Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site orca.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!orca!ariels
From: ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: what makes you feel feminine/masculine VS normal.
Message-ID: <1841@orca.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 14:53:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: orca.1841
Posted: Thu Oct 24 14:53:01 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 05:24:50 EDT
References: <248@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1944@reed.UUCP> <32@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Organization: sixes and sevens
Lines: 29

Celeste:
> In reading sci-fi books with female protagonists, I can usually tell if the
> author is female or male.  Does anyone else get this feeling?  Are you men
> on the network able to determine if an author is male or female by the way
> the male protagonists is protrayed?  I'm curious.
> What attributes are we picking up from these books?
> 
> For example, 3 science fiction books
> 	C.J. Cherryh  -  40000 in Gehenna
> 	F.M. Bussy  -  Rissa Kerguelen series
> 	Robert Heinlein - The Number of the Beast
> Each have a competent female protagonist.
> Heinlein's female is not real to me - instead she is obviously what HE
> would consider to be the perfect woman.
> C.J. Cherryh seems to capture the "feminine" feeling and relates it well.
> As I read it, I feel only a woman could know those feelings.
> F.M. Bussy - well I'm not sure here.  The woman is too "macho".  I think this 
> is a female author, but she seems to have dropped the "feminine" side of this
> woman.

F.M. Busby (not "Bussy") is distinctly male, as any young woman who 
meets up with him at a convention can tell you.  He does write
decent feminist fiction, though; "For a Daughter" in Amazons II for example.

Don't forget that there are women who *are* very macho, and who don't 
often show a feminine side.

Ariel (Hey, Buzz has got his lobster hat on again!) Shattan
..!tektronix!orca!ariels