The Secret Feminist Cabal

Winter 2010 Volume 6 The Aqueduct Gazette Top Stories Aqueduct Press Releases a New Collection Fall/Winter Releases by Gwyneth Jones G New Collection from Gwyneth Jones Imagination/Space: Essays and Talks on Fiction, Feminism, G The tale of feminist sf, from Technology, and Politics the beginning... Last year the Science Fiction Research As- The Secret Feminist Cabal sociation honored Gwyneth Jones with their by Helen Merrick Pilgrim Award for Lifetime Achievement, Read excepts for her consistently excellent critical writings from the Preface page 2 about science fiction. Gwyneth’s criticism has long been respected in feminist-sf circles; her previous collection of criticism, Deconstructing Special Features the Starships, was both eagerly anticipated and G Hanging out along the well-received. I recall snatching it off a table Aqueduct…, in the Dealers Room at WisCon—and later in the weekend finding myself Love at the City of Books in the position of being begged for a few hours with it by another con-goer by Kristin King because it had sold out. page 7 cont. on page 2 G The Shady Relationship between Lesbian and The Secret Feminist Cabal: Speculative Fiction by Carrie Devall A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms page 3 by Helen Merrick G Read the Introduction to Aqueduct brings sf book-lovers a special Narrative Power treat for their winter reading. Written in edited by L. Timmel Duchamp elegant, lucid prose, The Secret Feminist Cabal page 8 will surely engage anyone interested in its subject matter, the inner workings of the world of feminist sf, sometimes referred to as “the In Other News secret feminist cabal.” G Filter House on the final ballot Veronica Hollinger, co-editor of Edging for the World Fantasy Award into the Future, Blood Read: the Vampire as page 12 Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, and Queer G New Conversation Piece Universes writes: “The Secret Feminist Cabal Slightly Behind and to the Left is an extended answer to the question Helen by Claire Light Merrick asks in her introduction: ‘why do I page 12 read f eminist sf?’ In this wide-ranging cultural cont. on p. 2 Feminist Cabal (cont. from p. 1) A taste of The Secret Feminist Cabal... history we are introduced to a multiplicity of sf femi- excerpts from the Preface nisms as Merrick takes readers on a tour of the early days of sf fandom, tracks the upheavals of the 1950s …I was your classic “square” kid: a bit of a geek and 1960s and the explosions of feminist sf in the who took maths and science subjects, always did my 1970s, and contextualizes subsequent developments in homework, liked Omni magazine, read all the sf and feminist sf scholarship. Her history is expansive and fantasy I could find, and argued about the existence inclusive: it ranges from North America to the UK to of aliens with my friends (when we weren’t trying Australia; it tells us about readers, fans, and academics to convince people they were just a construct of our as well as about writers, editors, and publishers; and imagination). Despite the signs, I didn’t follow the it examines the often uneasy intersections of feminist science route, but with a short detour through music theory and popular culture. Merrick brings things up found myself eventually studying history at university. to date with considerations of feminist cyberfiction Up until this time I had still been avidly consuming and feminist science and technology studies, and she the classics of sf, which came to an abrupt halt as I concludes with an intriguing review of the Tiptree discovered feminist theory and, with growing horror, Award as it illuminates current debates in the feminist turned its lens on the Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein I sf community. Broadly informed, theoretically astute, was reading. Henceforth I officially foreswore sf (de- and often revisionary, The Secret Feminist Cabal is an spite occasionally indulging in guilty binges in semes- indispensable social and cultural history of the girls ter breaks). who have been plugged into science fiction.” And then, in 1992 I was rescued from my self- Here’s Gwyneth Jones on The Secret Feminist Cabal: enforced abstinence. I was taking a class on the history “I really enjoyed this. It’s a wonderfully thorough, of technology in which we read Donna Haraway’s “A analytical, and inclusive account, sure to become an Manifesto for Cyborgs” ([1985] 2004a). Here was a indispensable resource. Better than that, it’s a terrific feminist theorist after my own heart. I must confess read. Here you’ll find everything you always wanted that on first reading, most of the theoretical revela- to know about women in fandom, women in publish- tions passed me by; I was too enthralled by the magic ing, women as writers…with the added value that the phrase Haraway conjured before me — the authors she snippets of tasty vintage gossip are woven into a rich called on to be her storytellers for cyborgs were writ- fabric of discourse. Helen Merrick’s style is unassum- ers of feminist science fiction. What wondrous beast was this? Was it possible that my politics and reading ing yet authoritative; she manages to be a scholar and cont. on p. 11 an entertainer at the same time. Years ago, I read Women of Other Worlds, edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, and was impressed. The Secret Feminist Imagination/Space (cont. from p. 1) Cabal is more demanding, an ambitious project, but The pieces in Imagination/Space range from talks equally successful: this is a fine book.” given at cons (including the fascinating “String of And Katie King, author of Theory in Its Feminist Pearls,” which muses on the relationship between sex Travels: Conversations in U.S. Women’s Movements and horror as it focuses on Jacquelyn Carey’s Kush- characterizes The Secret Feminist Cabal as “a story- iel Trilogy and what happens when a woman is the laden feminism, one that weaves together not only the Chosen One of a fantasy epic), re-evaluations of classic historical contexts for women’s presences in sf and the feminist sf novels, a look at the entry of women writ- varieties of feminisms women did and did not espouse, ers into the traditionally male subgenre of militarist but tells us HOW all this happened. Merrick’s work sf, a consideration of “girl power” on television, to her allows us to learn how to practice this kind of story- report on the W.I.S.E.R. conference in Maastricht and telling ourselves, demonstrating how many knowledge her acceptance speech for the Pilgrim Award. This is worlds co-created feminist sf.” edgy, witty writing on subjects that will appeal to most Aqueduct readers. 2 —Timmi Duchamp New Conversation Pieces K The Shady Relationship between Lesbian and Speculative Fiction L by Carrie Devall Recent internet conflicts over diversity in science or at least about lesbians is not yet so abundant that fiction and fantasy have made me reflect on my odd the starved feeling has become completely ridiculous. path into the genre, which makes me less interested in So while I can thrill over a really cool sf/f story about genre boundaries than in connections between specific straight folks, thoroughly enjoying the geeky good bits sets of stories or novels across genres. Those conflicts or the beautiful writing, at the same time it also makes made me question, yet again, why so few out lesbian me yearn to see that kind of beauty in a wider variety authors regularly produce stories centered on overtly of queerer stories. lesbian characters in science fiction The more I appreciate and assimilate sf and fantasy, despite the number of “Ideas of ‘strong’ and ‘active’ story elements and recurring content, the queer women writing in the genre. As female characters are freighted more I feel split between two genres, each a developing sf/f writer, I find myself with assumptions about gender with different expectations from their core subtly or unconsciously pulled in the and sexuality and dominated by readers, sometimes clearly compatible but direction of playing down lesbian images and archetypes created often not. As a reader I cross genres easily elements or issues in my own writing, by men that require much work and read a wide variety of books for dif- and not as a simple matter of re- to undo, disrupt, or subvert.” ferent purposes (i.e., some for hard science, sponding to overt homophobia or fear some for characters in both lesbian rela- of being marginalized. My natural inclination is to tionships and communities). As a writer, I have found look to the works and biographies of lesbian writers of it harder to negotiate the split. Sf/f tends to favor a the past and present to tease out some of the possible conflict-filled, well-paced story with an active, rather reasons why this occurs, as well as why lesbian have exceptional individual as protagonist. Adapting this to chosen sf/f as their genre or used speculative elements include a lesbian focus entails acknowledging, ignor- in their fiction. ing, or defying the complicated politics and history of I randomly read a bit of science fiction as a teen and lesbian representation. loved scifi movies, natural history, and model rockets, Both individualism and the conflict-based model but my literary obsessions were Russian and nine- of narrative have been critiqued by lesbian feminists. teenth-century American classics, sailing and whal- Ideas of “strong” and “active” female characters are ing stories, and books by any queer or black authors freighted with assumptions about gender and sexual- that I could find.

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