Feminism and Science Fiction – a Challenge of Gender Norms

Abstract

Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that presents different feminist themes in an effort to deconstruct traditional gender roles and expose different societies, even different futures. It is markedly different from most formal mainstream SF (living and working with robots, exploring the universe) but the fiction is still present. Among the topics that are debated in this subgenre are: gender, sexuality, (questioning the) patriarchy, the right on one’s own body, race, class. For example, a novel like The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin tries to explain the fluidity of gender, while The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood points out the oppression of women regarding their reproductive capabilities in a dominant male society. Even though there seems to be a distinction between the two directions of the same subgenre, feminism (with female authors) and science fiction (with male authors), both function as a critique to contest the current processes of
exclusion/ power relations and envision an alternative world. The presentation will be concerned with a brief history of feminist SF and the reasons why it has become such a valuable addition to the SF subgenre and a weapon of criticism of the present-day society.