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Automatic sexism
Feb. 16th, 2008 09:15 amWell here is why I don't read non-feminist SF very often. I'm reading Permanence by Karl Schroeder, and while it's well written, and while it's got space and an interesting world and society and Sciency explanations and a female protagonist, it assumes so much sexism in the society without any explanation or thought!
Here are some things that jumped out at me.
- Rue's mom on the comet space station, implications she was abused or powerless compared to the rough miners who are all men
- Rue also being persecuted or abused on the station by her brother and by Rough Men. There are no Rough Women; why? I suppose the transient roughnecks are being shown as uncivilized because of Not Having Wives; the fact that none of the roughnecks are women isn't even part of the conscious narrative assumptions. Also, sex and rape are not even hinted at. Rue is presented as a male "victim of bullying by older boys" would be presented, with a female pronoun. Unconvincing.
p. 20 "The hundred or so residents and transient workers who struggled to keep Allemagne livable. They were roughnecks - rejects of the cometary halo worlds, criminals, misfits, and failed profiteers. These men were Rue's 'uncles' as she was growing up and a few had been kind. The rest had trained her to a caution and cunning that ran as deep as her marrow."
- Rue always having Things Explained to her and all the plans made by rich dude, Max, which I won't even bother to take apart
- p. 73 Max does not understand why reclaiming the billion dollar spaceship is important to Rue now that she's thought about it. "If the government had offered me a finder's fee or something I would have jumped at it. But they didn't... they figured that a woman like me would never be able to reach the cycler herself, so they just ignored me." Where in the heck do we get the "just a woman" rationale? Rue is in dire poverty and homeless; she has no resources to launch an expedition to claim the spaceship she 'discovered'; why would she or Max assume the entire planet including the government was sexist enough to dismiss her not for being destitute, young, and a hick, but for being a woman? Since this is assumed without question in a casual statement, we can conclude that the society of the Cycler Compact is several orders of magnitude more sexist than current North America. In a society like this, where women are assumed to be powerless, why is there no rape or prostitution? It is not well thought out.
- Rue maneuvers the failing aircar on its one jet into a life-saving spiral, but then doesn't mention it to Max when he refers to it as a death spiral and seems to assume she was panicking. She finds it totally normal to let him think that she is without skills. Again, this assumes a particular power relationship between men and women; it goes unexamined.
- p. 67 "Rue rehearsed the arguments she'd been prepaing. She was the legal owner of the cycler; she must be given a chance to assert her ownerhip... she was good at defending herself verbally, she knew. She'd done it all her life." Ooookay and she can't come up with anything more politically savvy than "it's my legal right" (such as "my incredibly billionaire cousin is backing me, so get out of the way." Also, it doesn't occur to her to get a lawyer? Yes, she's a hick in the big city, but they have TV (or whatever hyperspace holovid mass media thingamajig so she should not be Prairie Girl ignorant here.)
- Just... barf me out that she names her spaceship "Jentry's Envy" after her abusive older brother who tried to sell her into slavery. Who would seriously do this? Even for a space opera ingenue, as Rue seems to be, somewhat trusting and open-hearted and smiley, it totally rings false. For someone snarly and vengeful and bitter, just maybe; or for about a 4 year old child. This is actually the part where I almost put down the book for good. She didn't name her spaceship in a way that was consistent even with the nebulous personality she's got by page 78.
- Rue's character, a mixture of naive and skilled, self-effacing and assertive, insecure and confident. She is often pretending to be less than she is. She pretends to think about something when she already knows. She doesn't explain when she's right, though she knows she's right. She doubts people but doesn't question them outright (despite her supposed great verbal skills). She expresses doubt about actions but then just follows along despite her own judgement. Her adverbs are all "reluctantly" "uncertainly" "seemingly" "unsteadily". Some heroine. If you regendered this novel, it would look extremely strange to have the Manly Hero constructed this way.
With books like this I always want to ask the author, "So, do you think that sexism exists? Why?" and see what they say. In this case I could find out obliquely or by sending an email.
Okay, onward past page 78 to see if any of this is explained or resolved -- or just gets more eye-rolling. Then I intend to come up with a more coherent response and post it on the fsf blog.
When I read with half an eye I am enjoying the Space!Future!Yay!BrownDwarf! bits and the plot moving forward. I am especially curious to see what the Rights Economy society is like. I'm a total sucker for Galactic System Worldbuilding.
How lucky I feel that even at my fast pace of consumption, I can read science fiction for the rest of my life and never have to encounter this sort of bilge; there is enough SF with reasonably well thought out gender politics.
Here are some things that jumped out at me.
- Rue's mom on the comet space station, implications she was abused or powerless compared to the rough miners who are all men
- Rue also being persecuted or abused on the station by her brother and by Rough Men. There are no Rough Women; why? I suppose the transient roughnecks are being shown as uncivilized because of Not Having Wives; the fact that none of the roughnecks are women isn't even part of the conscious narrative assumptions. Also, sex and rape are not even hinted at. Rue is presented as a male "victim of bullying by older boys" would be presented, with a female pronoun. Unconvincing.
p. 20 "The hundred or so residents and transient workers who struggled to keep Allemagne livable. They were roughnecks - rejects of the cometary halo worlds, criminals, misfits, and failed profiteers. These men were Rue's 'uncles' as she was growing up and a few had been kind. The rest had trained her to a caution and cunning that ran as deep as her marrow."
- Rue always having Things Explained to her and all the plans made by rich dude, Max, which I won't even bother to take apart
- p. 73 Max does not understand why reclaiming the billion dollar spaceship is important to Rue now that she's thought about it. "If the government had offered me a finder's fee or something I would have jumped at it. But they didn't... they figured that a woman like me would never be able to reach the cycler herself, so they just ignored me." Where in the heck do we get the "just a woman" rationale? Rue is in dire poverty and homeless; she has no resources to launch an expedition to claim the spaceship she 'discovered'; why would she or Max assume the entire planet including the government was sexist enough to dismiss her not for being destitute, young, and a hick, but for being a woman? Since this is assumed without question in a casual statement, we can conclude that the society of the Cycler Compact is several orders of magnitude more sexist than current North America. In a society like this, where women are assumed to be powerless, why is there no rape or prostitution? It is not well thought out.
- Rue maneuvers the failing aircar on its one jet into a life-saving spiral, but then doesn't mention it to Max when he refers to it as a death spiral and seems to assume she was panicking. She finds it totally normal to let him think that she is without skills. Again, this assumes a particular power relationship between men and women; it goes unexamined.
- p. 67 "Rue rehearsed the arguments she'd been prepaing. She was the legal owner of the cycler; she must be given a chance to assert her ownerhip... she was good at defending herself verbally, she knew. She'd done it all her life." Ooookay and she can't come up with anything more politically savvy than "it's my legal right" (such as "my incredibly billionaire cousin is backing me, so get out of the way." Also, it doesn't occur to her to get a lawyer? Yes, she's a hick in the big city, but they have TV (or whatever hyperspace holovid mass media thingamajig so she should not be Prairie Girl ignorant here.)
- Just... barf me out that she names her spaceship "Jentry's Envy" after her abusive older brother who tried to sell her into slavery. Who would seriously do this? Even for a space opera ingenue, as Rue seems to be, somewhat trusting and open-hearted and smiley, it totally rings false. For someone snarly and vengeful and bitter, just maybe; or for about a 4 year old child. This is actually the part where I almost put down the book for good. She didn't name her spaceship in a way that was consistent even with the nebulous personality she's got by page 78.
- Rue's character, a mixture of naive and skilled, self-effacing and assertive, insecure and confident. She is often pretending to be less than she is. She pretends to think about something when she already knows. She doesn't explain when she's right, though she knows she's right. She doubts people but doesn't question them outright (despite her supposed great verbal skills). She expresses doubt about actions but then just follows along despite her own judgement. Her adverbs are all "reluctantly" "uncertainly" "seemingly" "unsteadily". Some heroine. If you regendered this novel, it would look extremely strange to have the Manly Hero constructed this way.
With books like this I always want to ask the author, "So, do you think that sexism exists? Why?" and see what they say. In this case I could find out obliquely or by sending an email.
Okay, onward past page 78 to see if any of this is explained or resolved -- or just gets more eye-rolling. Then I intend to come up with a more coherent response and post it on the fsf blog.
When I read with half an eye I am enjoying the Space!Future!Yay!BrownDwarf! bits and the plot moving forward. I am especially curious to see what the Rights Economy society is like. I'm a total sucker for Galactic System Worldbuilding.
How lucky I feel that even at my fast pace of consumption, I can read science fiction for the rest of my life and never have to encounter this sort of bilge; there is enough SF with reasonably well thought out gender politics.
