>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
Suzette,
Thanks for saying clearly what I wanted to say but didn't/couldn't.
0Sean
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:48 PDT