Sexuality In Science Fiction
When presented with the challenge of identifying gender and sexuality in science fiction we must first agree that women and men are inherently of equal worth, as many writers of feminist science fiction use the genre’s position to discuss issues of change, injustice, and social partitions (Calvin). The motif of gender and sexuality in science fiction is not restricted to just one subgenre of science fiction but shows up in nearly all varieties, creating hybrids in the science fiction world. The genre of science fiction alone is constantly changing, parallel with the advancement and acceptance of gender equality. The topics addressed by writers such as Pat Cadigan, Judith Merril, William Gibson, and Nola Hopkinson challenge the social construction
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There was a big change in the 1930’s when the focus shifted toward male dominated adventure fiction. However, by the end of the 1940’s female authors were returning to the science fiction scene. This continued into the 1950s where we saw "an explosion of women writers"(Calvin). Judith Merril’s, “That Only a Mother” written in 1948, in short it is an early “Galactic Suburbia” story dealing with mutation, radiation anxiety, a mother’s love, and a father’s murderous rationality(Calvin). Merril choose a different path away from the current science fiction novels that featured space-travel narratives by creating “female-, family-, and generation-centered stories of space exploration” in post-WWII infused with gender ideologies of the 1950s …show more content…
The big twist comes at the very end of the story when he eventually comes home and discovers that Maggie failed to disclose some very critical information about their intellectually advanced 10 month old daughter, she was born mutated and limbless. As implied in the title “That only a Mother” could ever love or look past such a “hideous” deformity, as the father ruthlessly strangles his daughter as a twisted form of mercy (Merril). Maggie is portrayed as delusional, “subconsciously rationalizing her ignorant domestic bliss”(Winter) to the deformed state of Henrietta and Hank as the head of the family, whose “rationality is murderous”
There was a big change in the 1930’s when the focus shifted toward male dominated adventure fiction. However, by the end of the 1940’s female authors were returning to the science fiction scene. This continued into the 1950s where we saw "an explosion of women writers"(Calvin). Judith Merril’s, “That Only a Mother” written in 1948, in short it is an early “Galactic Suburbia” story dealing with mutation, radiation anxiety, a mother’s love, and a father’s murderous rationality(Calvin). Merril choose a different path away from the current science fiction novels that featured space-travel narratives by creating “female-, family-, and generation-centered stories of space exploration” in post-WWII infused with gender ideologies of the 1950s …show more content…
The big twist comes at the very end of the story when he eventually comes home and discovers that Maggie failed to disclose some very critical information about their intellectually advanced 10 month old daughter, she was born mutated and limbless. As implied in the title “That only a Mother” could ever love or look past such a “hideous” deformity, as the father ruthlessly strangles his daughter as a twisted form of mercy (Merril). Maggie is portrayed as delusional, “subconsciously rationalizing her ignorant domestic bliss”(Winter) to the deformed state of Henrietta and Hank as the head of the family, whose “rationality is murderous”