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From: rwl@uvacs.UUCP (Ray Lubinsky)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: feminist sf/fantasy
Message-ID: <2443@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 16:43:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: uvacs.2443
Posted: Mon Oct 14 16:43:51 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Oct-85 01:47:28 EDT
References: <4004@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: U.Va. CS in Charlottesville VA
Lines: 27

> From: smithcollege%umass-ece.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA
> 
>      I'm looking for the names of some feminist sf/fantasy authors and/or
> works.  I've already got a few favorites, but I'm sick of sorting through
> sexist chaff and I could really use some recommendations from sisters or
> brothers out there.  Antifeminists please note: I'm not going to argue with
> you people, so don't bother to flame me.  You read your kind of literature
> and I'll read mine.

I understand that Marion Zimmer Bradley has been into this topic, but I've
gotten the impression that she gets pretty soapboxy.  I don't know if you're
into tracts; I'm not.

Try Ursula K. Leguin; she may not be a feminist, but she is a humanist.  I like
her stories, especially her sf.  She's into ``social sf'' -- for example, my
favorite, ``The Left Hand of Darkness''.  This is a novel that really plays
with your sense of gender bias, set on a world where the natives are
hermaphrodites which may cycle (physically) to either masculine or feminine.
It's a good, satisifying read.

Sorry to say, I can't think of many male sf author that don't have a Boy
Scout's view of either the opposite sex or any kind of sex.  However, I do
think that Samuel R. Delaney has never written ``sexist chaff''.
-- 

Ray Lubinsky		     University of Virginia, Dept. of Computer Science
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