Adams, Alice E. Reproducing the Womb: Images of Childbirth in Science, Feminist Theory, and Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.
The majority of this text is concerned with examining the ideologies and use of technologies to monitor and control childbirth. Adams asserts that "we are in the middle of a revolution in reproductive technologies" and that women must respond and resist their new "cybernetically transformed bodies and minds" until they can gain control over the "exploitative reproductive practices and philosophies" (ix).
Adams touches upon many cultural expressions in her exploration of these issues, such as literary and psychoanalytic theory, women's writing, feminist theories of mothering and feminist speculative fiction. This text makes an excellent companion piece to Anne Balsamo's Technologies of the Gendered Body.
It is in the area of speculative fiction that this text is most useful to a study of feminisms and science fiction (SF). In selected chapters, such as "Community, Identity, Stasis: The Mother-State and the Postrevolutionary Subjects in Brave New World," "The Handmaid's Tale: A Banished Mother," and "The Woman in the Machine: Feminist Writers of Speculative Fiction," Adams discusses the "revolutionary potential of a reconstructed maternal self" and "matrophobia" (x). In addition, her analysis of SF women writers such as Joanna Russ and Suzy McKee Charnas suggests ways through which women can more control their bodies.
The utopias these SF writers create under various matriarchies share a sense of history and solidarity among women and avoid "sentimental expressions of maternal sacrifice or mother-daughter unity" (xi). Adams argues that a mother in the mother-fetus relationship must be a fully autonomous individual. Moreover, she asserts that feminist SF writers such as Charnas, Marge Piercy, and Octavia Butler are "reworking the ideal of community to suit a feminism that seeks to rupture the artificial boundaries between our bodies and our minds, machines, the land, and other forms of life" (249).

Aisenberg, Nancy. Ordinary Heroines: Transforming the Male Myth. New York: Continuum, 1994.
Aisenberg begins by describing how Western culture defines "Hero," such as chivalric codes, independence from all humanity, true individuality, etc. To this she adds that not only is there the archetypal hero but also the central male narrative of Oedipus. Women, Aisenberg argues, must struggle with developing a true Heroine when our cultural myths and archetypes are masculine; women heroines (when they exist) are merely "a simulacrum of someone male" (15). After dissecting the problem of trying to create a heroine out of ideals that belong exclusively to "hero," Aisenberg discusses the possibilities that Postmodernism offers feminists in creating a true heroine by challenging and breaking down established boundaries. Through a postmodern re-mapping genre itself can become "unstuck" and open new options for feminist re-formulations of the heroine.
The first half of Aisenberg's text details the history of the hierarchical boundaries that must be broken for feminist repositionings, but for our purposes the chapter, "Gender and Genre: Science Fiction and the Feminist Utopia" is most beneficial. Aisenberg correctly argues that utopias are most often used by feminist SF as a way to "design a new reality" (160). However, Aisenberg does posit all feminist SF as utopian in character and this is somewhat problematic, but it does align with her focus on the French feminists (especially Cixous, Irigaray, and Kristeva) as she asserts that "Feminist science fiction is both futuristic and utopian, fulfilling the French feminist description of what women's writing should be" (160).
Throughout the chapter Aisenberg offers insights to the contributions that Feminist SF makes in the construction of the "Heroine." One of the most useful turns is her implementation of Marleen Barr's term "feminist fabulations" (166) to describe Feminist SF. Aisenberg notes that it is an improvement on two major counts: "It eliminates the label 'science fiction' which carries inaccurate connotations of progress based on technology and scientism. . . . [and] 'fabulations' places feminist science fiction within the fabulist tradition, that is, one tradition of stories with a moral lesson. Finally, the word 'fabulations' implies a fictive or imagined reality apart from social realism" (167).
Aisenberg follows this discussion of "feminist fabulation" with examples from texts of Ursula K. LeGuin, Dorris Lessing, and Joanna Russ and demonstrates how many of the feminist utopias created within these writers' texts explore feminist theoretical issues. Discussing LeGuin's questioning of gendered truth in Always Coming Home, Aisenberg notes how the passages echo Hélène Cixous's notions of the relations between truth to narrative and Julia Kristeva's "True-Real." Aisenberg also discusses LeGuin's flexible narratives in the context of Nancy Chodorow and Miriam Greenspan. Later, discussing Joanna Russ's "kinship-webs" and LeGuin's "kinship of choice" (180), Aisenberg demonstrates how feminist SF can beak down and manipulate Foucaultian hierarchies of power.
Ultimately, Aisenberg maps how feminist SF uses postmodern concepts, such as multivocality, pastiche, fragmentation, and inclusiveness (174), to deconstruct the false image of woman which allows women to attain selfhood by using traits in feminist SF to create their own heroines.

Andermahr, Sonya. "The Worlds of Lesbian/Feminist Science Fiction." Outwrite: Lesbianism and Popular Culture. Ed. by Gabriele Griffin. Boulder: Pluto Press, 1993. 106-125.
This essay is a discussion of the fictional treatment of many theoretical and political issues central to feminism, such as reproductive and social technologies, male violence, mothering, and motherhood, women's communities, and gendered language systems. Andermahr categorizes feminist SF into the three categories of space travel, utopias, and dystopias. Her assertion that feminist use of the utopia and dystopia has made these two categories more useful to feminist theorizing and fictional practice is well-founded, but she is quick to note the hybridization and fluidity of boundaries between SF categories and other genres, which is invaluable for feminist theorizing (107).
In most ways, then, Andermahr's theoretical framework does not greatly differ from other analysis of feminist SF. However, her conflation of all feminist SF with lesbian SF is useful: "The politics of lesbian feminism and the stress on the female community have been central to the development of the feminist SF genre as a whole and thus I have not distinguished rigidly between lesbian and non-lesbian works" (106). By creating this in-between space Andermahr is able to discuss the foregrounding of "nurturing maternal love rather than (genital) sexual desire" (115-6) in most feminist SF.
She attributes some of SF women writers' reluctance to foreground (genital) sexual desire as possibly their attempt to avoid the sexual objectification of women in the typical male SF paradigm. However, Andermahr does take Adrienne Rich's "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" to task. She credits Rich's lesbian continuum as a "potent political and affective myth of female relationality," but argues that in foregrounding female sexuality and lesbianism as caring, Rich's "model tends to de-emphasize and even marginalise specifically sexual relations between women" (116). Andermahr concludes with an analysis of lesbian SF that foreground (genital) sexual desire and the lesbian erotic either to their success or, in some cases, their detriment. Ultimately, Andermahr views lesbian and feminist SF writing as a continuous dialogue with feminist theory and political thought.

Armitt, Lucie, ed. Where No Man Has Gone Before. New York: Routledge, 1991.
This collection of essays explores a vast territory of feminist issues in SF. The editor devotes a section to SF women writers of the earlier twentieth century, such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Doris Lessing, as well as a section to new feminist SF writers. What makes this collection useful, though, is its focus on the many factors involved in the SF genre. Essays explore film, books, and even the SF marketplace and its demands on the genre. Overall, the collection does fulfill the editor's aim: "to whet the appetite of those who as yet remain unconvinced of the significance of science fiction as a literary genre, as well as to provide the initiated with additional food for thought" (2).

Balsamo, Anne. Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.
While Balsamo's text is not specifically about SF, she does use the concept of the cyborg and SF cultural texts as examples in a discussion of technologies. She relies heavily on Haraway's concept of the constructedness of the body with technology and the cyborg feminist approach. In addition, references to Foucault's biopower abound. Overall, this text offers insight into the usefulness of SF texts in conducting dialogue with cultural constructions of science and patriarchal discourse.

Barr, Marleen and Nicholas D. Smith, eds. Women and Utopia: Critical Interpretations. Lanham: University Press of America, 1983.
Although not all essays in this collection are written from a feminist perspective, they are nevertheless valuable as they discuss the relationship between women and SF in some form. Barr, in her Preface, notes that she has specifically chosen writers and critics with diversified interests: "feminists, those who would not call themselves feminists, science fiction writers, a media specialist, a political scientist, established scholars and younger scholars" (3). Barr points out, though, that this collection is not merely a pastiche of opinions. Rather, she frames it around feminist concerns of portrayals (both positive and negative) of female characters in SF texts and juxtapositions of female critics' analyses of a work and the female writers' discussion of their creative process for that work. While this work is not entrenched in feminist theory and does not stress the political and social thrust of much feminist SF, overall it is useful for its background of some of the major feminist SF writers in the genre.

Barr, Marleen S. Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Barr's text in somewhat encompassing in scope as she uses "Speculative Fiction" to include feminist utopias, SF, fantasy, and sword and sorcery, but it does put feminist theory and feminist Speculative Fiction in dialogue. Looking at the themes of community, heroism, and sexuality/reproduction, Barr uses feminist texts, such as Nina Auerbach's Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction, Judith Fetterley's The Resisting Reader, Adreinne Rich, Jane Gallop's The Daughter's Seduction, various texts by Nancy Chodorow, and numerous other feminist theorists. Barr then applies these theories to feminist Speculative Fiction writers. Barr's practice is not so much earth-shattering, but ground-breaking because it is one of the first extended attempts to integrate feminist theory and women's Speculative Fiction to demonstrate the strong feminist commentary. While Barr does leave holes in her discourse, they are spaces from which other critics have been able to implement and develop in their own work.
Barr points out early on that Speculative fiction parallels phases of American feminism's second wave and benchmarks these phases in an oversimplified, yet useful chart (xii). Moreover, Barr herself seems to be somewhat "liberal" in her theoretical framing as her role is that of "a matchmaker faced with bringing the following boys and girls together: male speculative fiction critics and readers, feminist critics, and female speculative fiction writers" (xiii). She compares her effort with that of Jane Gallop's to "establish a relationship between French feminism and French psychoanalysis" (xiii). Whether Barr is successful is debatable, but the proliferation of feminist SF since 1987 suggests that she does take part in building a stronger community.

---. Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992.

---. Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Barr begins her collection of essays by stressing the marginalized position of feminist theory in much of the Academy, but the further marginalization of SF as well. However, she is quick to point out that this position is gaining prominence as more scholars devote themselves to this doubly marginalized field. Her success in publication is itself a testament to this fact.
For Barr, each SF text is an attempt to explore some aspect of dominant societal discourse: "feminist science fiction . . . acts as a microscope in relation to patriarchal myths" (4). However, feminist SF does more than simply examine these myths; it actively denaturalizes them. She discusses how she first saw feminist SF "as a repair manual that can be used by women who wish to fix patriarchy" (4), but now she argues that a continual questioning and deconstruction of patriarchy is needed; feminist SF "presents blueprints for social structures that allow women's words to counter patriarchal myths" (7).
Extending the boundaries for this project, Barr introduces a new reading practice she has termed "feminist fabulation" (10). Feminist fabulation's main goal is a critique of patriarchal master narratives. Furthermore, Barr's term reaches beyond the genre of feminist SF to include, Fantasy, Utopian, and even mainstream literature written by both men and women. Barr argues that this category, this "super-genre," is not all-inclusive. Instead, feminist fabulation includes works that challenge "fixed definitions of literary hierarchies, the prestige accorded only to particular authors and types of writing" (12). Lost in Space, then, is Barr's journey from feminist SF to feminist postmodernism. Although she has bifurcated her text into a "before/after" framework of feminist fabulation, one can see the various overlaps and thought processes that Barr used to conceptually map her space.

Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells, eds. From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
While this collection of essays does not explicitly focus on science fiction per se, it is useful in that the various critics explore ways in which Disney has used the technology of film and animation to construct and codify gender and erase race characteristics. Especially interesting is the section "Contestations/Disney Film as Gender Construction." One of the essays in this section by Elizabeth Bell, "Somatexts at the Disney Shop," conceptually maps how Disney animators have categorized three aspects of woman in their various "nest egg" (107) animated features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and later, The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992).
Bell explores how the animators created the young heroines for the first three movies through the use of classical dancers for their movements and body structures (110) and embodied them with the submissive qualities of what they thought to be ideal women. These women were constructed with a pre-pubescent quality that subsumed their impending sexuality within their apparent innocence. Bell points out how the disciplined, assured bodies of the dancers conflicted with what the characters said and thought (112). Even more problematic, Bell demonstrates how almost thirty years later Disney has now adopted conventions more along the lines of the popular conventions of "cheesecake" for its female heroines.
Moreover, Bell demonstrates how the evil women are always modeled after the characteristic "femme fatale," according to whatever notions the current culture holds for these women (115). The woman is always evil and is a "sexual subject" rather than an object (116). Accordingly, Disney controlled these "evil" women, these sexual independent beings with the matriarchal social control of the "Disney grandmother," the "supernatural feminine goodness" (118). Bell argues that through the "postmenopausal script of asexuality," (119) these "pear-shaped" (118) women are able to "reestablish and maintain the order that the [curvy] femme fatale destroys" (119). Ultimately, Bell argues, Disney's films "celebrate the ambiguity, the diversity, and potency of women's bodies, and the multiple sites and sources of their cultural construction" (121).
Bell does make a good case for the cultural constructedness of Disney's women. However, she does not seem to fault Disney for its concentration on the body of women and how it is represented. Sexuality is still evil in Disney even though its new representatives of beauty (Ariel, Bell, and Jasmine) are more sexual than its previous representations. Women still seek their prince for fulfillment and independence is simply a result of middle-aged sexuality that ultimately results in an evil women who will not become "good" again until she is asexual in her postmenopausal "bliss."
An article worth brief mention in the context of SF is Brian Attebery's "Beyond Captain Nemo: Disney's Science Fiction." While Attebery's focus is on the constructions of masculinity in Disney SF, the element of the female as seducer or technology as seducer of the man is prevalent in his argument. He makes a case for the feminine "Other" (in this case from another world) or an extra-terrestrial "other" as a method for the pubescent masculine protagonist (not always a pubescent individual in years) to attain a masculinity in opposition to a Western masculinity. In almost all cases, the protagonist holds on to an innocent outlook on the world and avoids moving into the sexual. While Atttebery does not focus specifically on the constructions of the female in his analysis, in most cases the female or the female-gendered alien and/or technology plays an important role in the protagonist's self-development. Unfortunately, this female-gendered catalyst does not stray far from Disney's other representations of woman.
Nevertheless, these essays offer insight into the Disney rhetoric as they "intervene in Disney's construction of gender, identity, and culture in the seemingly ahistorical world of Disney" in order to "enable oppositional readings . . . from the margins of the Disney text" (2-3).

Dery, Mark, ed. Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994.
While this collection of essays does not deal with SF in particular, it does deal with a culture, cyberspace, that has been made popular with SF. What is most useful in this text are the essays dealing with gender identity in a space where gender can actually be invisible or manipulated to appear however the user wants. Articles such as "Compu-Sex: Erotica for Cybernauts" explore issues of sexuality and identity as they are manifested in cyberspace. The culture of the Internet is truly one of fragmented postmodern identities and this text makes an attempt to explore the implications of this culture.

---. Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. New York: Grove Press, 1996.
Once again Dery examines cyberculture in this postmodern moment. Especially useful are his chapters on "RoboCopulation" and "Cyborging the Body Politic." Interesting here is the almost opposite pulls in cyberspace: a move to divorce oneself totally from the "meat," the body, while at the same time there is still a focus on the body with virtual sex. Identities are fluid, and people want both to lose themselves and remain individuals.

Donawerth, Jane L. and Carol A Kolmerten, eds. Utopian Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994.
In her forward Susan Gubar points out that the sub-title of the work, "Worlds of Difference," "resonate[s] with the words of difference repeatedly uttered by nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary women working within apparently non-utopian and non-science fiction conventions" (xi-xii). Furthermore, she points out that even her three-volume collaboration with Gilbert, No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century, owes much to feminist utopian fiction such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland.
The collection's editors use this resonance as their theoretical framework to historicize the evolution of feminist Utopia and SF writing. They point out that in the last fifteen years feminist Utopia, SF, and Speculative Fiction scholarship has dramatically increased, but that no one has mapped this territory. The project of this text is, then, to "constitute a continuous literary tradition in the West from the seventeenth century until the present day" (1). It is a large undertaking, and there are many spaces in their map that remain uncharted. Their focus is primarily on Utopian fiction despite the SF in the title, but overall this text (and its bibliography) is a valuable tool for feminist SF scholarship.

Du Pont, Denise, ed. Women of Vision. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.
A collection of essays written by women writers of SF and Fantasy. Du Pont points out that this text is not meant to separate women writers from writers, implying that women are not a sub-set of writers, but it is important to note that SF and Fantasy (already marginalized genres) have allowed women writers to establish themselves more freely, as well as practice theory and discourse unfettered by societal patriarchal constraints. I think Du Pont realizes this as she notes that these genres allow writers to "say what cannot be said in mainstream fiction" (xi).
Although the editor has not constructed any theoretical framework for readers, all of these essays deal with some aspect of feminist concerns. Whether it is Ursula K. Le Guin's discussion on how writing interesting stories has primarily been a masculine endeavor and how SF opens up this endeavor to women, or Pamela Sargent's tale of how she became a writer, all of these essays deal with issues facing women on a daily basis. This text is an insight into the identity behind the theory practiced in the fiction.

Extrapolation. Wooster, Ohio. 1959-Present.
One of the three major journals in SF studies, the other two being Foundation and Science Fiction Studies.. When doing any research in feminism and SF make sure to skim through the indices for many helpful articles.

Foster, Thomas, guest ed. "Cyberpunk: Technologies of Cultural Identity." Genders 18 (Winter 1993).
An impressive collection of articles that explores the implications of feminism, fragmented identities, gender, and other postmodern concepts in context of the cyborg in SF. This issue offers a plethora of insights that anyone researching contemporary feminism and SF will find most useful.

Foundation. Dagenham, England. 1975-Present.
Deals more with British SF than American, but still a useful source in any study of feminism and SF.

Garber, Eric and Lyn Paleo, eds. Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. 2nd ed. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1990.
An annotated bibliography of diverse sexualities in SF, Fantasy, and Horror literature and film from A.D. 200 through 1989. While it deals primarily with the homoerotic in literature and film, it is indispensable in a study of feminism and SF because it offers quick access and valuable synopses of useful primary texts.

Garnett, Rhys and R. J. Ellis, eds. Science Fiction Roots and Branches: Contemporary Critical Approaches. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.
While this text is not entirely about feminism and SF, the editors have devoted one of the three sections to contemporary feminist responses in SF. Marleen Barr, in "Men in Feminist Science Fiction: Marge Piercy, Thomas Berger and the End of Masculinity" explores the debate between SF women writers like Joanna Russ and SF male writers who write "male-authored sex-role-reversal fictions" (153). This debate explores the issues of agency and the authority to speak for a group. Ultimately, Barr concludes that men who wish to "engage with feminism" in SF, need to write and speak as though they were women and take part in the "undermining of the male economy" (154). It is Barr's argument that "men who use the science fiction sex-role-reversal convention necessarily view the world from female perspectives and confront questions, raised by feminist science fiction and feminist theory" (154). For Barr, then, men in feminist SF are useful in that all feminists (women and men) "posit alternatives to patriarchy--the end of masculinity" (154).
Jenny Wolmark, in "The Destabilisation of Gender in Vonda McIntyre's Superluminal," uses this text to demonstrate how feminist SF has "redrawn the boundaries of the genre" by "enabling and encouraging . . . a discussion of definitions of masculinity and femininity and of social and sexual relations generally" (168). She argues for the fluidity of boundaries between feminism and the SF genre and describes how this discourse between the two creates an ambivalent, yet useful relationship.
Finally, Anne Cranny-Francis, in "Man-Made Monsters: Suzy McKee Charnas's Walk to the End of the World as Dystopian Feminist Science Fiction," plots a particular trajectory in feminist genre writing. This conceptual map begins with "fiction used to explicate the socialisation of women and men in a patriarchal society to fiction used to explicate the role of fiction in that socialisation process" (183). Cranny-Francis specifically explores the methods available in the genre of feminist SF through an analysis of Charnas's representations of the "subject positions produced by a masculinist or sexist ideology" (185).

Gubar, Sandra M. "She in Herland: Feminism as Fantasy." Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Ed. by George E. Slusser, Eric S. Rabkin, and Robert Scholes. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. 139-149.
In this brief article Gubar compares H. Rider Haggard's She with Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland. The impetus of her argument centers on how both authors have used the concept of matriarchy and phallocentrism in differing venues. Both texts explore matriarchal, feminist utopias in theory, but whereas Haggard's text imposes and subverts the matriarchy through the imposition of Victorian masculine thought, Gilman's text explores the benefits of matriarchy in a world devoid of masculine discourse. Haggard's text plots the downfall of the feminist world through the presence of Western masculinist discourse (the male explorers) whereas Gilman's text shows how men change and are transformed, then placed in a feminist matriarchal utopia.

Haraway, Donna. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. New York: Routledge, 1989.
Although this text does not deal directly with SF and/or feminism, Haraway's theories on the constructedness of nature and scientific discourse are frequently used by SF critics and writers alike. Her assertion of the "intricately woven" nature of science and culture with fact and fiction occupies a critical space in SF's and feminism's deconstruction of patriarchal discourse. Haraway's examination of the constructedness of scientific discourse in the field of primatology serves as a blueprint for later theorists.

Haraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Haraway introduces this collection of ten essays written between 1979 and 1989 as a "cautionary tale about the evolution of bodies, politics and stories . . . a book about the invention and reinvention of nature--perhaps the most central arena of hope, oppression, and contestation for the inhabitants of the planet earth" (1). This constructedness of the "facts" of nature--ourselves and our environment--that Haraway shows to be a cultural, patriarchal construct and not the pure discourse of science as it has been presented and believed.
Haraway explores the feminist struggles over producing knowledge and puts forth the idea of the "cyborg feminist" in "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." The image of the cyborg is important for Haraway as it is "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction" (149). In this essay Haraway lays the groundwork for a useful examination of the constructedness of "individuals" in our technologically dependent world. In addition, the cyborg feminist embraces the fragmented identity in the postmodern world and is able to operate using what is most beneficial to the cause. No longer are feminists to look for stable communities; rather, associations are by affinity (151). Possibilities for action and politics occur along the "informatics of domination" (161).
The theories and ideas of Haraway form a theoretical framework for much of the new feminist SF being written. Feminist SF writers no longer need to work within the usual binary utopias or dystopias. Rather, with the polymorphic identity of the cyborg, feminist SF can address issues of the postmodern world.

Howard, June. "Widening the Dialogue on Feminist Science Fiction." Science Fiction Dialogues. Ed. by Gary Wolfe. Chicago: Academy, 1982. 155-168. [This article also appears in Feminist Re-Visions: What Has Been and Might Be. Ed. by Vivian Patraka and Louise A. Tilly. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1983. 64-96.]
Nestled in a text in which the list of authors resembles an enrollment to an all-boys' school, Howard's essay occupies a chapter of its own. In the preface Wolfe acknowledges that it could have been included in the previous chapter, "Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the History of Ideas." However, it got its own chapter, "Feminism and Science Fiction," because "it represents an approach to science fiction that has begun in the last few years to have a dramatic impact on a number of widely held assumptions about the genre" (153). Granted, this reference is a bit dated, but it does demonstrate the impact of feminism on SF; SF allows feminists to put into practice feminist theories and speculate on their outcomes to suggest our own culture's future.
Howard introduces herself as a committed Marxist-feminist and much of her analysis reflects this slant with her binary oppositions and stringent categories. However, her exploration into two SF novels, Sally Miller Gearhart's The Wanderground and Joanna Russ's The Two of Them, lays down a basic framework used by many feminist critics. Her analysis of The Wanderground basically demonstrates how a post-apocalyptic culture has rebuilt itself around the separation of men and women. Women have escaped from the aggressive, women-battering men of the cities into the hills. Here, women have cultivated a radical feminist society where a connection to the earth through psychic powers helps them to survive and create a feminist Utopia. The men remain rooted in technology and are considered barbaric. A few men do realize that the "Hill women" are the answer to the world's problems, but the women will have nothing to do with these "gentles." In her discussion of this text, Howard faults the author for relying too much on the Mary Daly brand of feminism and cautions future feminist writers to avoid the biological determinism that can ultimately work against feminist action.
Howard does argue for the value of Gearhart's text and does not want to discredit it entirely. However, she does point out that feminists should be more involved with studying gender identity as a "result of complex social and historical forces" (158). This study occurs in Russ's The Female Man and The Two of Them. In The Two of Them Russ transplants a male and a female into another world and time which resembles a type of Islamic haven for men. Many restrictions on females are imposed, such as harems and cosmetic surgery to attain the perfect ideal beauty (161). Ultimately, the novel becomes a study in our Western ideals of female as the protagonist, Irene, explores the self-construction (and imposition) of her own female identity. Russ explores the rhetorics of suppression as well as the psychology of oppression.
The lack of resolution in the novel and also Irene's quest for identity are important for Howard's analysis because she argues that we have only begun to reclaim the fictions of women and reinterpret them (165). Howard ends her essay calling for more understanding of the "community of women," an analysis of women's oppressions, and a study of the "issues of autonomy and alliance" among women. She calls for a widening of the "dialogue on feminist science fiction" (167). This widening is certainly ongoing today.

Ingram, Angela and Daphne Patai, eds. Rediscovering Forgotten Radicals: British Women Writers, 1889-1939. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
This text examines the works of women writers who have all but disappeared from literary history as they have been marginalized and/or forgotten. The editors' focus on these twenty women writers and how they used their writing for "decisive political action" (1). In opposition to the modernist writing styles and ideas occurring at this time, these women focused on clear, pragmatic writing styles to reach the majority of the people (6). However, they were not remembered for their "plain style" like George Orwell was, and the editors argue that this may be because of the feminist social issues that these writers addressed (8). Finally, the editors argue that these women were not "politically ambivalent" as they situate them in a "pre-postmodern framework" (9).
Out of this collection of essays, two are most useful in a study of how women used SF (although it would not be identified as such at this time) as a platform for their messages. Susan Squier, in Sexual Biopolitics in Man's World: The Writing of Charlotte Haldane," explores Haldane's response to what we now call reproductive technologies. Squier explores the inherent contradiction and conflicts within the novel as Haldane, "awash in the in eugenicist ideas and aware of the potential [and danger] of modern science" (15), struggles with the scientific advances in reproduction. Haldane is most concerned with how the discourse of science can "facilitate social and political domination by disguising them in the garb of scientific neutrality" (15).
The other essay, "Imagining Reality: The Utopian Fiction of Katharine Burdekin" by Daphne Patai, discusses the anti-Facist writings of Burdekin. In her utopian (and dystopian) fiction Burdekin critiques the trivialization of women's concerns in socialism and its turn to glorifying women only in motherhood (17). Furthermore, Burdekin explores in her works the "compartmentalization of gender, ethnicity, and nationality" (17)--totalizing impulses which lead to fascism. Patai specifically explores the ways in which Burdekin's texts address the cult of masculinity expressed in fascism's rise during the 1930s (17). Ultimately, Patai argues that through her fiction Burdekin offers a political critique of our "cultural adherence to the discourse and practice of domination" (17).

Jones, Libby F. and Sarah Webster Goodwin, eds. Feminism, Utopia, and Narrative. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990.
This text does not deal specifically with SF Utopian fiction per se. However, this text is focused on creating a dialogue of ideas rather than organizing the discussion according to the date of the works being discussed. This tactic is useful because it helps a reader to better understand prevalent utopian discourses. In addition, there are frequent references to feminist SF Utopia writers which allow a reader to establish a substantial groundwork from which to build a better understanding of the implications in SF Utopian fiction.

King, Betty. Women of the Future: The Female Main Character in Science Fiction. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1984.
This text is more of a resource tool than anything else. It is a chronologically-oriented detailed synopsis of major female characters in SF works. Beginning with an historical perspective from 1818 to 1929, King moves into a decade-by-decade breakdown of female protagonists in SF texts written by both women and men. While she uses no specific theory, she is presenting a gradual development of the female character from a one-dimensional prop to a fully-developed character.
King states that the purpose of her text is to "provide readers of SF with a self-selection guide in their search for works with women main characters (usually protagonists) and to offer teachers a pedagogical tool for women's studies, SF studies, or other types of classes in which the inclusion of women main characters in SF is desirable" (xv). She also argues that this text is in no way trying to draw any conclusions about women SF characters (xvi). However, we must wonder why she has added appendices that concern issues of women as slaves in Erotic SF and Amazon women in SF if she was not meaning to present some problems and solutions to the dilemma of female SF characters still operating within the hegemony of patriarchal discourse.

Lefanu, Sarah. In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction. London: The Women's Press, 1988.
A superb introduction for those without exposure to the intersection of feminism and SF. Lefanu offers the text as an exploration of "whether science fiction, despite its preponderantly male bias, offers a freedom to women writers, in terms of style as well as content" (2). Almost ten years after this text's publication, we know this to be true. Nevertheless, Lefanu's work charts important issues in feminist science fiction within the specific framework of feminist politics and SF. In addition she explores concepts of women's writing within the genre, and specifically focuses on the ways in which women create new world for theorizing (specifically utopias and dystopias). While this text might be somewhat dated, it is still a useful tool in an analysis of feminist SF due to its accessible structure and prose.

Palumbo, Donald, ed. Erotic Universe: Sexuality and Fantastic Literature. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Palumbo's collection of essays does not specifically concern feminist theory per se. His project is to "chart the course" of recurring themes and patterns, significant motifs, and theories of sexuality. However, there is a section specifically devoted to feminist theorizing of sexuality in the fantastic (here translate fantastic to Utopian and SF). Familiar feminist SF writers, such as Le Guin, Russ, and Piercy are discussed within this framework.
This text is valuable not only for its feminist application, though. Instead, this text moves into the realms of Queer theory as it discusses the sexualities of androgyny and homosexuality. Questions of gender and sexuality are raised in the SF contexts of "sex-shifting, . . . alien sexuality, high-tech sexuality, utopian and dystopian sexuality" (xvi) . Palumbo's companion piece, Eros in the Mind's Eye, further explores the discourse of sexualities in SF and Fantasy.

Pearson, Jacqueline. "Where No Man has Gone Before: Sexual Politics and Women's Science Fiction." Science Fiction, Social Conflict and War. Ed. by Philip John Davies. New York: Manchester University Press, 1990. 8-25.
Pearson gives numerous examples that demonstrate how "women writers have found the tropes of science fiction particularly useful for dealing with the politics of gender" (8). Pointing out early separatists feminist utopian texts, such as Mary E. Bradley Lane's Mizora (1880-81), and beginning a detailed history of female SF authors (beginning with 1930's pulp SF writer C. L. Moore) and their use of the genre, Pearson outlines what she considers some of the recurring themes of feminism: "the battle of the sexes as 'two groups with opposite interests' [and] the inequities encoded in language" (9).
Throughout the article Pearson uses various examples to demonstrate how authors have used "science fiction texts . . . as [a] heuristic for feminist theory" (9). She discusses how authors such as Joanna Russ have manipulated the metaphor of gender difference in The Female Man. In addition, she explores how women's language (with a strong connection to Irigaray) can be explored in feminist SF because "only science fiction can imagine new, non-oppressive, female languages which explicitly rectify some of the omissions of the linguistics of the dominant group" (16). Here Pearson offers the use of the common-gender pronoun of "kin" in Dorothy Bryant's The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You, "na" in June Arnold's The Cook and the Carpenter, and "per" in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (16).
Finally, Pearson explores the themes of "woman as alien" and "images of transsexuality" and how they play within the larger discussion of "whether gender differences are innate or socially constructed" (17). Within this discussion she explores notions of transsexuality in SF (20) to demonstrate how "gender inequality is shown to be manifestly absurd" (21). Ultimately, Pearson sees SF as a method for women writers to "radically revise the tropes of a male-dominate literary form" (23) as it allows feminist writers to conduct discourse between theory and writing, making SF one of the more "politically intelligent modes in popular fiction today" (23).

Penley, Constance, Elisabeth Lyon, Lynn Spigel, and Janet Bergstrom, eds. Close Encounters: Film, Feminism, and Science Fiction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991.
An expanded collection from a special Fall 1986 issue of Camera Obscura entitled, "Science Fiction and Sexual Difference," these essays address the "ways in which conventional notions of sexual difference are displaced or reworked by science fiction film" (vii). While in most SF film the difference has been between human and nonhuman, these essays fracture this limiting binary into multiple sites of difference. Using feminism, the politics of race, sexual orientation, and the changing structure of family and workplace dynamics, the critics delve into various texts, from Alien, to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, to My Favorite Martian, to Star Trek. In many cases, using Haraway's metaphor of the cyborg feminist, these essays explore how it becomes impossible to "tell the difference" between gender, sexuality, and humanity. While most SF criticism remains within the bounds of sociology or literary criticism, in these essays feminist media theorists rework semiology, psychoanalysis, and audience studies to lend a new critical lens to the feminist SF dialogue.

Roberts, Robin. A New Species: Gender and Science in Science Fiction. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Roberts asserts that the purpose of her text is to "analyze the history of the female alien from her brief appearance in Frankenstein to her triumphant rule in contemporary feminist science fiction" (1). While this claim may sound quite impossible, Roberts pulls it off. While previous texts attempting to plot histories have focused on selected feminist theory to selected feminist texts, feminist Utopias, or a small sampling of feminist SF authors, Roberts claim to "provide the first overview of science fiction from a feminist perspective" (1) is well-founded.
Centering on the female as alien, Roberts structures the book in a roughly chronological fashion, yet relies more on an association of ideas to structure the inter-relations between SF texts. Roberts relies heavily on Donna Haraway, but also uses the insights of poststructuralists like Lyotard and connects postmodernism and feminism. Luce Irigaray, Sandra Harding, and others provide a solid postmodern framework for Roberts.
What strengthens this text is that by using the theme of "female as alien" Roberts is able to examine not only written texts, but SF visualizations of women in the pulp SF magazine of the 1940s and 1950s. In addition, Roberts devotes a chapter to race and explores the move from feminist utopias and their primary binary split between gender to more complex (read postmodern) SF. Here she uses Doris Lessing's epic series "Canopus in Argos." Finally, Roberts devotes her final chapter to how feminist SF and postmodernism can conduct discourses through the use of tools such as deconstruction. Ultimately, Roberts asserts that feminist SF's "long history may provide clues to how feminism itself can continue" (2).

Russ, Joanna. To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1995.
The first volume of collected essays by Russ. Encompassing a span of twenty five years, these selected essays cover topics relevant to feminism, SF and women's studies . Russ discusses subjects concerning science, technology, culture, politics, and, of course, feminism and SF. This collection only strengthens Russ's presence in SF as a writer and as a critic.

Science Fiction Studies. Montreal. Spring 1971-Present.
This now monthly academic journal contains various articles concerning SF and feminism. Definitely a useful tool for feminist SF studies.

Staicar, Tom, ed. The Feminine Eye: Science Fiction and the Women Who Write It. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1982.
Though somewhat dated in its approach to feminism, this text is still a useful source for exploring the ways in which women SF writers explore the "sex roles and attitudes prevalent in societies of the future" (vii). More importantly, the essays in this text all focus on feminist issues played out in worlds different from our own in order to explore the implications of matriarchal societies, group marriages, child rearing, and other sex roles without the patriarchal cultural baggage of our world.

Weedman, Jane B., ed. Women Worldwalkers: New Dimensions of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Lubbock: Texas Tech Press, 1985.
This collections of essays is from "The Sixteenth Annual Comparative Literature Symposium" at Texas Tech University, which focused on the role of women in SF and Fantasy as writers, protagonists, and critics. This collection is interesting because it takes place at the cusp of a focused feminist theorizing and writing in these genres' history, as well as marks the movement into a more widespread academic circle.

Wolmark, Jenny. Aliens and Others: Science Fiction, Feminism, and Postmodernism. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994.
In this text, Wolmark studies the affinities among SF, feminism, and postmodernism. She argues that in recent years SF has "increasingly identified with such postmodern concerns as the instability of social and cultural categories, the erosion of confidence in historical narratives and a seemingly concomitant inability to imagine the future" (1). Wolmark cogently discusses how postmodern and feminist theories can not only work together but also effectively argues for SF as a primary vehicle for this dialogue. This text, then, is a "study of the ways in which feminist science fiction addresses questions of subjectivity, identity and difference, and challenges the dual definition of the 'alien' as other and of the other as always being alien" (2). What makes this study most useful is its move into a feminist examination of the cyberpunk aesthetic and how its notions of fragmented identity are best theorized not only through a postmodern framework but through feminism as well.