On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Nalo Hopkinson wrote:
[snip]
> imperfect. I didn't mean to imply that _Dune_ was a particularly
> feminist book (didn't feel anti-feminist, just not written from a
> feminist place). But I think we were talking about taking our role
> models where we could best find them, and I found even the slimiest of
> the Bene Gesserit wonderfully appealing.
I aggree. Sexist but not anti-feminist. Possibly even better than that
given certain readings, but I hesitate to go there. Practically all of
the societies (except possibly internal Bene Geserit) were very sexist.
About the role-model thing. Do people really identify with their sex so
much? I tend to find my role models where the author intended regardless
of sex. Of course I am not starved for role-models of my sex. Perhaps
what we really need is sufficient role-models of both sexes for everyone.
That is one reason I like to read feminist/queer fiction, so that I can
feel like/identify with/"become" as many different types of people
as possible.
On the topic of Dune, who would you rather have been, Paul or his mother?
I could not help wanting to be Paul because he was the real main character
and had all of the powers/strengths of his mother and more besides (other
than the ability to give birth though that was not stressed at all. Paul
was the ultimate Bene Geserit and he could not be a woman because women
were unable to reach his level.
One more thing about the Bene Geserit, weren't they only able to deal with
the water of life at least in part because they sort of transferred the
ability from one to the next while Paul dealt with it without help?
-- Joel VanLaven
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