larryc@puente.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Larry Carroll) (07/19/90)
>Besides getting her into counselling, I would really like to introduce >her to "feminist" ideas. On the other hand, I don't want to indoctrinate >her or propagandize her. I just want to suggest feminist ideas to her >in a subtle way. She is fifteen years old, and will turn sixteen next >week. Can anyone out there suggest any books or poems or ANYTHING that >I might recommend to her? She is very bright and likes to read. Sorry for the time it took to reply to this. Certainly books on feminism can help, but they will work better if they are very readable and/or apply directly to her own experience: abuse by family etc. If you're too earnest & academic about this you may only succeed in assuring her that feminists are a bunch of bossy bores. A better way may be to introduce her to science fiction or fantasy books that are entertaining and have a feminist sub-text. One category of SF that she might enjoy is feminist space opera, which has a post-feminist view. That is, the battle for equality is assumed to have been won & what is shown is a world in which sexism no longer exists. Look for covers that show a woman in the foreground and a spaceship in the background. I'd suggest you avoid those that are about combat; they are generally pretty realistic and grim & not a lot of fun except to combat enthusiasts. Focus on books about a female captain-pilot-owner of commercial space-ship. Often they have a romantic sub-plot that shows non-dominating relationships, some of them unconventional by our standards. (Homosexual marriages, line marriages, three-way marriages, etc.) Beware, though; there are a few space opera books that are thinly disguised romances where a woman who is fiery, beautiful, and untamed meets a handsome, rich, and arrogant man whom she instantly hates but .... There is a similar post-feminist category of fantasy books where women have equality. These tend to be sword-and-sorcery adventure stories. The best I've read is a book that I believe will become a classic on the same level as Tolkien trilogy: _The_Deed_of_Paksenarrion_ by Elizabeth Moon. However, I recommend one of those woman-warrior-with-a-terrific-horse books, perhaps Mercedes Lackey's _Arrows_of_the_Queen_ trilogy -- which starts with a young girl being rescued from an abusive family by a sentient, angelic horse. (I know: adults (especially six-foot muscle-bound mean-looking men like myself) aren't supposed to like kid stuff like this, but I can be an adult only so many hours a week and I've got to go back to being a kid for a while!) If you're at Berkeley there're two good SF&F specialty bookstores within walking distance of the campus: "Another Change of Hobbit" and "Dark Carnival." You can get used paperbacks there for a good price and not feel as if you're shelling out a lot of money for what might turn out to be (from your viewpoint) trash. And tell your cousin that there are some people in this world who would die to protect her from what she's gone through -- and some of them are men. Larry Carroll