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From: dls@hocse.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Heinlein and FRIDAY
Message-ID: <149@hocse.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Mar-84 13:53:12 EST
Article-I.D.: hocse.149
Posted: Tue Mar  6 13:53:12 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Mar-84 08:33:09 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 43

Once again, my off-net friend has something to say:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    >Throughout the book, Heinlein hammers away at the theme that Friday did
    >not consider herself to be a human being and had a far different
    >attitude toward sex from that of "real" women.

and

    >I don't think this is well taken.  For one thing, ordinary human psychology
    >doesn't necessarily extrapolate to Friday. For example, it's clear that the
    >rape was not (as such) traumatic to her; with her mind control discipline,
    >she could and did simply turn it off.  In that long scene of which the rape
    >was part, she dispassionately recounts the several responses she considered
    >making to the rape.


So why does everyone hold up Friday as an example of how well Heinlein portrays
a strong female (human) character?  Either she's a valid example of a strong
female character (which implies some degree of believability in her portrayal
as a HUMAN female), or she's not considered HUMAN (which implies that she can't
be held up as a valid example of a strong female character).

You can't have it both ways.

It seems like the whole point of the
novel was that Friday was as human as any 'normal' human.  

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My two cents worth:

Friday was supposed to be the best any human could be, but still human.
Her reaction while being raped is not the issue; I can believe that
she could "turn it off." You could find real people who could do the
same in worse circumstances.

The problem is with her falling for the rapist AP. The suggestion is
not that this is impossible, just that it was tossed off with too
little justification or development, and is fundamentally unlikly
to boot.