If you're brave enough to fly

Most of you reading this should know by now that I am a huge fan of the Galactic Suburbia podcast.

As an aside, if you’ve never listened to the podcast, please go and do so.  Alisa, Alex and Tansy have opened my eyes to so much.  And once you’ve seen it, you’ll never not see it.

The most recent episode of Galactic Suburbia was the Joanna Russ spoilerific episode (link goes to the shownotes on Tansy’s blog), in which Russ’ works The Female Man, How to Suppress Women’s Writing and the short story When it Changed were discussed.  I read all three prior to listening to the podcast (as I try to do with most podcasts I listen to, which always keeps my reading list full!) and had a strong reaction to all of them.

I still can’t summarise how How to Suppress Women’s Writing made me feel.  Angry? Sad?  Proud of the female writers who wrote and continued to write in a culture of bias?  Perhaps there will be a post from me in the future about it once I’ve reread it and can untangle some of the thoughts I have.

I can, however, write some thoughts about The Female Man.  I was going to email Galactic Suburbia this feedback, but I figured I’d do a blog post instead.

First things first: a found the book a somewhat difficult read.  I suspect that rereading will be easier, as I have the shape of all the women defined in my mind now.  It certainly isn’t an impossible read, but it’s a book that forces you to concentrate on what you’re reading.  Concentration isn’t always something I have huge amounts of, thanks to an energetic toddler.

There are two main reactions I had to the book, and interestingly, each of these reactions was mirrored by one of the Galactic Suburbanites.  I’m going to insert a handy dandy cut here, for mild spoilers about the book.  So read on at your own peril, if you’re horrified by spoilers in any form.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.