Is there a gender bias in science fiction, and should it continue?

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~carusmm Nov 7, 2012 Student Writer

We don't want the little woman to sprain an ankle at the wrong time, do we?

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~nsanelilmunky Nov 11, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

If you know where to look you can usually find a few strong female characters, but I don't think it's very even.

Series/movies/books/etc to look up:

Firefly (and Serenity)
Anne McCaffrey's books
Sara Conner Chronicles (or Terminator also)
X Files
Dr Who
5th Element
Alien

There's also strong women in Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galatica etc but are usually more support than main character I believe (don't know for all of them as I haven't seen all of them).

~OxfordTweed Nov 10, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

There's totally an imbalance. Sci-fi has the same problem as fantasy: it started off as the pass-time of white, upper-class British men, so now Sci-fi is predominantly white dudes in space, fighting monsters. Just like fantasy is white dudes in the woods, fighting monsters.

You get women in both, but with very few exceptions, they're a supporting role. The problem is that production companies think that it's not believable for a woman to want to do anything but talk about men. But I guess this is what happens when the heads of the companies are all men as well.

~Blueknightfox Nov 10, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

What do you want them to be like?

~carusmm Nov 10, 2012 Student Writer

Women?

~Blueknightfox Nov 10, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

There are women in Scifi. There strong female characters just like there weak male characters.

~carusmm Nov 10, 2012 Student Writer

Sex bomb, sex bomb, I want to be a sex bomb.

~Blueknightfox Nov 10, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

~AnataraKentara Nov 10, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Get more female writers.

Done.

~carusmm Nov 10, 2012 Student Writer

That's not the solution, would it harm the genre to change of its own volition? Most science fiction is so immature, it's unbearable. I am a lover of a good story and human beings make a good story.

~YTcyberpunk Nov 9, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

I'd say yes, there is most definitely a gender imbalance in sci-fi, as most sci-fi writers are men. Now to be fair, many if not most modern sci-fi books have plenty of strong female characters. But the prominent ones are almost always gorgeous looking and "sexy," which gets annoying after a while.

HOWEVER, is it fair to tell male writers to stop writing male protagonists they relate to, and female sidekicks who are their fantasy babes? When female writers often if not usually do the same thing, just in gender-reverse? I'm not sure it is. I think people should write what they want to. The gender imbalance isn't a good thing, but it's not necessarily the fault of the people currently writing; it's caused by the people NOT writing. If women want more woman-friendly sci-fi, we should write more of it ourselves (and I plan to

).

All that being said, people of both sexes should try to write protagonists of the opposite sex who *aren't* just their wet fantasies. (I'm looking at you, Stephanie Meyer.)

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Is there a gender bias in science fiction, and should it continue?

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