Gender Roles In Neil Gaiman's Short Stories
Since its emergence into popular culture, “thought experiments” produced from the science fiction (SF) genre have utilized the authors’ imaginations to create unique worlds filled with “new symbols to manipulate, and new ways of manipulating them.” (Atteberry 149) Science fiction has allowed authors to now examine how advancing ideas and technology would integrate itself at the societal and individual level. Novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which creates the first ever male mother, has pioneered the way for SF writers to create a societies that are not bound to traditional practices. As a result, science fiction has developed new and innovative ways to examine and approach ideas like traditional gender roles. Gender, a socially constructed
…show more content…
However, Gaiman focuses more on the interaction between traditional genders in his story, emphasizing the social interaction of men and women in social settings, as well as traditional masculinity. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” focuses on two men, our narrator Enn, and his friend Vic. The two men are looking to go to a party at a friend of theirs, but end up at a party hosted by an alien species donning the disguise of human women. The men have a clear goal in going to the party, to pick up women. Already, Gaiman present a story that more closely adheres to traditionally constructed gender …show more content…
Both authors examine how socially constructed concepts of gender and sexuality have brought forth a society that actively resists a part of their culture that is strange and does not fall under existing stereotypes that have been deemed normal. The reactions by the dominating culture to the new culture are repeated in both authors’ works: the vehement disgust and rejection of the new culture (the Spacers, or women-impersonating aliens) by the dominant culture. They present their argument through the medium of science fiction, which as mentioned in the introduction, gives an author the opportunity to manipulate pre-existing concepts into a new and unique way without causing an uproar within society. Instead the individual reader has the right to determine if the ideas presented in works of science fiction are purely fantastical or have some merit in real
However, Gaiman focuses more on the interaction between traditional genders in his story, emphasizing the social interaction of men and women in social settings, as well as traditional masculinity. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” focuses on two men, our narrator Enn, and his friend Vic. The two men are looking to go to a party at a friend of theirs, but end up at a party hosted by an alien species donning the disguise of human women. The men have a clear goal in going to the party, to pick up women. Already, Gaiman present a story that more closely adheres to traditionally constructed gender …show more content…
Both authors examine how socially constructed concepts of gender and sexuality have brought forth a society that actively resists a part of their culture that is strange and does not fall under existing stereotypes that have been deemed normal. The reactions by the dominating culture to the new culture are repeated in both authors’ works: the vehement disgust and rejection of the new culture (the Spacers, or women-impersonating aliens) by the dominant culture. They present their argument through the medium of science fiction, which as mentioned in the introduction, gives an author the opportunity to manipulate pre-existing concepts into a new and unique way without causing an uproar within society. Instead the individual reader has the right to determine if the ideas presented in works of science fiction are purely fantastical or have some merit in real