Feeling pretty frustrated and ticked off at the fact that nearly every time I try to pick up a random novel from the library or bookstore that offers an interesting premise, it winds up being excruciatingly misogynistic and weird about its female characters. Just called it quits about halfway through the first book in the Otherland series by Tad Williams because of the graphic depictions of violence against women, including underage girls, that don’t seem to serve any real purpose to the plot and always drag on an uncomfortable amount of time. I wanted to post on this sub for two reasons: 1) To see if anyone else has had this experience of being unable to read loads of media (especially books published pre-2000s) due to the content being unnecessarily grotesque to its female characters, and 2) To ask for some recommendations of lesser known speculative fiction that /isn’t/ violently misogynistic.
Thanks!
by hopesx
11 Comments
Maybe Octavia Butler and N. K. Jemison are worth a look.
I kind of see excessive violence against female characters as akin to slurs. Would it be as prevalent in very contemporary books? You’d like to think not. But standards haven’t always been the same. Sometimes you might be cutting your nose off to spite your face and missing out on an otherwise good novel.
There’s always the chance too that it’ll prove itself to be trash.
Of course it can also be that characters are misogynistic and not necessarily the book or the author.
Have you tried some speculative fiction by female authors?
1) Yes, absolutely I’m with you on that. I also had to stop reading Otherland. I often will look up content warnings if I’m unsure, but I’d read a lot of Tad William’s other books that were fine…
2) maybe check out Ann Leckie’s works
I first heard the term speculative fiction as applied to Margaret Atwood’s books. Specifically the MaddAddam and Handmaids series are (to me) genre-defining works. The Handmaid’s Tale is pretty widely known and discussed these days, but the series starting with Oryx and Crake is quite good too.
Pale Grey Dot is right up your alley. Sci-fi and cyberpunk. Two of the three protagonists (and about half the characters overall) are female, and they rule.
Also Sisters of Jade for fantasy. It is violent, though the violence is shared equally between the genders.
I read a lot of science fiction and some fantasy – so firmly in the realm of speculative fiction. There are a lot of women writing in this genre now. Some of my favorite authors are (in no particular order):
* Emily St John Mandel
* Mur Lafferty
* Martha Wells
* Anne Leckie
* Becky Chambers
* Arkady Martine
* Mary Robinette Kowal
* Connie Willis
Happy reading
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde. Everything by Jasper Fforde!
You might try Waubgeshig Rice’s post apocalyptic series, Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves.
*The Stars Too Fondly* by Emily Hamilton
Sarah Gailey, the Echo Wife or Magic for Liars are good ones. Also Upright Women Wanted