XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: mwstone@aol.com   
      
   "Jack Bohn"  wrote in message   
   news:38u3e4hag4t9uubd5lrskjfr3m5ppdp15s@4ax.com...   
   > ilya2 wrote:   
   >   
   > >On Sep 29, 7:42 am, Nige Danton  wrote:   
   > >> Rebecca Rice wrote:   
   > >> > females in the stories are all either idiots or sluts, or   
   > >>   
   > >> That wasn't my take on any of his characters - did I miss something? -   
   > >> and I read them first as a teenager and then as a quasi adult.   
   > >   
   > >I never read "Farnham's Freehold", but in "Orphans of the Sky" all non-   
   > >Mutie women are property, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They don't   
   > >even have names, unless their husband decides to give them one. Of   
   > >course, the society involved is fairly unpleasant in other ways (at   
   > >least I thought it was), so treatment of women was on par.   
   > >   
   > >The only Mutie woman we ever meet is the four-armed blacksmith "Mother   
   > >of Blades". She is neither an idiot nor a slut, but has a very minor   
   > >role. She is also the only female who ever speaks in the entire book.   
   >   
   > Ah.  I'd been wondering why I couldn't remember any women from   
   > the story, except one prisoner or refugee who made one of our   
   > protagonists feel funny inside. (which, in itself, would be an   
   > understandable complaint about it).  I must have forgotten that   
   > aspect of the society, which was, overall, a good place to escape   
   > from.   
   >   
      
      
      
   Of course, that may be the fault of the times more than the man.   
      
   Early sf was a very "male" genre. Female authors barely existed, and you   
   could get entire novels without a single female character. Eric Frank   
   Russell - one of the nicest guys in the field, imho - was often "guilty" of   
   this, see _Wasp_,  _Next of Kin_ and _Men, Martians and Machines_ . Clarke   
   did virtually the same in _Earthlight_ , though the hero does write a letter   
   to his wife, so we know the female sex still exists. Hal Clement had the   
   occasional female character, but rarely in an important role. This didn't   
   really start to change until the late sixties, iirc.   
      
      
   --   
      
   Mike Stone - Peterborough, England   
      
   "Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of   
   Tolstoy's Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day's work   
   strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby in the   
   reservoir, he turns to the cupboard, only to find the vodka bottle empty."   
      
   P G Wodehouse - Jill the Reckless   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)