Sex in science fiction

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Modern science fiction frequently involves themes of sex, gender and sexuality. This was not always so. During the 1930s and 40s "golden age" of science fiction sex was rarely if ever even mentioned, although there was certainly no lack of innuendo and suggestion. Even so, the pulps of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were not lacking in strong female characters.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction

During the Golden Age of Science Fiction, the stereotype of sci-fi pulp magazine covers was that of a woman in a brass bikini swooning in the clutches of a bug-eyed monster, while a spacesuited hero comes blasting his way to her rescue. Even a cursory examination of the covers of old pulps shows the stereotype to be very much mistaken. In a significant number of the covers, if not a majority, women are depicted in strong, positive roles. True, the women may be scantily clad, but there is no mistaking the fact they are very much in charge of the situation. Even the pulp magazine most associated with the typecast sexist cover, Planet Stories, featured more than its share of women depicted in strong roles. Ironically, given its leading place in the stereotype, many Planet Stories covers feature a male character being rescued from a monster by a ray gun-toting woman.

Within the golden age pulps, there was no lack of strong female characters. It is difficult to go through more than half a dozen magazines without finding at least one heroine; in some cases, a magazine might feature two or three stories with powerful female characters. There were even popular female series characters, such as Arthur K. Barnes' Gerry Carlyle, whose stories ran for many years.

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The "New Wave"

Still, sex rarely if ever raised its head until the New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s, which reflected its times by attempting to break earlier taboos about what could and could not be the subject of science fiction. The men's magazine Playboy published regular serious science fiction stories throughout this period, by both male and female authors, offering them significantly more scope than some other publications.

Two different themes emerged: one trying to explore the boundaries of what "sex" could mean in a world of altered humanity and reality, and another of exploring the position of women in science fiction and feminist issues in what had been traditionally a form of fiction written primarily by and for men.

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Notable works with sexual themes

Year Author Title Comments
1919 James Branch Cabell Jurgen Many sexual innuendos; was prosecuted for obscenity; (fantasy rather than science fiction)
1932 Aldous Huxley Brave New World Only promiscuity is socially acceptable
1949 George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four Sexuality is ruthlessly restricted by the State
1949 William Tenn Venus and the Seven Sexes Procreation on Venus requires seven sexes
1953 Theodore Sturgeon The World Well Lost Alien homosexuality
1960Philip José Farmer Strange Relations A collection of five stories about human/alien sexuality
1961 Robert A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land The Crèche, a form of group marriage
1961 Brian Aldiss The Primal Urge Emotion Register on forehead tells others when you experience sexual attraction
1962 Naomi Mitchison Memoirs of a Spacewoman Interspecies mating during shore leave; aliens that change their sex
1965Frank Herbert The Dune series Human breeding and eugenics planned over thousands of years
1966Samuel R. Delany Babel-17 Starship crews bonded by group sex; sexual relationships with the "discorparate" spirits of the dead
1966Robert A. Heinlein The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress Various forms of group marriage; professional host-mothers
1967 Harlan Ellison, ed. Dangerous Visions A collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories
1968 William Tenn The Seven Sexes A short story in which Humanity encounters an alien race with a seven sex life-cycle.
1969 Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five Main character kept naked with a porn star in an alien zoo
1969 Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness A planet of hermaphroditic androgynes
1970 Robert Silverberg Tower of Glass Graphic descriptions of anatomy
1970 Ira Levin This Perfect Day
1972 Thomas M. Disch 334 Flexible sexual relationships, but compulsory contraception; male pregnancy
1972 Isaac Asimov The Gods Themselves Aliens with 3 sexes; co-penetration
1972 Harlan Ellison, ed. Again, Dangerous Visions A sequel to "Dangerous Visions", a collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories
1973 Woody Allen Sleeper Orgasmatron orgasm booths
1974 Samuel R. Delany Dhalgren Sexual freedom and exploitation in all conceivable combinations
1975 Joanna Russ The Female Man Four parallel universes, one without men, one with male sex slaves
1975 Kilgore Trout Venus on the Half-Shell The adventures (including sexual) of a space wanderer
1976 Samuel R. Delany Triton (a.k.a. Trouble on Triton) Male bisexual with gender issues
1978 Gardner Dozois Strangers Human must be surgically changed to alien to mate with his alien lover
1979 John Varley Titan On board a spaceship to Saturn every man sleeps with every woman, except for two clone sisters who are in a monogamous incestuous lesbian relationship
1979 Diane Duane The Door Into Fire Gay sexual relationship; high fantasy
1980 Larry Niven The Ringworld Engineers Rishathra, sex between humanoid aliens of different species
1980+ Godard Ribera Le vagabond des limbes The eternal Eternauts live an eternal childhood or until they meet their true love and then choose their sex accordingly
1981+ Alejandro Jodorowsky Incal One character, Solune, is an androgynous messiah with immense psychic powers, customers at brothels can genetically engineer prostitutes to exact specifications
1982 Anne Carlisle, et al. Liquid Sky A comedic science fiction film in which space aliens land to feed off of endorphins released during orgasm
1983 Norman Spinrad The Void Captain's Tale Starship FTL drive powered by female orgasm
1984-86 Mike Resnick Tales of the Velvet Comet Four novels set on a spaceship bordello
1985 Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale Women are subjugated by men in a theocratic America; five classes of women, one only for procreation
1986 Theodore Sturgeon Godbody Religious sexuality
1986 Lois McMaster Bujold Ethan of Athos Reproductive scientist on a planet with no women
1987 Iain M. Banks The Culture novels Utopian galactic empire in which humans can change sex at will
1987-93Storm Constantine The various Wraeththu novels Male humans mutate into a race of hermaphrodites; science fantasy
1989 Spider Robinson Callahan's Lady A time-travelling madam runs a unique house of prostitution
1990 Ellen Datlow (editor) Alien Sex: 19 Tales Notable theme anthology
1992+ Alejandro Jodorowsky Metabarons A monastic order called the Shabda-Oud are trying to create an androgynous messiah; the fourth Metabaron, Aghora, is a transman
1993 David Brin Glory Season Sexual vs. asexual reproduction
1996 Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow A human priest loses his faith when he is mutilated and held as a prostitute on an alien planet
1998 James Alan Gardner Commitment Hour Children alternate between male and female every year until age 20, when they must choose
2003 M. Christian The Bachelor Machine Sex robots that accept credit cards, advanced implants and wearable computers for sex
2004 Carlos Atanes FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions Not only sex, but physical contact between human beings is forbidden.
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Other works

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Themes explored

Some of the themes explored include:

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Other sub-genres

A number of works of mainstream erotica, including the Gor novels by John Norman, have also used the science fiction format. There is now a separate sub-genre of science fiction erotica that aims to integrate the two genres: writers in this genre include Cecilia Tan, whose small press Circlet Press caters especially to adult science fiction fans.

Science fiction erotica is frequently associated with Lesbian science fiction or S/M (Sado/Masochism) Erotica.

Examples of science fiction erotica include:

In recent years there has been a growing BDSM awareness in the science fiction and fan community.

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Movies and TV Series

Numerous science fiction television series and science fiction films have used science fiction plots as an excuse to fit in gratuitous sexual or fetishistic content: one of the conventions of much filmed science fiction appears to be that the future will be peopled exclusively by attractive people wearing skin-tight clothing in shiny materials. Nevertheless, some science fiction-themed TV shows, such as Farscape, have been acclaimed for their handling of such themes. The series Lexx features sexual themes in almost every episode, one of the main characters of Firefly is a "companion" (upper-class prostitute), and Andromeda is imbued with the carefree sexual spirit that seems to characterize the spacefaring future (or, at least, screenwriters' hopes for it).

It is interesting to consider the varying treatment of sexuality among the sundry Star Trek series. James T. Kirk earned a pop-culture reputation for bedding countless green-skinned alien women portrayed in the soft lighting characteristic of 1970's romantic pulp. Star Trek: The Next Generation, usually regarded as a pinnacle of principled (i.e., less gratuitous) sci-fi TV, featured a risqué theme in episode #2 that involved sex between female officer Tasha Yar and the automaton Mr. Data. The focus on sexy females was ramped up in all of the subsequent series (with increasing obviousness) - notably Deep Space 9's Jadzia Dax, Voyager's Seven of Nine, and Enterprise's sultry T'Pol.

The re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica by contrast set out to portray sex in science fiction in a more realistic fashion. The gratuity and fetishism of "hard" science fiction stories were done away with in favour of more natural expressions of sexuality both good and bad in nature. While initially ridiculed by some for its over-use of sex in certain areas, the producers were quick to point out that nothing happens on the show that hasn't been seen on shows like ER, NYPD Blue or Sex and the City multiple times already, only it was happening in space.

Canonical movie examples of influential female sex symbols include the 1967 movie Barbarella and, of course, Carrie Fisher's dabblings with a certain gold lamé bikini in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

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See also

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External links

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