I've been re-reading the postings on this topic, and I am bemused. I am of
Frank Herbert's generation, and agree with those who say that for his time
he was pretty "liberated." But that's not the issue that strikes me most
forcibly. The question of awareness of feminism in the 50s or 60s is much
like the question of awareness of feminism in the 90s; if you're talking
about intellectuals and academics it has one answer, and if you're talking
about the population at large it has quite a different one. What I find so
surprising is that I have always thought of Dune as a novel in which
Herbert was trying *very* hard -- and in perhaps a sexist fashion -- to
champion the powerfulness of women. The Bene Gesserit had such tremendous
power; the wives and mothers had such tremendous power... As I read the
novel, the men were useful to the Bene Gesserit's plans because they had
the semen needed for the breeding, and because they were willing to play
the power games in the open that provided cover for what the women were up
to behind the scenes. I would have thought that if there was sexism here it
was in the form that I am so often accused of myself -- that of portraying
the female characters as strong and capable and rational, and portraying
all the men as weak and wicked and barely able to find the bathroom alone.
Even Paul, it seems to me, is constantly portrayed as dominated by the
women; he exists, after all, only because of the rebellion of one strong
woman against a group of other strong women.
I am clearly not reading the same novel that the rest of you are reading.
Suzette Haden Elgin
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