{"id":5894,"date":"2011-06-06T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=5894"},"modified":"2011-06-06T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T08:00:50","slug":"found-feminism-what-science-fiction-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2011\/06\/06\/found-feminism-what-science-fiction-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Found Feminism: “What Science Fiction Means”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This image has been shown widely on the internet for a few weeks, but I keep coming back to it. <\/p>\n

I think I want it on my bedroom wall, maybe a metre or two high.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

'What Science Fiction Means' - copyright Egypt Urnash<\/p><\/div>\n

Fantastic artist Egypt Urnash<\/strong><\/a> drew this for free, as a “t-shirt design for a college SF club”. It was then linked to by Major Internet Deity Warren Ellis<\/a>, who knows groovy stuff when he sees it, and subsequently the design is now selling as framed art prints<\/a> and t-shirts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why do I love this so much?<\/p>\n

Possibly because it could have been titled “What I want to be when I grow up” (and still apply to me and most of Team BadRep now, if we’re honest). It has a shark with a frickin’ laser on its head, which is always good for +10 points, but it’s got to be the sheer joy on the girl’s face. I think I just have an innate love of anything which could legitimately have the caption “YEAH BABY, YEAH!”<\/p>\n

At a time when women seem to be shockingly under-represented in Sci-fi<\/a> (way beyond the ratio of actual female authors to male) and hearty debate on whether that’s because of sexism or other factors<\/a>, I’m delighted at anything which tells young women they have a central place in SF. (The first link references Joanna Russ’ “How to suppress women’s writing”, which we mentioned ourselves recently<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

Women of all ages should<\/em> be holding the rayguns and riding the space-sharks, dammit. After all, WisCon<\/a> (‘the World’s leading feminist science fiction convention’) has just finished, and once again shows the potential of the genre not only to excite and speak to everyone, but to be a blank slate where current prejudices don’t have to be brought along<\/a>. SF could be a feminist’s best friend.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s site here<\/a> contains the full-size original<\/a>, as well as other Awesome Art which you should go and look at.<\/p>\n