Typologies of feminist SF

Feminist SF can be broken into types or subgenres. These typologies, limited to some extent as all post hoc genre analyses are, can nevertheless be a useful way of thinking about changes within feminist SF as a whole.

Because "feminist SF" can be both a unique genre, and an approach within broader SF ("feminist" as an adjective), typologies can be broad and various.

• Historical: Roughly parallel to the "waves" model of feminism: SF before it was defined as SF, particularly women's writing since it more regularly examined or critiqued gender issues (19th c ghost stories; utopian visions); gender issues examined during the pulp era / golden age of SF, particularly women writers, who were often writing in disguise or from the margins (CL Moore); women writing during the golden era of feminist SF (Joanna Russ); post-feminist era

• Nancy Jane Moore's typology of current feminist SF (published at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, 2007/5/2

  • adventure stories in which women have the major adventures; e.g., sword-and-sorceress, or space opera.
  • works that show women acting in the world more broadly than permitted in past fiction
  • gender issues examined by men
  • SF reexamining gender thru lenses of new understandings & technologies in biology, AI, etc.