The Future is Female!

The Future is Female!
Ed. by Lisa Yaszek

With a title like that, complete with exclamation mark, you’d be forgiven for expecting nothing subtle in this terrific anthology of 25 SF stories written by women between 1928 and 1969. But this period – and most of the stories here come from the “Atomic age” of the 1950s and ‘60s – was just before the more explicit and political feminism of that movement’s second wave, and subtlety was still the order of the day. As Leigh Brackett remarked of what was happening at the time, “you can get away with practically anything [in SF] as long as it’s well and subtly done.”

So while there are gender-role reversals here, and at least one piece (“Created He Them” by Alice Eleanor Jones) clearly meant to be read as a diatribe, it’s a collection that’s far richer than the label “feminist SF” would suggest. A fiercely analytical eye might find something distinctive in the approach or point of view taken. Editor Lisa Yaszek gives as an example complex character development first and foremost, and it’s not a point I would argue with. A sympathy for the “other” (and racial identity is a theme that struck me as more pronounced than gender) might be another.

Most of all though these are just great stories that show the development of the genre during a time of great technological, literary, and political change. And while the future envisioned has evolved and in some cases been left behind, what’s still relevant is less the message than the skill, and subtlety, of the messaging. A second volume covering the ‘70s would be more “feminist,” but also less of our time.

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