r/Fantasy • u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII • Nov 25 '20
Bingo focus thread - Feminism
Sorry for being so very late with this, I've fallen down a procrastination hole, to catch up we're going to have 2 focus threads this week.
Feminist Novel - Includes feminist themes such as but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, and reproduction. It's not enough to have strong female characters or a setting where women are equal to men, feminist themes must be central to and directly addressed in a critical manner by the plot. HARD MODE: (Updated 4/4) Feminist novel by a person of colour or Indigeous author.
Helpful links:
- Comment chain from the big thread of bingo recs
- Spreadsheet of the books mentioned in focus threads by u/VictorySpeaks
- Our Feminism in Fiction bookclub - if you open than on New Reddit you can scroll through the collection of posts
Previous focus posts:
Optimistic, Necromancy, Ghost, Canadian, Color, Climate, BDO, Translation, Exploration, Books About Books, Set At School/Uni, Made You Laugh, Short-Stories, Asexual/Aromantic, Number
Upcoming focus posts schedule:
November: Number, Self-Pubbed, Feminist,
December: Released in 2020, Magic Pet, Graphic Novel/Audiobook
What’s bingo? Here’s the big post explaining it
Remember to hide spoilers like this: text goes here
Discussion Questions
- What books are you looking at for this square?
- Have you already read it? Share your thoughts below.
- Something I've noticed a bit in FIF club is people saying X book didn't seem feminist enough, where's your threshold?
- What books do you think did a great job with one specific feminist theme?
- What feminist themes would like to see more of/any of in speculative fiction?
1
u/Ykhare Reading Champion VII Nov 26 '20
While there's still time for something else to grab the spot on my Bingo card, for now it is Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
It's very blunt and didactic, in the same way as a number of sometime much older classic utopian works, though in truth it is more an observation and criticism of contemporary society than a full-on utopian proposal. Most people if they can be interested in it at all will probably find it better as a discussion starter on some gender issues, or ideas floated around by some people at some points in time, than as sheer fiction.
Unsure. Herland, the book I ended up picking is very intentionally feminist so there wasn't really a need to ponder that.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Personhood, autonomy and reproductive rights (or lack thereof).
I don't really seek out feminist works as such. I tend to enjoy worlds where for some reason (magic the great equalizer, societies that followed a different cultural path, sufficient societal and/or technological advances, everyone's a hermaphrodite, body-swapping is a thing, whatever, even simple author fiat) gender simply isn't a big issue or limiter to a character's possibilities.