Dr. J. Roth
Women’s Studies 2310 – Fall 2014
Aliens and Motherships:
Science Fiction, Gender and Social Change
Classes: Tues / Thurs 10:00 – 11:30, ATAC 2021
Dr. Jenny Roth
Office: RB-2014
ph: 766-7116
jroth@lakeheadu.ca
Office hours: Tuesdays 12:00 – 1:00, or by appointment (contact Admin Assistant)
Women’s Studies office:
Ms. Melissa Hrabok, Administrative Assistant
melissa.hrabok@lakeheadu.ca
Office: RB-2012
Ph: 343-8625
Office Hours: Mon. to Fri. 8:30 – 12:00
WELCOME to Women’s Studies 2310, Aliens & Motherships: Science Fiction, Gender
& Social Change. This interdisciplinary examination of inequality through science
fiction interrogates short stories, film and television to understand how science fiction as
a genre opens up possibilities to theorize equality at particular moments in time and how
it resists the gendered, racialized, heteronormative, classist, ableist, etc. hegemony that
shapes women’s and men’s lives. Students will develop critical analysis skills and
training in identifying, naming and revealing structural violence in order to develop
visions for social change. Students will also gain public speaking and writing skills.
TEXTS
The following text is required and is on sale at the Bookstore.
Larbalestier, Justine (ed.). Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth
Century. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2006.
There is also a Desire2Learn site for this course, where you will find Lecture Outlines to
help with note-taking, as well as other course-related items.
ASSIGNMENTS & GRADING (details below)
Participation, in class
Exploring Issues, sign-up sheet
Media Analysis OR Short Story, 14 Oct 14
Future Visions, 25 Nov 14
10%
30%
30%
30%
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All assignments will be formatted in Times New Roman, 12 pt font, double-spaced, with
1-inch margins. Assignments not meeting these format requirements will have 5%
deducted from the grade.
All assignments will be handed in, in hard copy, at the beginning of the class in which
they are due. Any assignment not handed in at the start of class will garner a day’s late
penalty. Assignments will be deducted 5% for each day late, including Saturdays and
Sundays. Assignments over 7 days late will not be accepted without appropriate
documentation. Emailed, faxed, or other forms of assignment will not be accepted. Please
do not assume that handing your assignment in at the Women’s Studies office means that
I have received it. Make sure I have your assignment by the due date and time to avoid
late penalties.
Participation 10%
Participation rubric (with thanks to Allegheny College)
 A grade: You regularly initiate discussion. You come to class thoroughly familiar
with the required reading(s) and are prepared to raise questions, open discussion,
identify topics of interest, and to actively engage other students in the discussion.
Obviously, this does not mean monopolizing the discussion, shutting others down
when they contribute, or talking for its own sake. You show respect for topic
facilitation, your peers, and clear knowledge about the weeks' reading topics.
 B grade: You participate regularly and productively. You come to class having
done the readings, and willing to engage. You differ from an A-grade discussant
in that the latter do not rely on the instructor's questions to set the agenda for
discussion.
 C grade: You participate on a regular basis, though less frequently than a B-grade
student. C-grade discussants' participation may indicate that they are not wellprepared for class, or have not given thought to the assigned materials (e.g.: you
speak of personal experience without making connections with the weeks'
readings).
 D grade: You contribute only infrequently to the discussion. D-grade discussants'
contributions indicate that they are not well prepared for class, or have not given
thought to the assigned materials.
 F grade: You do not contribute to class discussion OR your participation
throughout the term indicates that you have not done the readings or given
thought to the topics. Participation is impossible if you are absent. 50% or more
absences from the course will mandate an F-grade for participation, inclusive of
the written 1-2 paragraph response.
Exploring Issues 30% (15% x 2), sign-up sheet
2 pages each, excluding title page or works cited.
One of science fiction’s greatest strengths, as a genre, is its ability to reveal real-world
problems by presenting them in different contexts and settings. For the week’s story, or
for the second week of the film Aliens, identify a gender, gender-relations or genderconstruction issue that the author explores which interests you. Explain why it interests
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you, and then analyze how the author presents the issue and how their presentation uses
sf to question, critique, rewrite or challenge the problem by doing a close reading of the
text / film. Note particular thematic elements, phrasing, word use / repetition, tone, or
setting, etc. as you discuss the author’s presentation.
Media Analysis OR Short Story (30%)
Due October 14, 2014, in class
Media Analysis (not Aliens or Fiend Without a Face)
1300-1500 words (4-5 pages)
Watch your favourite or most-hated SF, or one that you’ve always wanted or dreaded to
see. If you choose a television program (e.g. Dr. Who, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica,
etc.) analyze only one episode of that program for the purposes of this paper. I will
expect to see between 3-5 academic sources used to support your arguments.
Explore the film or television episode using the recurring course theme that women and
other marginalized groups are always-already alien/machine/not-human. Consider in your
analysis how human-ness, gender, sex, sexuality, and ‘Otherness’ are represented. Does
the film or television program support or critique the status quo, or do both? And, in
conclusion, so what: Why might it be important to notice how popular media represents
‘Otherness’, gender, sex, sexuality, and why might SF offer opportunities that other
genres do not to explore these social categories?
Short Story
1300-1500 words (4-5 pages), including explanation page
Write your own (very) short feminist sci fi story. You may engage with whichever
current social issues you wish, so long as you do so from a feminist perspective in the
science fiction genre. Along with your story, include a one-page, academic write-up to
explain how your story falls within the themes of the course. I will expect to see between
3-5 academic sources referenced in your explanation. The explanation page is included in
the overall word count.
Future Visions (30%)
Due by November 25, 2014, in Class
1300-1500 words (4-5 pages)
“What good is science fiction’s thinking about the present, the future, and the
past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of
thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of
science and technology, or social organization and political direction?”
- Octavia Butler
Bearing Butler’s quote in mind, of all the future visions we have seen and read this term,
which one made the most impact on you and why? How do you see your choice
connecting with the issues facing people and/or the world today (with careful thought to
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how ‘humanity’ is to be defined)? What solutions or outcomes does the reading or film
present that you find to be particularly hopeful, or enticingly/frighteningly apocalyptic?
How do you think the world might get to that future? How might that future be thwarted?
Are we already there in some ways?
Notes on Plagiarism / Academic Dishonesty
Keep a printout or photocopy of all your work, as well as any research notes and drafts
that produce assignments.
“Plagiarism” includes:
1. Plagiarism of ideas occurs where an idea of an author or speaker is incorporated
into the body of an assignment as though it were the writer's own idea, no credit is
given the person through citation.
2. Plagiarism of words occurs when phrases, sentences, tables or illustrations of an
author or speaker are incorporated without citation.
3. Plagiarism of ideas and words occurs where words and an idea(s) of an author or
speaker are incorporated into the body of a written assignment as though they
were the writers' own words and ideas without citation.
The following rules shall govern the treatment of candidates who have been found guilty
of attempting to obtain academic credit dishonestly.
(a) The minimum penalty for a candidate found guilty of plagiarism, or of cheating on
any part of a course will be a zero for the work concerned.
(b) A candidate found guilty of cheating on a formal examination or a test, or of serious
or repeated plagiarism, or of unofficially obtaining a copy of the examination paper
before the examination is scheduled to be written, will receive zero for the course and
may be expelled from the University.
A copy of the “Code of Student Behaviour and Disciplinary Procedures” including
sections on plagiarism and other forms of misconduct may be obtained from the
University's website, or from the Office of the Registrar.
Learning Needs
If you have needs regarding the format or the due dates for the readings or assignments,
you must make sure that I am informed. The appropriate form can be obtained from the
Student Success Centre.
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Class Expectations, alongside the Student Code of Conduct
You can expect from me that:
 I will provide you with feedback on rough drafts that I receive one week prior to
the due date, if you want to provide them;
 I will stick to the course outline;
 I will encourage your learning, and support you in an inclusive and intellectually
dynamic environment;
 I will hand back assignments two weeks after their due date;
 I will provide you with a mid-term participation estimate when I hand back your
short story or media analysis based on your work to that point in the course;
 I will be available during my posted office hours to discuss any aspect of the
course, and to answer more general questions you may have about the university
system or your program;
 I will check my work email during regular work hours (8:30 am – 4:30 pm), and
will respond to your email as soon as I can during those times;
 I will do my best to give you enough information to succeed in this course.
I will expect from you that:
 You will conduct yourself professionally;
 You will speak to me during office hours when you have questions about the
course, the materials, your assignments, or your program;
 You will be in the classroom, ready to begin at 10:00;
 You will respect social and cultural differences. All participants have the right to
hold, defend, and promote their opinion, but this right exists alongside regulations
that protect all individuals' right to education without discrimination or
harassment on the basis of gender, race, religion, class, sexual orientation, ability,
age, place of origin, etc.
Use of tech for purposes other than note-taking
Please feel free to use your technology as you will, so long as it doesn’t disturb those
around you. If your use of technology disturbs the classroom environment in any way,
including distracting me or your peers (i.e.: I notice you texting or other), you are in
breach of the Student Code of Conduct, and will lose all tech privileges in the classroom
for the duration of the course – no exceptions.
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Weekly Topics & Readings
Wk. 1 Sept. 9/11: Introduction to the Course
Readings: None this week, welcome!
Goals:
 Define “science fiction/sf” and genre
 Define “feminist science fiction/fsf” and its importance
 Understand some of the different movements in sf and fsf
 Understand how writing and FSF produce resistance to the world order
Part I. Storming the Gates: Early-C20
Wk. 2 Sept. 16/18: Gender and Ethnicity in the Inter-Galactic Era
Readings: Leslie Stone, “The Conquest of Gola”, 1931. 36-49
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 How does Stone explore the ideologies of gender, capitalism, militarism,
colonialism/Othering, and scientific rationalism?
 Does she challenge or collude with dominant ideologies?
 Did you sympathize with the narrator/Golans [Venuvians] or not? why?
 What devices or tactics does Stone use in order to make her political arguments?
 Why do you think the title doesn’t accurately describe the story?
 How does Stone use the ‘science’ of science fiction to support her arguments?
Part II. The personal is political: Mid-C20
Wk. 3 Sept. 23/25: Home Sweet Home
Readings: Alice Eleanor Jones, “Created He Them,” 1955. 67-75
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 What is mutated by the war?
 What are the effects of science on the future?
 What are the effects of on women, children, and men?
Wk. 4 Sept. 30 / Oct. 2: “horrifying” others
Film: Fiend Without a Face. Dir. Arthur Crabtree. Perf. Marshall Thompson, Terry
Kilburn, Kynaston Reeves. Producers Associates, Amalgamated Productions, 1958.
Some Viewing Strategies:
 How does Reynolds Long represent the Military-Industrial Complex
 How does the representation of Barbara fit with some of the course themes?
 How is mind/body dualism represented? What do you think Reynolds Long is
trying to convey with her representation?
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Wk. 5 Oct. 7 / 9: snips & snails & puppy dogs’ tails
Reading: Kate Wilhelm, “No Light in the Window,” 1963. 97-106
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 How does Wilhelm represent femininity and masculinity?
 In what ways does she challenge biological determinism (the ideology that men
and women ‘are’ a particular way because of our biologies)?
 In what ways does she reveal that gender is constructed?
 What, for you, were the effects of the plot twist in this story?
Part III. The New Movement: Civil Rights, Feminism, and Social Change
Wk. 6 Oct. 14/16: Colonization & Gender
***MEDIA ANALYSIS OR SHORT STORY ASSIGNMENT DUE on the 14th***
Reading: James Tiptree Jr., “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side,”
1972. 160-167.
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 How does Tiptree describe Earth’s interstellar role / position? How is the
political/economic connected to the personal?
 In what ways do Earthlings become dehumanized / commodified in the new
order?
 Where do humans stand in the new system? What power structures do they
internalize / reproduce in the new system? What clashes are evident between the
‘old’ Earth systems of power and the new interstellar systems? How does Tiptree
thus explore the processes of colonization?
 What happens to masculinities and femininities in the story?
Wk. 7 Oct. 21/23: War & Gender
Reading: Lisa Tuttle, “Wives,” 1976. 190-198.
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 In what ways is Tuttle’s story post-colonial (decentres colonial power and
critiques colonization)?
 How does Tuttle explore the act of naming? Why do you think she treats naming
as she does?
 How does Tuttle’s illustration of the housewife connect to feminist arguments
about the domestication of women?
 How does Tuttle illustrate the effects of powerful and violent masculinity?
 How does Tuttle illustrate the internalization and reproduction of patriarchal
power?
 Why do you think the story ends the way it does?
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Part IV. Backlashing Into the Future: Late C20
Wk. 8-9 Oct. 28/30, Nov. 4/6: Monstrous Mothers - Race, Gender & Colonization
Film: Aliens. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn.
Twentieth Century Fox, 1986.
Some Viewing Strategies:
 What are some of the many ways the ‘monstrous feminine’ appears in Aliens?
How do the representations connect to psychoanalytic arguments about women’s
power / mother-self borders / abject mothers / etc.
 Film theorists find that women in action films are punished or contained for being
too active – do you find this to be true in Aliens? Why or why not?
 Do you see the backlash against feminism that increased in the 1980s in the film?
Do you see the film challenging the backlash?
 How is gender represented in the film? How do those representations intersect
with extant gender norms in the late twentieth-century?
 Who is ‘othered’ by their representation and how?
 How are the aliens represented? What connections can you make to the themes
we have discussed this term?
Wk. 10 Nov. 11/13: Pre-Futural Syndrome
Reading: Gwyneth Jones, “Balinese Dancer,” 1997. 305-325.
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 How does the story illustrate the internalization of a constructed binary sexgender system?
 For you, what are the effects of the realism Jones employs? Why do you think she
uses realism?
 What examples can you think of in today’s world that connect women to nature or
the earth and men to culture or ‘civilized progress’?
 Why do you think the dead campers appear in the story? What do you make of the
main characters’ response to them?
 Why is Anna’s discovery, and her book, such a problem?
 What’s up with Chuck? Why do you think he’s there?
Part V. Posthuman Possibilities
Wk. 11 Nov. 18/20: Non-Human Esc/apes
Readings:
Karen Joy Fowler, “What I Didn’t See,” 2002. 340-355.
Pat Murphy, “Rachel in Love,” 1987. 217-243.
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
Fowler:
 What does the narrator not see?
 Who are the aliens/Others in this story?
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
How does simian orientalism intersect with other themes we’ve discussed this
term?
 What do we not see… what happened to Beverly?
Murphy:
 What does her story argue the problem(s) are that humans face?
 What solutions does she explore?
 Do you think her vision is effective or ineffective?
 What questions or thoughts did her story raise for you?
Wk. 12 Nov. 25/27: Hope & Rebirth
***Future Visions Due Nov. 25th in class***
Reading: Octavia Butler, “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” 1987. 265-286.
Some Reading and Note-Making Strategies:
 How does Butler illustrate the social construction of categories of difference?
 What issues does she raise in her text about the effects of marginalization?
 How does she illustrate the institutionalization of difference?
 How does she reveal oppression?
 How is this short story, like Fowler’s, also a story about the feminist movement?
 In what ways does she offer visions of hope and rebirth?
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