Heinlein Women (crosspost from the list)

[azurelunatic]

When growing up, I noticed that the ideal Heinlein woman was smart, bisexual, horny, good with children, an expert markswoman, prepared for every eventuality, and capable of mastering anything she tried, very quickly.

I wanted to grow up and kick, ah, "anatomy" like Friday, be householdy and practical like Janet (was that her name? The other woman in _Friday_, the one with the two husbands), make love with the skill of all the Heinlein women known to be skilled in the art put together, be all-around resourceful and twisty-minded like Hazel, and continue kicking anatomy with serenity like Cordelia after I found the gang of heavily armed Amazons (or male equivalent) who would love me freely and forever. With the Martian training of Mike Smith, the information manipulation retrieval, and analytical skills of Mr. Spock, the diplomacy of Miles, and the grace, beauty, brains, and technical skill of Lt. Uhura.

Heinlein women were an excellent role model to me when growing up. It will be interesting to re-read from an adult perspective. I have noticed that some of my favorite books when growing up (M*rc*d*s L*ck*y) did not age particularly well. Someone onlist said of that particular author, some years ago, that some authors have an axe to grind; this author takes the axe and bludgeons you about the head with the dull side... I've found that increasingly true with some of her books, especially those specifically targeted for a younger audience. I'm hoping that at least Friday will stand up to the test of time. I found that Gillian became less interesting after learning Martian; Anne became more interesting.

As an interesting and amusing contrast to the stereotypical attitude from a completely male-dominated society, until the age of ten, I believed with all my little heart that boys could not grow up to be teachers, because they were not smart enough... Somehow my father was an exception, just as smart as a girl.

Comments

Responding here instead of the Bujold list...

[boojum.livejournal.com]

...because this is the sort of discussion more productively had with a few people than with a mailing list.

There are some good things about the "adult" version of the Heinlein Female (he has characterization issues), which you've listed. In addition, they're less bound by the sexual mores of the time.

Some of the bad things, some of which have been brought up on list (looking back at these, most of them are actually complaints about his grasp of the social sciences and his characterization in general):

• They live to serve and fawn over men. Usually fairly subtley, sometimes (Sharpie) not.


• They're manipulative bastards.


• They're always horny, always willing, interested, and able in having sex with any of the good guys, and almost never have any bad consequences of sex. Never get sore, never feel antisocial, never are just not interested in somebody that way. To be fair, his Male seems to be this way too, taking into account his homophobia.


• They're all extroverts, as are all the incarnations of his Male. This can also be put down to H's characterization ability. You generally need some extroverts to carry a story, but having everybody be extroverted is overgeneralization.


• (goes along with the manipulation) I really dislike the "poor little men can't be trusted with anything important or it'll break their heads" attitude. Misandry is as annoying as misogyny, and I think Heinlein's attributing this attitude to women may actually be both.


• His non-sex Female character (ie, in the juvies) is either a generic mother stage prop or lives to be married. "Oh, I'd rather marry the ship captain and take care of all the babies" Ick.


• His "adult" characters get married and do the water brotherhood thing at the drop of a hat, to complete strangers.


• I need to look up Deety's measurements again. I remember her waist measurement was 19", her bust was 38" (?) and she was something like 5'7" and 135 lb. As a black belt. With substantial mammary development. With those tits and that muscle, even if she had no other body fat, she should weigh something more like 180.

Wanna start a discussion? Especially since some of these (like the "no bad consequences" one) may simply fall under wish-fulfillment, like the way all of his characters live effectively forever and are incredibly healthy and ...

BTW, try to find a copy of _Number of the Beast_ with the pictures. I should try to find other work by that artist. Pretty.