Sex in science fiction
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Modern science fiction frequently involves themes of sex, gender and sexuality. This was not always so. During the 1930s and 40s "golden age" of science fiction, sex was rarely if ever even mentioned, although there was certainly no lack of innuendo and suggestion. Even so, the pulps of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were not lacking in strong female characters.
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[edit] The Golden Age of Science Fiction
During the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction, the stereotype of sci-fi pulp magazine covers was that of a woman in a brass bikini swooning in the clutches of a bug-eyed monster, while a spacesuited hero comes blasting his way to her rescue. Even a cursory examination of the covers of old pulps shows the stereotype to be very much mistaken. In a significant number of the covers, if not a majority, women are depicted in strong, positive roles. True, the women may be scantily clad, but there is no mistaking the fact they are very much in charge of the situation. Even the pulp magazine most associated with the typecast sexist cover, Planet Stories, featured more than its share of women depicted in strong roles. Ironically, given its leading place in the stereotype, many Planet Stories covers feature a male character being rescued from a monster by a ray gun-toting woman.
Within the golden age pulps, there was no lack of strong female characters. It is difficult to go through more than half a dozen magazines without finding at least one heroine; in some cases, a magazine might feature two or three stories with powerful female characters. There were even popular female series characters, such as Arthur K. Barnes' Gerry Carlyle, whose stories ran for many years.
[edit] The "New Wave"
Still, sex rarely if ever raised its head until the New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s, which reflected its times by attempting to break earlier taboos about what could and could not be the subject of science fiction. The men's magazine Playboy published regular serious science fiction stories throughout this period, by both male and female authors, offering them significantly more scope than some other publications.
Two different themes emerged: one trying to explore the boundaries of what "sex" could mean in a world of altered humanity and reality, and another of exploring the position of women in science fiction and feminist issues in what had been traditionally a form of fiction written primarily by and for men.
[edit] Notable works with sexual themes
| Year | Author | Title | Comments |
| 1919 | James Branch Cabell | Jurgen | Many sexual innuendos; was prosecuted for obscenity (fantasy rather than science fiction) |
| 1932 | Aldous Huxley | Brave New World | Only promiscuity is socially acceptable |
| 1949 | George Orwell | Nineteen Eighty-Four | Sexuality is ruthlessly restricted by the State |
| 1949 | William Tenn | Venus and the Seven Sexes | Procreation on Venus requires seven sexes |
| 1953 | Theodore Sturgeon | The World Well Lost | Alien homosexuality |
| 1960 | Philip José Farmer | Strange Relations | A collection of five stories about human/alien sexuality |
| 1960 | Philip José Farmer | Flesh | To counter declining male fertility, a hypermasculine antlered man ritually impregnates legions of virgins |
| 1960 | Theodore Sturgeon | Venus Plus X | Transsexuality |
| 1961 | Robert A. Heinlein | Stranger in a Strange Land | A form of group marriage in the fictional inspiration for the "Church of All Worlds" |
| 1961 | Brian Aldiss | The Primal Urge | Emotion Register on forehead tells others when you experience sexual attraction |
| 1962 | Naomi Mitchison | Memoirs of a Spacewoman | Interspecies mating during shore leave; aliens that change their sex |
| 1965 | Frank Herbert | The Dune series | Human breeding and eugenics planned over thousands of years |
| 1966 | Samuel R. Delany | Babel-17 | Starship crews bonded by group sex; sexual relationships with the "discorporate" spirits of the dead |
| 1966 | Robert A. Heinlein | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress | Various forms of group marriage; professional host-mothers |
| 1967 | Harlan Ellison, ed. | Dangerous Visions | A collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories |
| 1968 | William Tenn | The Seven Sexes | A short story in which Humanity encounters an alien race with a seven sex life-cycle. |
| 1968 | Philip José Farmer | Image of the Beast | Sexual sadism on a par with de Sade, committed by shape-shifting creatures from another world - |
| 1969 | Kurt Vonnegut | Slaughterhouse-Five | Main character kept naked with a porn star in an alien zoo |
| 1969 | Philip José Farmer | A Feast Unknown | Superheroes' higher level of existence forces them to resort to extreme violence combined with extreme sex - |
| 1969 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Left Hand of Darkness | A planet of hermaphroditic androgynes |
| 1970 | Robert Silverberg | Tower of Glass | Genetically engineered slaves are sterile but superior in every way to their creators - graphic descriptions |
| 1970 | Ira Levin | This Perfect Day | |
| 1971 | George Lucas | THX 1138 | Dystopia with in vitro reproduction only - sexual love suppressed with drugs |
| 1972 | Thomas M. Disch | 334 | Flexible sexual relationships, but compulsory contraception; male pregnancy |
| 1972 | Isaac Asimov | The Gods Themselves | Aliens with 3 sexes; co-penetration |
| 1972 | Harlan Ellison, ed. | Again, Dangerous Visions | A sequel to "Dangerous Visions", a collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories |
| 1973 | Woody Allen | Sleeper | Orgasmatron orgasm booths |
| 1974 | Samuel R. Delany | Dhalgren | Sexual freedom and exploitation in all conceivable combinations |
| 1975 | Joe Haldeman | The Forever War | Homosexuality becomes universal, originally adopted as a form of population control but later becoming the norm by convention |
| 1975 | Joanna Russ | The Female Man | Four parallel universes, one without men, one with male sex slaves |
| 1975 | Kilgore Trout | Venus on the Half-Shell | The adventures (including sexual) of a space wanderer |
| 1976 | Samuel R. Delany | Triton (a.k.a. Trouble on Triton) | Male bisexual with gender issues |
| 1976 | Tanith Lee | Don't Bite the Sun | Utopian future society in which humans can change sex at will |
| 1978 | Gardner Dozois | Strangers | Human must be surgically changed to alien to mate with his alien lover |
| 1978 | Douglas Hill, ed. | The Shape of Sex to Come | Anthology of stories dealing with sex and sexual relations, featuring Brian Aldiss, Thomas M. Disch and Michael Moorcock. |
| 1979 | John Varley | Titan | On board a spaceship to Saturn every man sleeps with every woman, except for two clone sisters who are in a monogamous incestuous lesbian relationship |
| 1979 | Diane Duane | The Door Into Fire | Gay sexual relationship; high fantasy |
| 1980 | Larry Niven | The Ringworld Engineers | Rishathra, sex between humanoid aliens of different species |
| 1980+ | Godard Ribera | Le vagabond des limbes | The eternal Eternauts live an eternal childhood or until they meet their true love and then choose their sex accordingly |
| 1980 | Douglas Adams | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Competitors in the sport of solar flare-riding who don't die doing the sport itself invariably die of sexual exhaustion at the afterparty |
| 1981+ | Alejandro Jodorowsky | Incal | One character, Solune, is an androgynous messiah with immense psychic powers, customers at brothels can genetically engineer prostitutes to exact specifications |
| 1982 | Anne Carlisle, et al. | Liquid Sky | A comedic science fiction film in which space aliens land to feed off of endorphins released during orgasm |
| 1983 | Norman Spinrad | The Void Captain's Tale | Starship FTL drive powered by female orgasm |
| 1983 | Rudy Rucker | The Sex Sphere | Details relationships between humans and an alien species of sex organs |
| 1984-86 | Mike Resnick | Tales of the Velvet Comet | Four novels set on a spaceship bordello |
| 1985 | Margaret Atwood | The Handmaid's Tale | Women are subjugated by men in a theocratic America; five classes of women, one only for procreation |
| 1985 | Geoff Ryman | The Warrior Who Carried Life | Transgendered protagonist; gender issues |
| 1986 | Theodore Sturgeon | Godbody | Religious sexuality |
| 1986 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Ethan of Athos | Reproductive scientist on a planet with no women |
| 1987 | Iain M. Banks | The Culture novels | Utopian galactic society in which humans can change sex at will |
| 1987-93 | Storm Constantine | The various Wraeththu novels | Male humans mutate into a race of hermaphrodites; science fantasy |
| 1989 | Spider Robinson | Callahan's Lady | A time-travelling madam runs a unique house of prostitution |
| 1990 | Ellen Datlow (editor) | Alien Sex: 19 Tales | Notable theme anthology |
| 1990 | Elf Sternberg | The Journal Entries | Interspecies sex between humanoid aliens and/or humans including BDSM, homosexuality, incest |
| 1992+ | Alejandro Jodorowsky | Metabarons | A monastic order called the Shabda-Oud are trying to create an androgynous messiah; the fourth Metabaron, Aghora, is a transman |
| 1993 | David Brin | Glory Season | Sexual vs. asexual reproduction |
| 1996 | Mary Doria Russell | The Sparrow | A human priest loses his faith when he is mutilated and held as a prostitute on an alien planet |
| 1998 | Carolyn Ives Gilman | Halfway Human | Society with "blands" without gender who are servants of men and women; everyone starts genderless. |
| 1998 | James Alan Gardner | Commitment Hour | Children alternate between male and female every year until age 20, when they must choose |
| 2003 | M. Christian | The Bachelor Machine | Sex robots that accept credit cards, advanced implants and wearable computers for sex |
| 2004 | Carlos Atanes | FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions | Not only sex, but physical contact between human beings is forbidden. |
[edit] Other works
- The Jerry Cornelius stories of Michael Moorcock and others
- A number of works by Philip José Farmer: The Lovers, Flesh, his collection of stories on this theme, Strange Relations, plus two science fiction pornographic novels, Image of the Beast and Blown.
- Many works by William S. Burroughs mix vague and obvious science fiction themes with sexuality, particularly homosexuality and deviant behavior.
- Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series consists of a society (the Dragonriders) with a hierarchy based on sexual intercourse. When dragons mate, it is implied that their riders will do the same. Due to this situation, homosexuality exists in male riders of green dragons, which are a female coloration.
- The World War and Colonization series by Harry Turtledove explores the differences between the sexual patterns of humans (who have relatively restrained sex all the time) to that of lizards (who have unrestrained sex only during a mating season). Turtledove offers some very interesting theories as to how our sexual nature has improved our species' rate of civilization.
[edit] Themes explored
Some of the themes explored include:
- Sex with aliens, machines and robots
- Reproductive technology including cloning, artificial wombs, uterine replicators, and genetic engineering
- Sexual equality of men and women
- Male- and female-dominated societies, including single-sex societies
- Polyamory
- Changing gender roles
- Homosexuality and bisexuality
- Androgyny and sex changes
- Sex in virtual reality
- Other advances in technology for sexual pleasure such as teledildonics
- Asexuality
- Male pregnancy
- Sexual bonding and politics
- Sexual taboos and morality
- Sex in zero gravity
- Sex with anthropomorphs
- Birth control and other, more radical measures to prevent overpopulation
[edit] Other sub-genres
A number of works of mainstream erotica, including the Gor novels by John Norman, have also used the science fiction format. There is now a separate sub-genre of science fiction erotica that aims to integrate the two genres: writers in this genre include Cecilia Tan, whose small press Circlet Press caters especially to fans of erotic science fiction.
Science fiction erotica is frequently associated with Gay science fiction, Lesbian science fiction and S/M (Sado/Masochism) Erotica.
Examples of science fiction erotica include:
- VESTA - Painworld by Jennifer Jane Pope
- Belle Cell by EyeofSerpent
- Two Moons, a BDSM SF romance by Chelsea Shepard
- The Atraxa trilogy, focusing on a sex-positive libertarian society, by Desmond Ravenstone
In recent years there has been a growing BDSM awareness in the science fiction and fan community.
[edit] Movies and TV Series
Numerous science fiction television series and science fiction films have used science fiction plots as an excuse to fit in gratuitous sexual or fetishistic content: one of the conventions of much filmed science fiction appears to be that the future will be peopled exclusively by attractive people wearing skin-tight clothing in shiny materials. Nevertheless, some science fiction-themed TV shows, such as Farscape, have been acclaimed for their handling of such themes. The series Lexx features sexual themes in almost every episode, one of the main characters of Firefly is a "companion" (upper-class prostitute), and Andromeda is imbued with the carefree sexual spirit that seems to characterize the spacefaring future (or, at least, screenwriters' hopes for it).
The various Star Trek series treat sexuality in different ways. James T. Kirk earned a pop-culture reputation for bedding countless green-skinned or otherwise exotic alien women portrayed in the soft lighting characteristic of 1970's romantic pulp. Star Trek: The Next Generation, usually regarded as a pinnacle of principled (i.e., less gratuitous) sci-fi TV, featured a risqué theme in episode #2 that involved sex between female officer Tasha Yar and the automaton Mr. Data. The focus on sexy females was ramped up in all of the subsequent series (with increasing obviousness) - notably Deep Space 9's Jadzia Dax, Voyager's Seven of Nine, and Enterprise's sultry T'Pol.
The re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica, by contrast, set out to portray sex in a more realistic fashion. The gratuity and fetishism of bad television "science fiction" were done away with in favour of more natural expressions of sexuality, both good and bad in nature. While initially ridiculed by some for its over-use of sex in certain areas, the producers were quick to point out that nothing happens on the show that hasn't been seen on shows like ER, NYPD Blue or Sex and the City multiple times already, only it was happening in space.
Influential female sex symbols from movies include characters from the 1968 movie Barbarella as well as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, where she wore a metallic bikini.
[edit] See also
- Feminist science fiction
- Gay science fiction
- Nudity in science-fiction literature
- Pregnancy in science fiction
- Slash fiction
- Sex in fantasy fiction
- Tiptree Award
- WisCon
