After watching this week’s lecture on Feminist SF and completing the assigned readings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes and copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this post. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
12 thoughts on “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 12”
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Learning about feminist SF in this week’s lecture, I want to reflect on the episode of Star Trek that had some scenes particularly standing out to me. First off, I really enjoyed watching Star Trek and the conflicts of Dr. McCoy, Spock, and the captain. The part that stood out to me greatly was the portrayal of women particularly Ms. Keeler. Learning about feminism represented in science fiction through the four waves, I have come to realize that in Star Trek, Ms. Keeler seemingly was the main antagonist without even realizing that she is. The plot of the episode revolving around her death in order to save the world and her creation of the pacificist movement that eventually led to Nazi Germany taking over the world sets forth the underlying message of women and their empowerment to amplify their voices. Typically women are stereotyped to be the peacekeepers, and their education is ‘dangerous’ to the man which was challenged in the first wave of feminist SF, but rather Ms. Keeler’s education of science and advanced technology, as well as pacificism against World War II has led to the doom of the world. I also found that even though we are living in the Fourth Wave of feminist SF, there is still hardcore sexism that exists from all the way to the first wave in America and under developed countries. I also found the mention of “The Yellow Wallpaper” very notable because the theme of the story reflects on the belittlement of the woman who was facing postpartum depression and seen as extremely ill, isolated from society and deprived from any help. Despire these themes ranging and overlapping in different time periods, they are still practiced today by conservative groups and people who belittle women. I found this year especially interesting because of the numerous sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sex trafficking of minors and women that have arosen in variety in the beginning of Women’s History Month against politicians more than ever, especially since #MeToo broke out in Hollywood back in 2017. I also find the fascination of how much awareness is spread about sexual violence and violence against Asian Americna women in America since the beginning of Chinese immigration to America in the 1850s. It is fascinating because of how my generation (Gen Z) and millenails have reacted to these scandals versus older people. The theme of intersectionality and female empowerment is pretty progressive and inspiring.
This week lecture was about feminist SF and four waves of feminism starting from 19th century with the First Wave Feminism and continuing through the years up to the Fourth Wave Feminism from 2010 and still present. Some of the most known SF writers were James Tiptree JR, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Sandy Stone. We also learned about feminist SF characteristics which were basically related to sex, gender, sexuality, sexism, manifesto and intersectionality. I found “Speech Sound” by Octavia Butler very interesting. Rye was the main character who faced different people with disabilities to think, speak, read or write due to a disease occurred and affected people in town. She was in a bus when a fight started between passengers and she decided to get off the bus and observe the fight from outside, when a man wearing a police-uniform showed up and started to communicate with Ray through gestures. He invited Rye to leave with him and she accepted. She got very close to that man named Obsidian and they had sexual intercourse in the back seat of his car. Then Obsidian found himself in the middle of a fight between a man and a woman. He tried to stop them, but it was to late since the woman was murdered from the man. He killed Obsidian and Rye killed him. Then Rye buried the bodies and decided to take care of two children whose mom had been killed and buried. They could speak which made Rye understand they weren’t affected from the disease and believing she had a reason to live and take care of them. In “Speech Sound” communication was difficult and it was violence throughout the story, but in the end there’s hope for light in the end of the tunnel. In the story “Nine Lives” by Ursula Le Guinn is shown the importance of social connection and the clone collective is more efficient than just two people collaboration such as Martin and Pugh.
What stands out to me after this week’s reading and lecture, is that women until this point played no significant role in SF. I have touched upon this during Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and other stories we have read. Feminist SF, not a genre, but a revolution in the world of SF has changed the way we perceive characters based on sex and has revolutionized a sense of inclusion in readings. Professor Ellis mentioned the term, “Re-imagine gender roles”, this stood out to me because as I previously mentioned in prior SF readings, women always looked to men for the answers and leadership. Women characters prior to Feminist SF were never considered the protagonist or antagonist. While some stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, did include women who played somewhat pivotal roles in the plot of the story, they always seemed to be in the distance and never a main factor or focused upon in the reading. Most of the novels we have read, you can’t really paint an image in your mind of what female character characteristics were in any of the stories because of how little of a role they played. However, Feminist SF gave rise to a new era and gave women the voice and power they long deserved. In this week’s reading of James Tiptree, Jr.’s “The Women Men Don’t See”, you see Feminist SF in the plot of the reading. Rather than following unprepared and scared male leadership, two women, a mother and a daughter are involved in a plane crash that leaves them in a forest. Rather than following the males leadership, the mother decides that it may be best to interact with alien species and take the lead by making her own decision in going with them. What stands out to me most from this reading and in correlation from this week’s lecture is that women finally have a voice and play a pivotal role in SF.
The lecture of week 12 is about feminist science fiction. It includes some important terms, characteristics to the ideas in feminist SF stories, and history of feminism. The thing that stands out to me the most about this feminist was the first wave feminism during the 19th and early 20th century. Back then, women did not get the right that they should have and are all in suffrage and did not get what they suppose be deserve. The way I think of this are men and women should be all equal, whatever men can do perhaps women can do it even better. There’s actually a science fiction video game that reminds me of leadership about a woman. The game is Borderlands 3, that woman’s name is Lilith “The Firehawk”. Lilith is the leader of the resistance to fight against the evil characters to protect the planet of Pandora and the galaxy. So in this point, it really proves that rights is not always on men’s hand.
After watching the episode of “The City on the Edge of Forever” from Star Trek, I found this was very similar to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. In the beginning, Dr. McCoy accidentally injected himself with a substance that make him gone mad, he then escapes the ship went through back in time from a talking stone named “Guardian”, then the ship captain Jim Kirk, and Spock has to use that “Guardian” stone to travel back in time to catch Dr. McCoy. The story of this science fiction is pretty interesting because Kirk and Spock have to travel in time to prevent McCoy to change something in history.
This week introduced Feminist Science Fiction which scopes out a vast part of science fiction starting with our first reading “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. Feminist SF is outlined by 7 notable terms: sex, gender, sexuality, sexism, patriarchy, heternormativity, and feminism. In the lecture, a short history of feminism was outlined by its four waves. The 3rd and 4th wave were slowly collapsing on each other as feminism grew to become more intersectional in its expansion. An interesting idea was brought up through 3rd wave feminism’s book “Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Hathaway, which explores how we are becoming cyborgs in our way of living and that feminism should embrace affinity politics, and as access to people becomes more widespread. I believe this is a great sequitur into modern day technology as well as into fourth wave feminism. With our phones in our pockets and minds of our everyday, I believe we have truly become cyborgs.
I also found one of the characteristics mentioned about Feminist SF was the consideration of the ramifications of both the masculine and feminine science. I believe it is important to look at things from multiple perspectives: how in the future can we have more perspective from different genders besides a patriarchal view? I believe this ties into the prospective aspect of science fiction and how we can determine our world’s future through non-masculine lenses.
Lastly, the phenomenon of James Tiptree Jr. aka Alice B Sheldon was very interesting as she created multiple pen names (personalities) to juxtapose gender against the written works as a whole. I find it interesting how changing the pronouns of her biography for publishers alters the way you read it: and how certain individuals subvert these gender roles.
The focus of this week’s lecture was feminism. Professor Ellis didn’t just go over the connections between feminism and science fiction, but also feminism itself, so that we can better understand what it was like for women during the 20th century and even today as the fourth wave of feminism continues. Feminism in Science Fiction has some distinct characteristics of which I found the most interesting to be the ones that change society in different ways. Some Feminist SF reimagined gender roles, others explored various sexualities that were previously unheard of, and some change the way society and the government works as a whole. Some of the most important Feminist SF works were, “Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Female Man” by Joanna Russ and Woman on the edge of time by “Marge Piercy”. Another notable woman of SF was Alice B. Sheldon who used pseudonyms, James Tiptree Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon, in her books instead of her real name, in order to get less attention just for being a woman in SF, and more attention for the works that she created. She was the one that wrote “The Women Men Don’t See” a story that shows a deeper understanding of women’s view of the world, but with a strange ending, as both Ruth and Althea are willingly abducted by aliens instead of staying on Earth. I didn’t quite understand the story but it was still a good read.
This lecture was centered on the topic of Feminist Science Fiction. But, before going into the main material, we went over the definition of terms such as Sex, Gender, Sexuality, among others. For a long time, it never occurred to me that some of these terms would have different meanings from each other. For example, I am sure I am not the only one who used the terms Sex and Gender interchangeably. Going into the main theme of the class, the history of the feminist movement can be divided into four major periods, which go by the name of first, second, third, and fourth wave. The first wave spanned from 19th century to the early 20th century. The second from the 1950s to the 1980s. The third wave from the 90s to the beginning of the 21st century. And finally, the fourth one which started from the 2010s and is continuing in present day. Science Fiction was and still is a powerful tool for the feminist movement as it is a way to imagine how worlds where gender is not part of social hierarchy. Three of the most notable pieces of feminist SF include “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Female Man” by Joanna Russ, and “Woman on the Edge of Time” by Marge Piercy.
Moving on to the important SF writer of the week there was Alice B. Sheldon, who went by the penname of James Tiptree, Jr. under which she published “The Women Men Don’t See.” Her biography really stood out to me due to all the achievements. As mentioned in the lecture, some of her achievements include earning the rank of Major in the U.S. Army, working in the Pentagon, joining the CIA, and then getting a PhD in Experimental Psychology.
Some things I have noticed during this lecture is that sex, gender, and sexuality were being expanded more in Science Fiction. The ideas of sex, gender, and sexuality also started to change from the “standard” view. There was also a shift from a male focused society to a society where everyone was included. A thing that has led in that direction was due to the rise of feminism. The first wave of feminism began in the 19th to early 20th century. It was the fight for equal rights and conditions for women. The second wave began in 1950 to 1980. It focused on the rights of women’s bodies. The third wave began in 1990 to 2000 and it focused on changing the idea of females having a uniform identity. The fourth wave is from 2010 to present time and it focuses on connecting and sharing with one another. It also is a time for celebration of what has changed from feminism in the previous waves. An interesting piece of media mentioned was “The Empire Strikes Back a Post Transsexual Manifesto” by Sandy Stone, it was a different view point of the famous Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back”. There are other pieces of work that feminist Science Fiction. They all have mentions of the ideas of reconstructing gender roles and dynamics. It also is trying to change science from being masculine focused. Feminist Science Fiction tries to change male centric views into more universal views. That is also why there are multiple books that illustrate different types of sexualities. Feminist Sci-Fi broadens the viewpoint in books.
The Star Trek episode that we’ve watched for our class is really interesting and philosophical. It raises an issues about utilitarianism. Should Kirk let Edith die so that he may save the past and future? Or should he save her because he is in love with her? It is a really tough decision that he has to make. Act utilitarianism says, yes, Kirk should let her die, so many lives can be saved. And it is exactly what happened in the show. The choice that Kirk has to make is a sad one. I have much empathy for the two lovers. Kirk’s struggle is the core of the tension that drives viewers to watch more because we are so engrossed by the conflict and want to know how it is going to be resolved. The script is really well written for this episode.
I learned from this week’s lecture that Diane Cook defined feminist SF as science fiction that articulates an awareness of woman’s place in a political system and their connectedness to other women, or which has primary feminist focus on women’s status. I also learned four waves of feminism. The first wave began in the 19th century and ended in the early 20th century. The second wave feminism began in the 1950s and ended in the 1980s. The third began in the 1990s and ended in the 2000s. The last wave began in the 2010s, and it continues to this day. I also learned the feminist theme behind Alice B. Sheldon’s (1915-1987) The Women Men don’t see that I wasn’t aware when I read it.
This week’s lecture was about Feminist SF. Feminist SF is a science fiction that articulates an awareness of women’s place in a political system. Some important terms in feminist SF are gender, sexuality, sexism, Heteronormativity, and feminism. Another thing I learned was the different waves of feminism. Starting in the 19th century and lasting all the way to the present time. It’s crazy to see what women went through from not being treated equal to men, not being able to vote, and not being paid equal to men. There’s been four waves so far and probably more to come in the future. Some major feminst SF works are The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Female Man by Joanna Russ, and Woman on The Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. In we read James Tiptree Jr The Women Men Don’t See published in the december 1973 issue of F&SF. I learned her real name is Alice B. Sheldon (1915-1987). She also goes by Racoona Sheldon. The story is about a mother and daughter who boarded a plane that crashed. Not following the man’s directions, the mother goes with the aliens. She was independent. She took responsibility and did not rely on the men for help.
In our previous lecture, we went over a brief history of the feminist movement and what feminism means. Feminism is the view that all people are equal regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation. There are four major movements of feminism that happened. The first wave of feminism happened between the 19th and 20th centuries. The second wave was between the 1950s and the 1980s. The third wave was in the 1990s with overlapping ideas to the previous periods and the last wave started in 2010 and is present now. The first wave had major ideas include woman suffrage which means woman’s right to vote, education rights for girls, fight for better working conditions, and rejection of the idea that women were inferior to men. The second wave consists of women’s liberation, challenge the idea of the post-world war nuclear family, reproductive rights, obtaining equality, and also NOW was founded. We also covered three important works that occurred in the second wave, we talked about the work of Simonde Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, and Shuiamith Firestone. The third wave recognizes that there is not a universal female identity, also growing affinity politics with groups based on class sexual orientation, and nationality, these groups help one another to fight for each other equality. The fourth wave focuses on the empowerment of women, and digital tools for connecting sharing, and amplifying the voices of others. We also discussed seven things feminist SF does some things are reimaging gender roles, explore patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian social orders, etc.
The week’s lecture starts with feminism and the waves that it came in. The first wave occurring in 19th and early 20th century, second wave 1950’s to 1980’s, third wave 1990’s – 2000’s and the last wave in 2010 until the present. The second wave of feminism produced many writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, writer of A vindication of the Rights of Women, Simon De Beauvoir published The 2nd Sex, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystic in 1963 which was a best seller and lastly Shulamith Firestone who published The Dialectic of Sex, The Case for Feminine Revolution. The third wave produced writers such as Gendertouble, Donna Haraway and Sandy Stone. The fourth wave writers were Margret Cavandish and Charlotte Perkins Gilmans. Two famous writers of the feminist SF era are Ursula K. LeGuin and Alice B. Sheldon whose pseudonym was James Tiptree Jr. and Racoona Sheldon. According to Ursula K. LeGuin the term Kemmer is a world where anyone can be both sexes without having to implement genders. The Women Men Don’t See written by Alice B. Sheldon goes on to demonstrate the strength of women that men fail to see. The two women in the story were willing to go with the aliens then to endure more time with the male counterparts. There was a lack of being equal that was demonstrated by Don not understanding why Ruth rather leave then stay. The Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” shows Dr. Leonard making the difficult decision of letting the woman go to save his future in contrast to the way Don sees Ruth in making the decision to leave.