Pat:
Yes, you're right: it's all a matter of context. I loved Heinlein when I
was a kid, although when I was sixteen (and not even a feminist yet!) I
threw "Farnham's Freehold" across the room because I couldn't stand how it
talked about women.
There are really two issues here: 1) how does the author present women
vis-a-vis the other predominant images in his or her culture, and 2) what
sources of feminist strength can a given woman find in a given text,
regardless of whether it's intended to be feminist, or considered such by
people who call themselves feminists?
There was a feminist backlash against Nancy Drew for a while: she isn't
really a strong female character, she always winds up getting rescued by
Ned, etc., etc. For some people that may be true. On the other hand,
there's a footnote in Susan Griffin's "Silence and Pornography" about a
little girl -- this is a true story -- who was kidnapped and thrown into
the trunk of a car. She managed to pick the lock (from the inside, in the
dark!) and escape when her capturer stopped at a gas station. When the
police asked her how she had accomplished this brave and technically
difficult feat, she said, "I asked myself what Nancy Drew would have done
in the same situation." LOL! That kid didn't need no stinking Ned!
See my earlier response to Vonda about pornographic images: here, too, I
suspect that our expectations will shape what we find. Resourceful female
readers can draw images of strength from sources other female readers
consider anathema. My motto is, "If it works, use it."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:09 PDT