Gender, Technology, and Cyborgs

By Megan Hasenwinkel

Feminist Science Fiction

One need not look any further than the first sentences of the texts to find striking references to nature. Ursula K. LeGuin's novel, The Lathe of Heaven, begins with these words: "Current borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss." (7) Slow River, a novel by Nicola Griffith, opens with this sentence: "At the heart of the city was a river." (3)

Many of the stories emphasize a connection with nature, or at least an acknowledgement of nature as a force to be respected rather than controlled. Powers That Be, by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, tells the story of a planet that achieves sentience. This planet communicates with its inhabitants and can heal them. It creates new species to populate the planet. The heroine, Yanaba, uses technology in order to preserve this natural wonder.

Another example of the comfortable fusion of nature and technology is portrayed in the novel Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler. The alien race of the Oankali manipulate genes with their bodies, and their ship is a being living in symbionce with them. They use their technology to improve nature without destroying or controlling it. The Oankali are not afraid of nature's power of creation, instead they rejoice in it. For example, they marvel at humanity's "talent" for cancer, seeing it as an opportunity for change rather than a disease.

One final example of a feminist science fiction work that takes strength from nature is Slow River. Lore, the main character in the novel, has grown up caring for the water that others drink. Throughout the novel, her concern for the safety of the water (one of the most basic elements of nature) is a driving force for her. Technology is used in some ways to keep the water clean (for instance, readings are monitored by computers), but even the purification is a combination of technology and nature, as plants and fish are used to neutralize many of the dangerous substances.

Also, it is interesting to note the apocalyptic themes in a few of the novels.

Dawn takes place after a nuclear winter on Earth. The Oankali are trying to make Earth livable again after humans have destroyed it. Also, Lathe of Heaven begins in a world where cars have been banned, there is no room to live, and the Greenhouse Effect is an everyday reality. Both of these attitudes show a distrust of technology, and perhaps especially a distrust of technology in the hands of patriarchy.

It is not my intention to say that all feminist science fiction is exactly the same. I am simply searching for patterns. One pattern that emerges from my readings of feminist science fiction is the feminist authors' use of nature as a positive force and of technology as either a neutral or a negative force. There is also no element of technology's use to control others or to control nature. This can be compared and contrasted with the genre that followed feminist science fiction, which is called cyberpunk.