The invisible woman

Yesterday I went to the Women In Science Fiction panel organised by Jo Fletcher Books and Blackwell's in London.  The panel was  chaired by Edward James of the Science Fiction Foundation.  The panelists were Karen Lord, Stephanie Salter, Naomi Foyle, Janet Edwards, and Jaine Fenn.  

What emerged from the discussion was a systemic failure to recognise the talents of women writing science fiction.  Publishers aren't publishing enough women's SF books, booksellers aren't stocking enough of them, and even when women do get published, reviewers aren't reviewing their books as often.

The panelists wanted recognition for their work, not for being female. I can see the merits of this approach, but I suspect that this desire to blend in is one of the very things that makes women SF writers invisible. 

My recent experience with SF short stories has shown me that magazines aren't interested in stories about the fallout from rape.  One of mine was submitted for a women's SF special issue, and still got no interest.  I think it's a mistake for us to want to blend into the background, to say that our gender makes no difference to what we write and how we write it. Because to me it damned well does.

In my opinion we need more feminist, campaigning, SF.  I don't want my fiction to be interchangeable with a man's, I want it to be something that reflects a woman's world view and experience.  And sadly, even though the major awards have nominated women's books this year, those books are not about women's experience - at lease, as I know it,

Books that show women having sex with anyone they choose without any commitment don't accord with my experience of being a woman.   Women are writing books about things I don't care about, ladette behaviour and copious killing being two of them.  I cannot identify with sex-crazed mercenary women who kill casually. They violate all my core values.

So if we're wondering why women in SF aren't getting the recognition they deserve we might think about standing out more, not blending into the background.  Write about rape, about the  consequences of being saddled with an unwanted child, about prejudice and discrimination.  And put covers on those books that attract women. No pink please, but the faces of the female protagonists, in a world of colour instead of the black space default setting.

Women SF writers need to brand themselves as different, to stand out.  When we stop apologising for being women writing in a men's genre and claim that genre as our own then we might get noticed.