Gender and Race

Essay 1
Whitney Hubbert
09-10-07
EH 468
Celebrating the Alien

In this reading, the history of gender and race concerning Science Fiction authors was examined. On Wikipedia.org, list of science fiction authors was extremely long. Therefore, I glanced at the first 50 or so and the first thing I noticed is more male authors than female. In the A section there was only four female names in the entire 35 list of authors.
Writing used to belong to the men, however, more women are writing and reading, therefore, changing the ratio dramatically. Andre Norton is a woman who “paved the way for other women to write in those fields (Who is Andre Norton, p.1).” I wonder, if Norton did not become a SF writer, would authors of SF and the protagonists still be predominantly male? In this time, many writers are female and write successful novels.
Many people try to avoid the topic of race because it can be an uncomfortable discussion. When you are an author, you have to write for the public. If the public were not ready for change, then your book would have been a disaster. Andre Norton not only helped females, but also decided to use dark skinned males as her protagonists. The point she was making is it does not matter whether the protagonist is White, Black or any other ethnicity. You can still get the message across.
Andre Norton’s book, “The Sioux Spaceman” had the protagonist with “unequivocally dark skin color, (Celebrating the Alien, p. 378).” This SF book was
written in 1960. As most may know, the 1960’s were a time of riots. The Civil Rights
Movement was beginning, and Andre Norton took a giant leap when she made the
protagonist a different race. Sadly, sometimes race can determine what you become when you grow up. If Norton was not afraid to write a book with a dark skinned protagonist, and sold many copies; why are people still harping on the same string? People are afraid of change, but change can be a great thing. If you open your eyes and get past the outer look, many things can be accomplished.
In conclusion, history plays a major role when it comes to SF novels. Because of
the past, readers and writers can move past all the negative. As mentioned earlier, the
ratio between men and women writing and reading is changing. Andre Norton’s
commitment and dedication helped readers along the way, and maybe we can realize to not judge a book by its cover… look deeper.

Works Cited

Cooper, Carol. “Celebrating the Alien; The Politics of Race And Species In The
Juveniles of Andre Norton.” Dark Matter: Reading The Bones. Ed. Sheree R.
Thomas. New York: Warner Books, 2004. 375-383.

Taddeo, Linda. Who is Andre Norton?. 26 August 2007. Accessed on 5 September
2007. http://www.andre-norton.org/anorton/anlf.html