove herself
to her teammates or cohorts or whoever. It's interesting that even in
future or alternate world settings authors often use this extra challenge
as part of the context in which women heroes act. Certainly modern women
readers will identify strongly with the heroism of fighting for
recognition and acceptance, perhaps especially a lot of the women who read
science fiction, who may be women in tranditionally male occupations (or
the world of science generally).
robin.
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