Masculinism in Science Fiction
Science fiction has always been a masculine genre, no matter that Mary Shelley invented it in her novel Frankenstein. Until fairly recent times, most science fiction writers were men, and they dealt with subjects like technology, power, space battles, featuring male heroes, explorers and adventurers. In film, science fiction has been a perfect subject for ultra-masculine actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, although Lieutenant Ripley in the Alien trilogy proved that women could be masculine heroes as well and very effective at destroying hostile creatures that threaten humanity. Joe Haldeman's novel Forever Peace certainly fits within this conventional masculine narrative in science fiction, since the story is related by a male narrator named Sergeant Julian Class, an alienated soldier of the First World who opposes his own government and society. He is a class type of alienated and disillusioned male hero who nevertheless hopes that the world can achieve peace and prosperity through better use of technology. Even though it was written thirty years before, Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is a radical departure from these types of themes and characters, since it takes place on an underdeveloped planet called Gethen far in the future. In this world, permanent genders do not exist at all since the natives are all bisexual and hermaphroditic, and are neuter for most of the month except for a few days when they can become either male or female. In this novel, even the characters that appear to be purely male in personality and appearance are also equally female, while the male narrator from earth, Genly Ai, is the outsider who has to struggle for years before he can truly understand this society.
Ursula LeGuin was one of the first of the women science fiction writers in contemporary times, and her themes, settings and characters often bent the traditional rules about gender and sexuality. In The Left Hand of Darkness the inhabitants of Gethen (Winter) had no gender at all, at least as earth people would understand these terms. They were neuter most of the time, except for a few days each month, when they underwent a change (kemmer) in which they could be either male or female. All of them were hermaphroditic and bisexual, and also capable of bearing children, so in this world the earth envoy Genly Ai is considered strange, suspicious or even perverted because he is male 100% of the time. This novel takes place at least two thousand years from now, and although the Gethens know nothing of their true origins or even about flight, the earth people suspect that they have been genetically engineered for survival in a very harsh environment. Bisexuality and gender-bending were quite a radical and risky subjects when the novel was first published in 1967 and LeGuin was definitely a pioneer in this type of science fiction, although feminists criticized her for making most of her main characters basically male in speech, behavior and appearance.
Le Guin was brilliant at attempting to imagine alternative worlds that often had radically different cultures and societies from present-day earth. Despite their bisexual and gender-bending nature on the planet Gethen, though, the narrators in the novel are mostly male as are the main characters. Ong tot Oppong is the only significant female narrator, but she hardly appears at all. Le Guin also used purely masculine terms like "he," "him," "man" and "mankind" to refer to both genders, which was the norm in 1967. Genly Ai is a purely masculine figure who represents the Ekumen, a federation of earth worlds, and has served as a diplomat on many planets. He is a man on a mission, having been sent to Gethen to invite them to join this club, but with little success. At this time, Gethen was in the middle of an Ice Age, and tensions were growing between the two major powers, Karhide and Orgoreyn. He visits both of these during his two years on the planet and receives only very suspicious and hostile treatment from virtually every Gethen he encounters. Part of the reason is his unusual appearance, since he is tall and black while they are short and brown-skinned, and he is unable to change his male gender. All of this makes him seem like a dangerous mutant to the natives, who do not even believe in space travel of civilizations on other planets. They are quite content in believing that Gethen is unique and at the center of the...
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