At 07:51 AM 9/25/97 -0500, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote, re: Dune:
>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.
I'm curious, Suzette -- do you have a response to such accusations
regarding your own works? And if so, what is it?
-- Janice
My first response is always to say -- and mean it -- that I
apologize for whatever sexism my work contains. I don't think any of us
manages to be totally free of elitism of one kind or another, hard as we
try, and I am not under the illusion that I'm an exception. Once I get
beyond that, there are two things I try to explain.
First, that most of the people who make these comments about my
work are academics or professionals, usually living privileged lives in
quite sophisticated social environments; that goes with the territory. I
suggest to them, as gently as I can, that the men and women with whom they
themselves are familiar may not be typical of the population at large, and
that it's possible that my perceptions are pretty accurate. Where I live,
Barbie still rules.
Second, that I am a native Ozarker, and that like all Ozark women
my age I was taught from infancy that (1) when men do most things well
it's an accident, that (2) it's a woman's responsibility to clean up the
messes men make and protect men from the consequences of those messes as
far as possible, and that (3) it's a woman's responsibility to see to it
that men never know about (1) and (2). Now that *is* sexist. Absolutely.
It's reverse sexism of the most maternalistic kind -- that is, it is taken
for granted that men are doing the very best they can, given their
limitations, that it's not their fault that they're as they are, and that
whatever change may come about with men is the responsibility of women.
There are few things more fierce and cruel than the contempt that Ozark
women feel for a woman who "can't cope," but not much is expected of males.
(I am stereotyping and over-generalizing, certainly; of course there are
exceptions. But this is the prototype.) This had awful effects on my
graduate students when I was a linguistics prof; all a male student had to
do was stumble through the paces I set, and he would get praise and a
decent grade -- but from female students I demanded spectacular work. I am
eternally grateful to my female students, who came to me in a group and
gave me bloody hell about this until I finally was able to understand what
they were talking about and realize that they were absolutely right. I told
them then that I counted on them to keep me straight on this -- to let them
know whenever I backslid. And they did. The male/female situation that is
laid out in my Ozark Trilogy (once you delete the flying mules and the
magic and the Aliens) accurately represents the world view I was brought up
with. So far as I know, this has not changed. I don't approve of it, but I
have no power to change the real-world channels.
I apologize for going on at such length. It's hard to do this
clearly and briefly at the same time.
Suzette
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