The online classroom of UH 300-006, Andy Duncan's fall 2009 science fiction seminar in the Honors College of the University of Alabama.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Venus +
Wow, it's pretty rare to see a female protagonist in a sci-fi tale who manages to remain feminine but still manage to exert as dominant a presence as a male.
True dat, most every female hero in contemporary stories are just like their male hero counterparts, except with much tighter clothing.
This might be a pitfall not necessarily inherent to just sci-fi, but to any sort of fiction (art) in general. Art supposedly holds a mirror up to reality, and reality is largely constructed by the customs of a given society. On those terms, most societies, and by extension works of art, myths, religions, belief structures, etc throughout history have represented pretty patriarchal realities in which women, unfortunately, aren't given much of a voice.
But what about how the woman protagonist fails in the end? We finally have a woman protagonist in a SF story and while initially letting her dominance to shine, she fails in the end.
The whole point that what's-his-name-loverboy made in the story was that there is no such thing as perfection so she didn't necessarily fail. Honestly, another Earth would just be boring, variety's the spice of life after all. If you ask me, she succeeded...just not how she meant to.
But seriously though, that's a tough chick. She oversaw that project (off the top of my head) for over a millenium didn't she?
I'm interested that your discussion so far focuses on Elizabeth's femininity, given the mythical associations of the name Venus. (Or the name of Venus's Hellenic predecessor, Aphrodite.)
True dat, most every female hero in contemporary stories are just like their male hero counterparts, except with much tighter clothing.
ReplyDeleteThis might be a pitfall not necessarily inherent to just sci-fi, but to any sort of fiction (art) in general. Art supposedly holds a mirror up to reality, and reality is largely constructed by the customs of a given society. On those terms, most societies, and by extension works of art, myths, religions, belief structures, etc throughout history have represented pretty patriarchal realities in which women, unfortunately, aren't given much of a voice.
But what about how the woman protagonist fails in the end? We finally have a woman protagonist in a SF story and while initially letting her dominance to shine, she fails in the end.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point that what's-his-name-loverboy made in the story was that there is no such thing as perfection so she didn't necessarily fail. Honestly, another Earth would just be boring, variety's the spice of life after all. If you ask me, she succeeded...just not how she meant to.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously though, that's a tough chick. She oversaw that project (off the top of my head) for over a millenium didn't she?
I'm interested that your discussion so far focuses on Elizabeth's femininity, given the mythical associations of the name Venus. (Or the name of Venus's Hellenic predecessor, Aphrodite.)
ReplyDelete