Sex in science fiction
Encyclopedia
Sexuality
in science fiction
refers to the incorporation of sexual themes into science fiction
or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a character with an alternative sexuality as the protagonist, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience
that deviate from the conventional.
Science fiction and fantasy have traditionally been puritanical genres orientated toward a male readership; they can be more constrained than non-genre literature by their conventions of characterization and their effect on depictions of sexuality and gender. However, speculative fiction also gives the freedom to imagine societies different from real-life cultures, making SF an incisive tool to examine sexual bias and forcing the reader to reconsider his or her cultural assumptions.
Prior to the 1960s, explicit sexuality of any kind was not characteristic of genre
speculative fiction. In the 1960s, science fiction and fantasy began to reflect the changes prompted by the civil rights
movement and the emergence of a counterculture
. New wave and feminist science fiction
authors imagined cultures a variety of gender models or atypical sexual relationships, such as group marriage
s or homosexual single-gendered societies, are the norm, and depictions of sex acts and alternative sexualities became commonplace.
There also exists science fiction erotica, which explores sexuality and the presentation of themes aimed at inducing arousal
.
In speculative fiction, extrapolation allows writers to focus not on the way things are (or were), as non-genre literature does, but on the way things could be different. It provides science fiction with a quality that science fiction critic Darko Suvin
has called, "cognitive estrangement", the recognition that what we are reading is not the world as we know it, but a world whose change forces us to reconsider our own with an outsider's perspective. When the extrapolation involves sexuality or gender, it can force the reader to reconsider his or her heteronormative cultural assumptions; the freedom to imagine societies different from real-life cultures makes SF an incisive tool to examine sexual bias. In science fiction, such estranging features include technologies that significantly alter sex or reproduction. In fantasy, such features include figures, for example, mythological deities and heroic archetypes, who are not limited by preconceptions of human sexuality and gender, allowing them to be reinterpreted. SF has also depicted a plethora of alien methods of reproduction and sex.
Uranian Worlds, by Eric Garber and Lyn Paleo, is an authoritative guide to science fiction literature featuring gay, lesbian, transgender, and related themes. The book covers science fiction literature published before 1990 (2nd edition), providing a short review and commentary on each piece.
True History
, a Greek-language tale by Syrian writer Lucian
(A.D. 120-185), has been called the first ever science fiction story. The narrator is suddenly enveloped by a typhoon and swept up to the moon, which is inhabited by a society of men that are at war with the sun. After distinguishing himself in combat, the king gives the hero his son the prince in marriage. The all male society reproduces (male children only) by giving birth from the thigh or by growing a child from a plant produced by planting the left testicle in the moon's soil.
In other proto-SF works, sex itself, of any type, was equated with base desires or "beastliness", as in Gulliver's Travels
, which contrasts the animalistic and overtly sexual Yahoos with the reserved and intelligent Houyhnhnms. Early works that showed sexually open characters to be morally impure include the first lesbian vampire
story "Carmilla
" (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu
(collected in In a Glass Darkly
).
The 1915 utopian novel Herland
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
depicts the visit by three men to an all-female society in which women reproduce by parthenogenesis
.
era, explicit sexuality of any kind was not characteristic of genre science fiction and fantasy. The frank treatment of sexual topics of earlier literature was abandoned. For many years, the editors who controlled what was published, such as the famously prudish Kay Tarrant, assistant editor of Astounding Science Fiction, felt that they had to protect the adolescent male readership that they identified as their principal market. Although the covers of some 1930s pulp magazines showed scantily clad women menaced by tentacled aliens, the covers were often more lurid than the magazines' contents. Implied or disguised sexuality was as important as that which was openly revealed. As such, genre SF reflected the social mores of the day, paralleling common prejudices. This was particularly true of pulp fiction, more so than literary works of the time.
One of the earliest examples of genre science fiction that involves a challenging amount of unconventional sexual activity is the early science fiction novel Odd John
(1935), by Olaf Stapledon
. John is a mutant
with extraordinary mental abilities who will not allow himself to be bound by many of the rules imposed by the ordinary British society of his time. The novel strongly implies that he has consensual intercourse
with his mother and that he seduces an older boy who becomes devoted to him but also suffers from the affront that the relationship creates to his own morals. John eventually concludes that any sexual interaction with 'normal' humans is akin to bestiality.
and Theodore Sturgeon
were able to introduce more explicit sexuality into their work.
Sturgeon
, who wrote many stories during the Golden Age of Science Fiction
that emphasised the importance of love, regardless of the current social norms such as in The World Well Lost
, a classic tale involving alien homosexuality
, and Venus Plus X
, in which a contemporary man awakens in a futuristic place where the people are hermaphrodite
s.
Philip Jose Farmer wrote The Lovers (1953), arguably the first science fiction story to feature sex as a major theme and Strange Relations (1960), collection of five stories about human/alien sexual relations. In his novel Flesh
a hypermasculine antlered man ritually impregnates legions of virgins to counter declining male fertility.
Robert A. Heinlein
's time-travel short story All You Zombies... (1959) chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self before he underwent a sex change. He thus turns out to be the offspring of that union, with the paradoxical result that he is both his own mother and father.
In Poul Anderson
's 1959 novel Virgin Planet deals in a straightforward manner with homosexuality and polyamory on an exclusively female world.
Until the late 1960s, however, few other writers depicted alternative sexuality or revised gender roles, or openly investigated sexual questions.
," a movement more skeptical of technology, more liberated socially, and more interested in stylistic experimentation. New wave writers were more likely to claim an interest in "inner space" instead of outer space. They were less shy about explicit sexuality and more sympathetic to reconsiderations of gender roles and the social status of sexual minorities. Notable authors who wrote often wrote on sexual themes included Joanna Russ
, Thomas M. Disch
, John Varley
, James Tiptree Jr. and Samuel R. Delany
. Under the influence of New wave editors and authors such as Michael Moorcock
(editor of the influential New Worlds
) and Ursula K. Le Guin
, sympathetic depictions of alternative sexuality and gender multiplied in science fiction and fantasy, becoming commonplace.
In the 1972 novel The Gods Themselves
, Isaac Asimov
describes an alien race with three sexes, all of them involved in sexual reproduction. Sexual intercourse has to happen simultaneously, and they have other sexual and social norms of acceptable behavior. For example, one sex produces one form of sperm, other some kind of energy needed for reproduction, and the other bear and raise the offspring. In this same novel, the hazards and problems of sex in microgravity
are described, and while people born on the Moon are proficient at it, people from Earth are not. In 1973 he published a non-fiction essay called Sex in a Spaceship.
Feminist SF authors imagined cultures in which homo- and bisexuality and a variety of gender models is the norm. Joanna Russ
's The Female Man
(1975) and the award winning story When It Changed
, showing a female-only lesbian society that flourished without men, were enormously influential. Russ is largely responsible for introducing radical lesbian feminism into science fiction.
In his most famous science fiction novel entitled Dhalgren
(1975), Delany spots his large canvas with characters of a wide variety of sexualities. Once again, sex activity is not the focus of the novel although there are some of the first explicitly described scenes of gay sex in SF. Delany depicts, mostly with affection, characters with a wide variety of motivations and behaviours, not, it would seem, with the intent of a kind of covert advocacy but with the effect of revealing to the reader the fact that these kinds of people exist in the real world. Nebula
-winning short story "Aye, and Gomorrah
" posits the development of neutered human astronauts and then depicts the people who become sexually oriented toward them. By imagining a new gender and resultant sexual orientation, the story allows readers to reflect on the real world while maintaining an estranging distance. In later works, Delany blurs the line between science fiction and gay pornography. Delany faced censorship from book distribution companies for treatment of these topics.
In Time Enough for Love
by Robert A. Heinlein
(1973), the main character argues strongly for the future liberty of homosexual sex, and Stranger in a Strange Land
and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
both depict heterosexual group marriages and public nudity as desirable social norms. Ursula K. Le Guin
explores radically alternative forms of sexuality in The Left Hand of Darkness
(1969) and again in Coming of Age in Karhide (1995), which imagines the sexuality of an alien "human" species in which individuals are neither "male" nor "female" but undergo a monthly sexual cycle in which they randomly experience the activation of either male or female sexual organs and reproductive abilities, making them in some senses bisexual and in other sense androgynous or hermaphroditic. Le Guin has written thoughtful considerations of her own work in two essays, "Is Gender Necessary?" (1976) and "Is Gender Necessary? Redux" (1986) which respond to feminist and other criticism of "The Left Hand of Darkness
". In these essays, Le Guin makes it clear that the novel's assumption that Gethenians would automatically find a mate of the opposite sex to the one they were becoming produced an unintended heteronormativity
. Le Guin has subsequently written many stories that examine the possibilities SF allows for non-traditional sexuality, such as the sexual bonding between clones in "Nine Lives
" (collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters
) or the four-way marriages in "Mountain Ways."
The bisexual woman-writer, who used James Tiptree Jr. as her pen-name, explored the sexual impulse as her main theme; in her award-winning "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
" (collected in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
), he presents a "female only" society after the extinction of men from disease. The society lacks stereotypically "male" problems such as war, but is stagnant. The women reproduce via cloning and consider men to be comical. Other stories portrayed humans becoming sexually obsessed with aliens ("And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side"), or aliens being sexually abused. "The Girl Who Was Plugged In
" is an early precursor of cyberpunk
that shows a relationship via a cybernetically controlled body.
John Varley
, who also came to prominence in the 1970s, is another writer of importance to sexual themes. In his "Eight Worlds
" suite of stories (many collected in The John Varley Reader
) and novels, humanity has achieved the ability to change sex with at a whim. Homophobia is shown to initially inhibit uptake of this technology, as it engenders drastic changes in relationships, with bisexuality becoming the default mode for society. His Gaean trilogy
features lesbian protagonists.
Elizabeth Lynn
's Chronicles of Tornor novels (1979–80), the first of which won the World Fantasy Award, were among the first fantasy
novels to have gay relationships as an unremarkable part of the cultural background. Her SF novel A Different Light (1978) featured a same-sex relationship between two men, and inspired the name of the famous LGBT bookstore and chain, "A Different Light".
She also wrote novels depicting sado-masochism, unusually from the viewpoint of an unwilling victim.
Female characters in science fiction films such as Barbarella
(1968) continued to be often portrayed as simple sex kittens
Glory Season
by David Brin
is set on the planet Stratos, inhabited by a strain of human beings designed to conceive clones in winter, and normal children in summer. All clones are female, because males do not bear. Further, males and females have opposed seasons of sexual receptivity. Men are sexually receptive in summer, and women in winter. This scheme is said to be stable over evolutionary time because women gain an evolutionary advantage from self-cloning, while men only reproduce themselves in summer.
In the Mythopoeic award
winning Unicorn Mountain (1988), Michael Bishop
includes a gay male AIDS
patient among the carefully drawn central characters who must respond to an irruption of dying unicorns at their Colorado ranch. The death of the hedonistic gay culture and safe-sex campaign resulting from the AIDS epidemic are also explored, both literally and metaphorically.
Lois McMaster Bujold
also explores many different areas of sexuality in her Vorkosigan Saga
books, based on the availability of uterine replicators and significant genetic engineering
. These areas include an all male society (Ethan of Athos
1986) where combinations ranging from promiscuity to stable couples to monastic celibacy occur, a society of human beings modified to thrive in free fall with two lower arms instead of legs ("Quaddies" introduced in the prequel Falling Free
1988), a society that is politely regimented but aggressively egalitarian in regards to sexual mores up to and including stable genetic hermaphrodites ("Beta Colony" - first introduce in Shards of Honor
1986), and Barrayar itself, the background for most of the books, where the bisexuality of a notable percentage of the upper class Vor men is accepted (also introduced in Shards of Honor). The Cetagandan Empire
follows another angle on human sexuality, with three separate races, the Haut, the Ghem, and the neuter Ba, all being the results of heavy gene engineering on the part of the Star Creche which is run by the Dowager Empress, who is usually either the current Haut Emperor's mother or aunt. As with Athos, and to a lesser extent Beta Colony, sexuality is totally divorced from reproduction.
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
refers to the incorporation of sexual themes into science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a character with an alternative sexuality as the protagonist, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience
Human sexual behavior
Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...
that deviate from the conventional.
Science fiction and fantasy have traditionally been puritanical genres orientated toward a male readership; they can be more constrained than non-genre literature by their conventions of characterization and their effect on depictions of sexuality and gender. However, speculative fiction also gives the freedom to imagine societies different from real-life cultures, making SF an incisive tool to examine sexual bias and forcing the reader to reconsider his or her cultural assumptions.
Prior to the 1960s, explicit sexuality of any kind was not characteristic of genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
speculative fiction. In the 1960s, science fiction and fantasy began to reflect the changes prompted by the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement and the emergence of a counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
. New wave and feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction which tends to deal with women's roles in society. Feminist science fiction poses questions about social issues such as how society constructs gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender and the unequal political and...
authors imagined cultures a variety of gender models or atypical sexual relationships, such as group marriage
Group marriage
Group marriage, also known as multi-lateral marriage, is a form of polyamory in which more than two persons form a family unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of the group marriage, and all members of the marriage share parental...
s or homosexual single-gendered societies, are the norm, and depictions of sex acts and alternative sexualities became commonplace.
There also exists science fiction erotica, which explores sexuality and the presentation of themes aimed at inducing arousal
Sexual arousal
Sexual arousal, or sexual excitement, is the arousal of sexual desire, during or in anticipation of sexual activity. Things that precipitate human sexual arousal are called erotic stimuli, or colloquially known as turn-ons. There are many potential stimuli, both physical or mental, which can cause...
.
Critical analysis
As genres of popular literature, science fiction and fantasy often seem even more constrained than non-genre literature by their conventions of characterization and the effects that these conventions have on depictions of sexuality and gender. Science fiction in particular has traditionally been a puritanical genre oriented toward a male readership. Sex is often linked to disgust in SF and horror, and plots based on sexual relationships have mainly been avoided in genre fantasy narratives. On the other hand, science fiction and fantasy can also to give more freedom than do non-genre literatures to imagine alternatives to the default assumptions of heterosexuality and masculine superiority that permeate many cultures.In speculative fiction, extrapolation allows writers to focus not on the way things are (or were), as non-genre literature does, but on the way things could be different. It provides science fiction with a quality that science fiction critic Darko Suvin
Darko Suvin
Darko Ronald Suvin, FRSC is a Yugoslav-born academic and critic of Jewish descendance, who became a Professor at McGill University in Montreal — now emeritus...
has called, "cognitive estrangement", the recognition that what we are reading is not the world as we know it, but a world whose change forces us to reconsider our own with an outsider's perspective. When the extrapolation involves sexuality or gender, it can force the reader to reconsider his or her heteronormative cultural assumptions; the freedom to imagine societies different from real-life cultures makes SF an incisive tool to examine sexual bias. In science fiction, such estranging features include technologies that significantly alter sex or reproduction. In fantasy, such features include figures, for example, mythological deities and heroic archetypes, who are not limited by preconceptions of human sexuality and gender, allowing them to be reinterpreted. SF has also depicted a plethora of alien methods of reproduction and sex.
Uranian Worlds, by Eric Garber and Lyn Paleo, is an authoritative guide to science fiction literature featuring gay, lesbian, transgender, and related themes. The book covers science fiction literature published before 1990 (2nd edition), providing a short review and commentary on each piece.
Themes explored
Some of the themes explored include:- Sex with aliensExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, machines and robotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s - Reproductive technologyReproductive technologyReproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology, contraception and others.-Assisted reproductive technology:...
including cloningCloningCloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
, artificial wombs, parthenogenesisParthenogenesisParthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization by a male...
, and genetic engineeringGenetic engineeringGenetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest... - Sexual equality of men and women
- Male- and female-dominated societies, including single-gender worldsSingle-gender worldsA relatively common motif in speculative fiction is the existence of single gender worlds or single-sex societies. These fictional societies have long been one of the primary ways to explore implications of gender and gender-differences in science fiction and fantasy...
- PolyamoryPolyamoryPolyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved....
- Changing gender roles
- HomosexualityHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and bisexualityBisexualityBisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the... - AndrogynyAndrogynyAndrogyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
and sex changeSex changeSex change is a term often used for gender reassignment therapy, that is, all medical procedures transgendered people can have, or specifically to sexual reassignment surgery, which usually refers to genitalia surgery only...
s - Sex in virtual realityVirtual realityVirtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
- Other advances in technology for sexual pleasure such as teledildonicsTeledildonicsTeledildonics are electronic sex toys that can be controlled by a computer to reach orgasm. Promoters of these devices have claimed since the 1980s they are the "next big thing" in cybersex technology...
- AsexualityAsexualityAsexuality , in its broadest sense, is the lack of sexual attraction and, in some cases, the lack of interest in sex. Sometimes, it is considered a lack of a sexual orientation...
- Male pregnancyMale pregnancyMale pregnancy refers to the incubation of one or more embryos or fetuses by male members of any species. In nearly all heterogamous animal species, offspring are ordinarily carried by the female until birth, but in fish of the Syngnathidae family , males perform this function...
- Sexual taboos and morality
- Sex in zero gravitySex in spaceSex in space refers to sexual activity in the weightlessness and/or extreme environments of outer space. Usually only human sexual activity is considered...
- Birth controlBirth controlBirth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
and other, more radical measures to prevent overpopulation
Proto SF
True History
True History or True Story is a travel tale by the Greek-speaking Syrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the 2nd century, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that...
, a Greek-language tale by Syrian writer Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
(A.D. 120-185), has been called the first ever science fiction story. The narrator is suddenly enveloped by a typhoon and swept up to the moon, which is inhabited by a society of men that are at war with the sun. After distinguishing himself in combat, the king gives the hero his son the prince in marriage. The all male society reproduces (male children only) by giving birth from the thigh or by growing a child from a plant produced by planting the left testicle in the moon's soil.
In other proto-SF works, sex itself, of any type, was equated with base desires or "beastliness", as in Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
, which contrasts the animalistic and overtly sexual Yahoos with the reserved and intelligent Houyhnhnms. Early works that showed sexually open characters to be morally impure include the first lesbian vampire
Lesbian vampire
Lesbian vampirism is a trope in 20th century exploitation film that has its roots in Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's novella Carmilla about the predatory love of a female vampire for a young woman :...
story "Carmilla
Carmilla
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla...
" (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu
Sheridan Le Fanu
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era....
(collected in In a Glass Darkly
In a Glass Darkly
In a Glass Darkly is a collection of five short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1872, the year before his death. The second and third are revised versions of previously published stories, and the fourth and fifth are long enough to be called novellas.The title is taken from 1...
).
The 1915 utopian novel Herland
Herland (novel)
Herland is a utopian novel from 1915, written by feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The book describes an isolated society composed entirely of women who reproduce via parthenogenesis . The result is an ideal social order, free of war, conflict and domination...
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
depicts the visit by three men to an all-female society in which women reproduce by parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization by a male...
.
The pulp era (1920-30s)
During pulpPulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
era, explicit sexuality of any kind was not characteristic of genre science fiction and fantasy. The frank treatment of sexual topics of earlier literature was abandoned. For many years, the editors who controlled what was published, such as the famously prudish Kay Tarrant, assistant editor of Astounding Science Fiction, felt that they had to protect the adolescent male readership that they identified as their principal market. Although the covers of some 1930s pulp magazines showed scantily clad women menaced by tentacled aliens, the covers were often more lurid than the magazines' contents. Implied or disguised sexuality was as important as that which was openly revealed. As such, genre SF reflected the social mores of the day, paralleling common prejudices. This was particularly true of pulp fiction, more so than literary works of the time.
One of the earliest examples of genre science fiction that involves a challenging amount of unconventional sexual activity is the early science fiction novel Odd John
Odd John
Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest is a 1935 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon. The novel explores the theme of the Übermensch in the character of John Wainwright, whose supernormal human mentality inevitably leads to conflict with normal human society and to the...
(1935), by Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
. John is a mutant
Mutant
In biology and especially genetics, a mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character, arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not...
with extraordinary mental abilities who will not allow himself to be bound by many of the rules imposed by the ordinary British society of his time. The novel strongly implies that he has consensual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with his mother and that he seduces an older boy who becomes devoted to him but also suffers from the affront that the relationship creates to his own morals. John eventually concludes that any sexual interaction with 'normal' humans is akin to bestiality.
The Golden Age (1940-50s)
As the readership for science fiction and fantasy began to age in the 1950s, however, writers like Philip Jose FarmerPhilip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
and Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
were able to introduce more explicit sexuality into their work.
Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
, who wrote many stories during the Golden Age of Science Fiction
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...
that emphasised the importance of love, regardless of the current social norms such as in The World Well Lost
The World Well Lost
"The World Well Lost" is a science-fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon, first published in the June 1953 issue of Universe. It has been reprinted several times, for instance in Sturgeon's collections E Pluribus Unicorn, Starshine, and A Saucer of Loneliness...
, a classic tale involving alien homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, and Venus Plus X
Venus Plus X
Venus Plus X is a science fiction novel written by Theodore Sturgeon, published in 1960. David Pringle included it in his book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels....
, in which a contemporary man awakens in a futuristic place where the people are hermaphrodite
Hermaphrodite
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...
s.
Philip Jose Farmer wrote The Lovers (1953), arguably the first science fiction story to feature sex as a major theme and Strange Relations (1960), collection of five stories about human/alien sexual relations. In his novel Flesh
Flesh (novel)
Flesh is an American science fiction novel written by Philip José Farmer. Originally released in 1960, it was Farmer's second novel-length publication, after The Green Odyssey. Flesh features many sexual themes, as is typical of Farmer's earliest work.-Overview:In Flesh, Peter Stagg and a group of...
a hypermasculine antlered man ritually impregnates legions of virgins to counter declining male fertility.
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's time-travel short story All You Zombies... (1959) chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self before he underwent a sex change. He thus turns out to be the offspring of that union, with the paradoxical result that he is both his own mother and father.
In Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
's 1959 novel Virgin Planet deals in a straightforward manner with homosexuality and polyamory on an exclusively female world.
Until the late 1960s, however, few other writers depicted alternative sexuality or revised gender roles, or openly investigated sexual questions.
The New Wave era (1960-70s)
By the late 1960s, science fiction and fantasy began to reflect the changes prompted by the civil rights movement and the emergence of a counterculture. Within the genres, these changes were incorporated into a movement called "the New WaveNew Wave (science fiction)
New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...
," a movement more skeptical of technology, more liberated socially, and more interested in stylistic experimentation. New wave writers were more likely to claim an interest in "inner space" instead of outer space. They were less shy about explicit sexuality and more sympathetic to reconsiderations of gender roles and the social status of sexual minorities. Notable authors who wrote often wrote on sexual themes included Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny...
, Thomas M. Disch
Thomas M. Disch
Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W...
, John Varley
John Varley (author)
John Herbert Varley is an American science fiction author.-Biography:Varley grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, and graduated from Nederland High School. He went to Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship because, of the schools that he could afford, it...
, James Tiptree Jr. and Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
. Under the influence of New wave editors and authors such as Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
(editor of the influential New Worlds
New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
) and Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, sympathetic depictions of alternative sexuality and gender multiplied in science fiction and fantasy, becoming commonplace.
In the 1972 novel The Gods Themselves
The Gods Themselves
The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973....
, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
describes an alien race with three sexes, all of them involved in sexual reproduction. Sexual intercourse has to happen simultaneously, and they have other sexual and social norms of acceptable behavior. For example, one sex produces one form of sperm, other some kind of energy needed for reproduction, and the other bear and raise the offspring. In this same novel, the hazards and problems of sex in microgravity
Sex in space
Sex in space refers to sexual activity in the weightlessness and/or extreme environments of outer space. Usually only human sexual activity is considered...
are described, and while people born on the Moon are proficient at it, people from Earth are not. In 1973 he published a non-fiction essay called Sex in a Spaceship.
Feminist SF authors imagined cultures in which homo- and bisexuality and a variety of gender models is the norm. Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny...
's The Female Man
The Female Man
The Female Man is a feminist science fiction novel written by Joanna Russ. It was originally written in 1970 and first published in 1975. Russ was an avid feminist and challenged sexist views during the 1970s with her novels, short stories, and nonfiction works...
(1975) and the award winning story When It Changed
When It Changed
"When It Changed" is a science fiction short story by Joanna Russ. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story 1973, and won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1972. It was included in Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions....
, showing a female-only lesbian society that flourished without men, were enormously influential. Russ is largely responsible for introducing radical lesbian feminism into science fiction.
In his most famous science fiction novel entitled Dhalgren
Dhalgren
Dhalgren is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. The story begins with a cryptic passage:to wound the autumnal city.So howled out for the world to give him a name.The in-dark answered with wind....
(1975), Delany spots his large canvas with characters of a wide variety of sexualities. Once again, sex activity is not the focus of the novel although there are some of the first explicitly described scenes of gay sex in SF. Delany depicts, mostly with affection, characters with a wide variety of motivations and behaviours, not, it would seem, with the intent of a kind of covert advocacy but with the effect of revealing to the reader the fact that these kinds of people exist in the real world. Nebula
Nebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
-winning short story "Aye, and Gomorrah
Aye, and Gomorrah
"Aye, and Gomorrah..." is a famous science fiction short story by Samuel R. Delany. It is Delany's first sold short story, and won the 1967 Nebula Award for best short story. Before it appeared in Driftglass and Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories, it was first published as the closing tale in...
" posits the development of neutered human astronauts and then depicts the people who become sexually oriented toward them. By imagining a new gender and resultant sexual orientation, the story allows readers to reflect on the real world while maintaining an estranging distance. In later works, Delany blurs the line between science fiction and gay pornography. Delany faced censorship from book distribution companies for treatment of these topics.
In Time Enough for Love
Time Enough for Love
Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1974.-Plot:...
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
(1973), the main character argues strongly for the future liberty of homosexual sex, and Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth....
both depict heterosexual group marriages and public nudity as desirable social norms. Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
explores radically alternative forms of sexuality in The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
(1969) and again in Coming of Age in Karhide (1995), which imagines the sexuality of an alien "human" species in which individuals are neither "male" nor "female" but undergo a monthly sexual cycle in which they randomly experience the activation of either male or female sexual organs and reproductive abilities, making them in some senses bisexual and in other sense androgynous or hermaphroditic. Le Guin has written thoughtful considerations of her own work in two essays, "Is Gender Necessary?" (1976) and "Is Gender Necessary? Redux" (1986) which respond to feminist and other criticism of "The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
". In these essays, Le Guin makes it clear that the novel's assumption that Gethenians would automatically find a mate of the opposite sex to the one they were becoming produced an unintended heteronormativity
Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity is a term invented in 1991 to describe any of a set of lifestyle norms that hold that people fall into distinct and complementary genders with natural roles in life. It also holds that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation, and states that sexual and marital relations...
. Le Guin has subsequently written many stories that examine the possibilities SF allows for non-traditional sexuality, such as the sexual bonding between clones in "Nine Lives
Nine Lives (novelette)
"Nine Lives" is a 1969 science fiction novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally published in Playboy magazine, it was reprinted in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, the story is about what human cloning does to one's perception of the self, and among other things explores bisexual bonding between...
" (collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin first published by Harper & Row in 1975.Le Guin describes the collection as a retrospective. It includes many stories which had been published previously or expanded into novels. Others take place in locations that...
) or the four-way marriages in "Mountain Ways."
The bisexual woman-writer, who used James Tiptree Jr. as her pen-name, explored the sexual impulse as her main theme; in her award-winning "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
"Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" is a novella by James Tiptree, Jr. . It won a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1976 and a Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1977....
" (collected in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is a collection of Science fiction and fantasy stories by author James Tiptree, Jr.. It was released in 1990 by Arkham House...
), he presents a "female only" society after the extinction of men from disease. The society lacks stereotypically "male" problems such as war, but is stagnant. The women reproduce via cloning and consider men to be comical. Other stories portrayed humans becoming sexually obsessed with aliens ("And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side"), or aliens being sexually abused. "The Girl Who Was Plugged In
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
"The Girl Who Was Plugged In" is a science fiction novella by James Tiptree, Jr., a pen name used by writer Alice Sheldon. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1974.-Plot summary:...
" is an early precursor of cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
that shows a relationship via a cybernetically controlled body.
John Varley
John Varley (author)
John Herbert Varley is an American science fiction author.-Biography:Varley grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, and graduated from Nederland High School. He went to Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship because, of the schools that he could afford, it...
, who also came to prominence in the 1970s, is another writer of importance to sexual themes. In his "Eight Worlds
Eight Worlds
Eight Worlds refers to a series of novels and short stories by John Varley, in which the solar system has been colonized by human refugees fleeing an alien invasion of the Earth. Earth and Jupiter are off-limits to humanity, but Earth's moon and the other worlds and moons of the solar system have...
" suite of stories (many collected in The John Varley Reader
The John Varley Reader
The John Varley Reader is a collection of 18 science fiction short stories by John Varley, first published in paperback in September 2004. It features 5 new stories...
) and novels, humanity has achieved the ability to change sex with at a whim. Homophobia is shown to initially inhibit uptake of this technology, as it engenders drastic changes in relationships, with bisexuality becoming the default mode for society. His Gaean trilogy
Gaea trilogy
The Gaea Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels by John Varley. The stories tell of humanity's encounter with a living being in the shape of a 1,300 km diameter space habitat, inhabited by many different species, most notably Titanides, in orbit around the planet Saturn.The novels...
features lesbian protagonists.
Elizabeth Lynn
Elizabeth A. Lynn
Elizabeth A. Lynn is a US writer most known for fantasy and to a lesser extent science fiction. She is particularly known for being one of the first writers in science fiction or fantasy to introduce gay and lesbian characters; in honor of Lynn, the GLBT bookstore "A Different Light" took its...
's Chronicles of Tornor novels (1979–80), the first of which won the World Fantasy Award, were among the first fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novels to have gay relationships as an unremarkable part of the cultural background. Her SF novel A Different Light (1978) featured a same-sex relationship between two men, and inspired the name of the famous LGBT bookstore and chain, "A Different Light".
She also wrote novels depicting sado-masochism, unusually from the viewpoint of an unwilling victim.
Female characters in science fiction films such as Barbarella
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
(1968) continued to be often portrayed as simple sex kittens
Modern SF (post-New Wave)
After the pushing back of boundaries in the 1960s and 70s, sex in genre science fiction gained much wider acceptance, and was often incorporated into otherwise conventional SF stories with little comment.Glory Season
Glory Season
Glory Season is a 1993 science fiction novel by David Brin. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1994. An announcement in the back of one edition of Earth is for a novel titled "Stratos", to be released in Spring of 1992...
by David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
is set on the planet Stratos, inhabited by a strain of human beings designed to conceive clones in winter, and normal children in summer. All clones are female, because males do not bear. Further, males and females have opposed seasons of sexual receptivity. Men are sexually receptive in summer, and women in winter. This scheme is said to be stable over evolutionary time because women gain an evolutionary advantage from self-cloning, while men only reproduce themselves in summer.
In the Mythopoeic award
Mythopoeic Awards
The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given by the Mythopoeic Society to authors of outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas; the full criteria and description can be read on the Mythopoeic Society's -Mythopoeic Fantasy...
winning Unicorn Mountain (1988), Michael Bishop
Michael Bishop (author)
Michael Lawson Bishop is an award-winning American writer. Over four decades and thirty books, he has created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern science fiction and fantasy literature....
includes a gay male AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
patient among the carefully drawn central characters who must respond to an irruption of dying unicorns at their Colorado ranch. The death of the hedonistic gay culture and safe-sex campaign resulting from the AIDS epidemic are also explored, both literally and metaphorically.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo...
also explores many different areas of sexuality in her Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga
The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories set in a common fictional universe by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of these were published between 1986 and 2002, with the exceptions being “Winterfair Gifts” and Cryoburn...
books, based on the availability of uterine replicators and significant genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
. These areas include an all male society (Ethan of Athos
Ethan of Athos
Ethan of Athos is an English language science fiction novel that is part of the Vorkosigan Saga by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. It is an unusual item in the series in that it does not feature Miles Vorkosigan, the protagonist of almost all the other books.The name "Athos" for the main...
1986) where combinations ranging from promiscuity to stable couples to monastic celibacy occur, a society of human beings modified to thrive in free fall with two lower arms instead of legs ("Quaddies" introduced in the prequel Falling Free
Falling Free
Falling Free is a novel from the Vorkosigan Saga, written by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog from December 1987 to February 1988, and won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for 1988...
1988), a society that is politely regimented but aggressively egalitarian in regards to sexual mores up to and including stable genetic hermaphrodites ("Beta Colony" - first introduce in Shards of Honor
Shards of Honor
Shards of Honor is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in June 1986. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the first full-length novel in publication order.- Plot summary :...
1986), and Barrayar itself, the background for most of the books, where the bisexuality of a notable percentage of the upper class Vor men is accepted (also introduced in Shards of Honor). The Cetagandan Empire
Cetaganda (novel)
Cetaganda is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in four parts from October to December 1995 in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and published in book form by Baen Books in January 1996...
follows another angle on human sexuality, with three separate races, the Haut, the Ghem, and the neuter Ba, all being the results of heavy gene engineering on the part of the Star Creche which is run by the Dowager Empress, who is usually either the current Haut Emperor's mother or aunt. As with Athos, and to a lesser extent Beta Colony, sexuality is totally divorced from reproduction.