On Fri, 26 Sep 1997 14:23:13 -0400 Nicole Youngman wrote:
>
> I didn't like it at all. I read it a couple of years ago after a friend
> suggested it since it had a strong female lead character. Let me see if I
> remember correctly: she had some sort of father figure she worked for who
> provided a good chunk of her self-worth, she went through the usual
> "am-I-really-human" angst; and at the end she was forcibly inseminated, then
> decided to bear the child anyway, deciding in the process that she was, in
> fact, human since she could be a mother, and settled down as a colonist and
> joined the PTA and whatever else.
>
> Saved thru childbearing?? Sorry, doesn't make it as feminist IMHO.
>
> Nicole
Granted, but with Heinlein it is always helpful to remember that his men
are also always saved by marriage (in whatever sense) and childrearing.
I found Friday very powerful but read it when I was an adolescent. In
particular, it shaped my attitude to sex. Reading it now I find myself
seeing Friday as an abuse victim (and I think Heinlein makes it clear that
she has *been* abused in a number of ways). She uses sex as a weapon
because all of her relationships in childhood, and many of her adult
relationships have demonstrated to her that she is merely a commodity. As
she heals she starts to replace that use of sex with a greater belief in
her right to say no (although granted she doesn't use it much). Janet (the
woman at the end, I may have her name wrong) reshapes for Friday what
relationships are about. It may be soppy or unsatisfactory that Friday
resolves her feminity in child bearing, but remember, this is someone who
has been denied that right and repeatedly told that she is not human
enough to be a mother or a member of a family. Her role as fighter has
been forced upon her, in that she is making just as much a feminist choice
as a woman who moves in the other direction (and Heinlein has a few of
those).
Her familial role by the way, is one of protector. She also takes a lot of
control of the decisions the men make in the escapes. This may be intended
to signal her lessening dependence on men for approval and rescue.
Heinlein is deeply flawed but I think he was genuinely interested in what
women might do. He did, however, believe that the fundamental role of all
human beings (men and women) was to breed. Even higher maths came lower
down on his lists of requirements for humanity.
Farah Mendlesohn
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