On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Lindy S. L. Lovvik wrote:
>
> > Finally (yes I am going to stop soon) I agree with Barbara that
> > those dying words of Dis were INCREDIBLY stupid. I do disagree
> > that the response "I'm your girl" sounds dumb. Men say "im your
> > man," so what is the difference?
>
>
> I suspect the difference lies in the fact that men are adults and
> girls are not. A man saying "I'm your boy" would sound equally
> idiotic.
>
That was standard in Heinlein's day. Women who objectto his
"misogyny" should really read more literature from his period. He was WAY
ahead of his times. IN 1946 he had a short story about a woman on a space
construction project fighting the men who wanted her off the project or
kept safely inside the station. His women were physicists (Mary Lou
Martin, mid-40s), cited equality statutes without being thought whiners
(G. Brooks McNye,. 1946), starship pilots in the 50s - while Star Trek, 10
years later, announced that women could not be starship captains, Heinlein
considered it a good thing. Meade Stone was an MD and Hazel Stone an
engineer. That Hazel had given it up to write space operas was in line
with some career paths I know of. And so on and so on.
Sure. His attitude towards women has strong overtones of GI
Generation thinking. He was born in 1907! But check out the original
M*A*S*H for the character of Hot Lips Houlihan. Check out, if you can
stand it, Philip Wylie's GENERATION OF VIPERS. Check out the 50s science
fiction like THEY"D RATHER BE RIGHT in which women are seen as sour old
prudes who are holding back bright young men, or as grasping little
wanna-be Susie Homemakers who are trapping said bright young men into a
stifling world of diapers and lawnmowing.
Then re-read Heinlein with gratidude.
Patricia (Pat) Mathews
mathews @unm.edu
Who found his world far more liberating than the one I was living
in!
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