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![\"Ann](\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Ann-Leckie.jpg\")
Imagine you\u2019ve landed on an earth-like planet. You can live there without erecting domes, but there\u2019s a gas dissolved in the atmosphere that makes you slightly ill. You rarely feel fully yourself. You have some difficulty gathering your thoughts, you have to take time to parse your every action. You spend excessive amounts of effort trying to get basics done.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a woman, you don\u2019t have to imagine this. It\u2019s called living on earth and the toxic gas dissolved in the atmosphere is called misogyny. It leads to several outcomes:<\/p>\n
— Women do not form schools, lineages or dynasties and exceptional women are extolled (or, more frequently, demonized) as isolated one-of-a-kind anomalies;<\/p>\n
— Women who are extolled are always presented as acceptably feminine and\/or maternal first, before their contributions and vocations are discussed \u2013 and the latter as adjunct to the prestige of the patriarchal group that absorbed them;<\/p>\n
— Women neglect daughters (who vanish one way or another) and invest in sons, their primary conduit to proxy authority; occasionally they exert indirect power and are validated through \u201cindulgent\u201d fathers and\/or husbands.<\/p>\n
Every single one of these patterns is endemic in the science fiction community despite all lip service to \u201cchanges\u201d and they were among the visible foundations of a recent article at the St. Louis River Front Times<\/em> titled \u201cIs Ann Leckie the Next Big Thing in Science Fiction?\u201d<\/a> For those who live in nuclear submarines running silent, Ann Leckie\u2019s Ancillary Justice<\/em> is the first installment of a space opera projected trilogy that won two prestigious genre awards so far, the Nebula and the Clarke. The irony is that the article was clearly written with the best of intentions \u2013 unwitting proof of the toxic-gas analogy.<\/p>\n The first sentence of the article (under the front photo) is: \u201cSt. Louis mother and first-time novelist Ann Leckie\u2026\u201d and it spends its first half-page lovingly detailing how many rejections Leckie\u2019s novel received \u2013 a tradition when discussing women\u2019s works. It expresses surprise that Leckie doesn\u2019t conform to the phenotype of \u201ca typical suburban mother of two\u201d \u2013 especially her glittery orange toenails. The article also mentions Leckie\u2019s doubts about finding a man who would marry a brainy nerd, and her husband\u2019s support of Leckie\u2019s Big Decision to attend the Clarion workshop. In short, the interviewer is at pains to prove to his readers that Leckie is \u201cjust like the girl next door\u201d because women creators are automatically considered freaks.<\/p>\n Despite its title, only half of the article is about Leckie; the other half is devoted to the sorry saga of the SFWA Bulletin. About a third of the portion that deals with Leckie\u2019s achievements consists of quotes by John Scalzi. Granted, having Scalzi\u2019s imprimatur ranks high on some people\u2019s radars, especially journalists who want to establish instant insider cred. Scalzi (heaped with accolades for writing sanctioned fanfic, inter alia) has made himself a conspicuous ally of righteous causes within the genre. As with many others of his demographic slice, this stance has left him thigh-deep in acolytes and worshippers while non-default forerunners who expressed similar views received ostracism and abuse.<\/p>\n The article contains soundbites by other contemporary SF authors, most of them part of the SFWA administrative structure during the time that Leckie was that organization\u2019s vice president. Conspicuously absent in the River Front<\/em> article is any commentary by still-living foremothers: Cherryh, Friedman, Jones, Le Guin, McIntyre, Vinge, Yolen, all of whom have written space opera that shifted perimeters and parameters, if only against mountains of passive and active resistance. In stark contrast, Le Guin did a large-context review<\/a> — actually a lengthy, fulsome endorsement — of Mi\u00e9ville\u2019s Embassytown<\/em> when it appeared, highlighting that only investment in sons (especially pre-confirmed successes) is deemed worthwhile and pragmatic. Remember, daughters are not part of any lineage. So Leckie is once again depicted as a singleton meteor, rather than as part of a solar system whose planets have nurtured complex life for millennia.<\/p>\n Perhaps these foremothers read Ancillary Justice<\/em> and didn\u2019t like it. I count myself among those who had mixed reactions to it;<\/a> I fall into the group that Leckie names at the end of the article: \u201c\u2026what I really hope is that a bunch of writers look at my book and say, ‘She didn’t go far enough.\u2019\u201d and also into the group that has read enough to recognize it as a (worthy) successor, not a new origin. The possibility that famous SF women writers may have been asked to comment on Ancillary Justice<\/em> but chose not to do so to avoid dilemmas highlights the no-win choices we have: we can remain silent, making ourselves irrelevant; we can pull our punches, undermining ourselves and cheapening the works we evaluate; or we can state our view and be labeled regressive (or be called cunts\u2026 though the British contingent continues to insist that the latter is a non-gendered term of endearment).<\/p>\n Also typically, the River Front<\/em> article took time to note that Leckie received her Nebula award in a shimmering red gown. For me, the annoyance at this inclusion was mitigated by the accompanying factoid that the person who handed her the award was Stan Schmidt of Analog<\/em>, who listed heavily toward didactic upbeat stories with young male protagonists and who had sent her a rejection addressed to \u201cMr. Leckie\u201d. But tiny revanches are not the same thing as winning wars or even battles. And terraforming a planet, especially one where we can muddle along even as it subtly poisons us, is hard, thankless work.<\/p>\n <\/a>Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n Why I Won’t Be Taking the Joanna Russ Pledge<\/a><\/p>\n Who Will Be Companions to Female Kings?<\/a><\/p>\n So, Where Are the Outstanding Women in X?<\/a><\/p>\n The Iron Madonna or: Kicking Ass While Female<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prime-minister-julia-gillard\"](\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Prime-minister-julia-gillard.jpg\")
Is It Something in the Water? Or: Me Tarzan, You Ape<\/a><\/p>\n