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Modern science fiction frequently involves themes of sex, gender and sexuality. This was not always so. During the 1930s and 40s "golden age" of science fiction sex was rarely if ever even mentioned, although there was certainly no lack of innuendo and suggestion. The idea, however, that strong female characters played little or no role in the pulps of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, is wrong.
The "Golden Age"
While the stereotype of the early SF pulp magazine cover is a woman in a brass bikini swooning in the clutches of a bug-eyed monster, while a spacesuited hero comes blasting his way to her rescue, even a cursory examination of the covers of old pulps shows this to be very much mistaken. In if not a majority of the covers at least a significant number, women are depicted in strong, positive roles. True, they may be scantily clad, but there is no mistaking the fact that they are very much in charge of the situation. Even the pulp magazine most associated with the stereotypically sexist cover, Planet Stories, featured more than its share of women depicted in strong roles. Ironically, given its leading place in the stereotype, many Planet Stories covers feature a male character being rescued from a monster by a ray gun-toting woman!
Within the golden age pulps there was no lack of strong female characters. It is difficult to go through more than half a dozen magazines without finding at least one heroine---and in some cases, a magazine might feature two or three stories with powerful female characters. There were even popular female series characters, such as Arthur K. Barnes' Gerry Carlyle, whose stories ran for many years.
The "New Wave"
Still, sex rarely if ever raised its head until the New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s, which reflected its times by attempting to break earlier taboos about what could and could not be the subject of science fiction. The men's magazine Playboy published regular serious science fiction stories throughout this period, by both male and female authors, offering them significantly more scope than some other publications.
Two different themes emerged: one trying to explore the boundaries of what "sex" could mean in a world of altered humanity and reality, and another of exploring the position of women in science fiction and feminist issues in what had been traditionally a form of fiction written primarily by and for men.
Notable works with sexual themes
Significant uses of sexual themes in serious science fiction include:
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Several stories in Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
- A number of works by Philip Jose Farmer: The Lovers, Flesh, his collection of stories on this theme, Strange Relations, plus two science fiction pornographic novels, Image of the Beast and Blown.
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Dhalgren, Trouble on Triton, and several other works by Samuel Delany
- Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg
- 334 by Thomas M. Disch
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
- Titan and other novels by John Varley, set in a future where sex changes and other radical body modifications are commonplace
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Female Man by Joanna Russ
- The Culture novels of Iain M. Banks, where humans can change sex at will
- The Jerry Cornelius stories of Michael Moorcock and others
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (various forms of group marriage, professional host-mothers)
- Liquid Sky was a comedic 1982 science fiction film in which space aliens land to feed off of endorphins released during sex
- Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
- Strangers by Gardner Dozois
- The Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert
- A number of works by Theodore Sturgeon, including The World Well Lost (alien homosexuality) and Godbody (religious sexuality).
- The Primal Urge by Brian Aldiss
- The Tales of the Velvet Comet trilogy by Mike Resnick
- Several books by Spider Robinson, including Callahan's Lady
- Jurgen by James Branch Cabell
- The Bachelor Machine by M. Christian
- The various Wraeththu novels by Storm Constantine
- The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne, and Ringworld's Children by Larry Niven (rishathra)
- Memoirs of a Spacewoman by Naomi Mitchison
- Commitment Hour by James Alan Gardner
Themes explored
Some of the themes explored include:
Other sub-genres
A number of works of mainstream erotica, including the Gor novels by John Norman, have also used the science fiction format. There is now a separate sub-genre of science fiction erotica that aims to integrate the two genres: writers in this genre include Cecilia Tan, whose small press Circlet Press caters especially to adult science fiction fans.
Science fiction erotica is frequently associated with Lesbian science fiction or S/M (Sado/Masochism) Erotica.
Examples of science fiction erotica include:
- VESTA - Painworld by Jennifer Jane Pope
- Belle Cell by EyeofSerpent
In recent years there has been a growing BDSM awareness in the science fiction and fan community.
Movies
Numerous science fiction television series and science fiction films have used science fiction plots as an excuse to fit in gratuitous sexual or fetishistic content: one of the conventions of much filmed science fiction appears to be that the future will be peopled exclusively by attractive people wearing skin-tight clothing in shiny materials. Nevertheless, some science fiction-themed TV shows, such as Farscape, have been acclaimed for their handling of such themes. The series Lexx features sexual themes in almost every episode.
The canonical movie in this genre is the 1967 movie Barbarella.
See also
External links
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