SEX IN SCIENCE FICTION

Modern 'science fiction' frequently involves themes of 'sex 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.

Contents

The "New Wave"

Notable works with sexual themes

Written Works

Cinema and television

Other works

Themes explored

Other sub-genres

Movies and TV series

See also

External links

The "New Wave"

Sex was rarely explicitly addressed as a topic 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. Separately, many writers deepened the exploration of gender in science fiction, examining issues raised by the feminist and gay movements.

Notable works with sexual themes

Written Works

'Year'	'Author'	'Title'	'Comments'
1921	Yevgeny Zamyatin	''We''	Sex frequency and partners are selected by the government
1932	Aldous Huxley	''Brave New World''	Only promiscuity is socially acceptable and sex is completely separated from reproduction
1948	Lisa Ben (pseud.)	''New Year's Day''	Depiction of futuristic utopian world in which homosexuality and gay identity are accepted
1949	George Orwell (pseud.)	''Nineteen Eighty-Four''	Depiction of futuristic dystopian world in which people are indoctrinated to experience sex as joyless and mechanical in order to prevent the formation of any strong inter-personal bonds.
1953	Theodore Sturgeon	''The World Well Lost''	Alien homosexuality. Perhaps the first science fiction story to deal directly, and positively, with homosexuality
1953	Philip José Farmer	''The Lovers''	Arguably the first science fiction story to feature sex as a major theme
1960	Philip José Farmer	''Strange Relations''	A collection of five stories about human/alien sexual relations
1960	Philip José Farmer	''Flesh''	To counter declining male fertility, a hypermasculine antlered man ritually impregnates legions of virgins
1961	Robert A. Heinlein	''Stranger in a Strange Land''	A form of group marriage in the fictional inspiration for the "Church of All Worlds"
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
1966	Samuel R. Delany	''Babel-17''	Starship crews bonded by group sex; sexual relationships with the "discorporate" spirits of the dead
1967	Harlan Ellison, ed.	''Dangerous Visions''	A collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories
1968	Philip José Farmer	''Image of the Beast''	Sexual sadism on a par with de Sade, committed by shape-shifting creatures from another world
1968	Samuel R. Delany	''Nova''	First major science fiction novel with a gay male protagonist
1969	Philip José Farmer	''A Feast Unknown''	Superheroes' higher level of existence forces them to resort to extreme violence combined with extreme sex
1969	Norman Spinrad	''Bug Jack Barron''	Graphic depiction of oral sex coupled with the publishing magazine being funded by the Arts Council leads to parliamentary question
1970	Robert Silverberg	''Tower of Glass''	Genetically engineered slaves are sterile but superior in every way to their creators - graphic descriptions
1970	Ira Levin	''This Perfect Day''	Programmers of "UniComp," a master computer, control every aspect of marriage and procreation; women do not grow breasts, men do not grow beards
1971	Robert Silverberg	''The World Inside''	Promiscuity and procreation are culturally enforced in a world of giant city-towers
1971	Stanislaw Lem	''A Perfect Vacuum''	Extinction of the sex drive
1972	Isaac Asimov	''The Gods Themselves''	Alien three-gender sex
1972	Thomas M. Disch	''334''	Flexible sexual relationships, but compulsory contraception; male pregnancy
1972	James Tiptree, Jr. (pseud.)	'And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side'	Humans become fixated on sexual relationships with aliens
1972	Harlan Ellison, ed.	''Again, Dangerous Visions''	A sequel to "Dangerous Visions", a collection of taboo-breaking science fiction stories
1974	Samuel R. Delany	''Dhalgren''	Sexual freedom and exploitation in all conceivable combinations
1974	Joe Haldeman	''The Forever War''	Homosexuality becomes universal, originally adopted as a form of population control but later becoming the norm by convention
1975	Naomi Mitchison	''Solution Three''	Privileged homosexuality in a future society used as meditation on privileged heterosexuality
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
1978	Gardner Dozois	''Strangers''	Human must be surgically changed to alien to mate with his alien lover
1978	Douglas Hill, ed.	''The Shape of Sex to Come''	Anthology of stories dealing with sex and sexual relations, featuring Brian Aldiss, Thomas M. Disch and Michael Moorcock.
1978	Elizabeth A. Lynn	''A Different Light (novel)''	Gay sexual relationship
1979	Diane Duane	''The Door Into Fire''	Gay sexual relationship; high fantasy
1979	Elizabeth A. Lynn	''Watchtower''	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	Elizabeth A. Lynn	''The Sardonyx Net''	Plot revolves in large part around central character's sexual sadism
1982	Tanith Lee	''Silver Metal Lover''	Human-robot sex
1983	Isaac Asimov	''The Robots of Dawn''	Human-robot sex (not explicit), culture largely free from sexual taboos
1983	Norman Spinrad	''The Void Captain's Tale''	Starship FTL drive powered by female orgasm
1983	Rudy Rucker	''The Sex Sphere''	Details relationships between humans and an alien species of sex organs
1984	Samuel R. Delany	''Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand''	Love, individuality and humanity are explored in this romance of a "cultural plague" survivor with cosmically idiosyncratic sexual preferences
1984	Jeffrey M. Elliot	''Kindred Spirits''	First anthology highlighting gay and lesbian SF
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
1985	Geoff Ryman	''The Warrior Who Carried Life''	Transgendered protagonist; gender issues
1986	Theodore Sturgeon	''Godbody''	Religious sexuality
1986	Joan L. Slonczewski	''A Door Into Ocean''	Humans engineered into an aquatic parthenogenetic race
1986	Lois McMaster Bujold	''Ethan of Athos''	Reproductive scientist on a planet with no women
1987-2000	Iain M. Banks	''Culture Novels''	People can change gender at will; bisexuality is the norm
1989	Spider Robinson	''Callahan's Lady''	A time-travelling madam runs a unique house of prostitution
1990	Ellen Datlow (editor)	''	Notable theme anthology
1990	Elf Sternberg	''The Journal Entries''	Interspecies sex between humanoid aliens and/or humans including BDSM, homosexuality, incest
1991-1997	Various	''Virgin New Adventures 'Doctor Who' Novels''	Bisexuality is described as being "the norm" in the 27th century
1993	Paul Park	''Coelestis''	Aliens alter their appearance to resemble humans, and one human enters into a relationship with one
1993	David Brin	''Glory Season''	Sexual vs. asexual reproduction
1995	Neal Stephenson	''The Diamond Age''	An orgiastic culture of "drummers" in a sort of neural net functions as a means of technological advance
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
1997	Nicola Griffith & Stephen Pagel (editor)	''Bending the Landscape: Fantasy''	The first in three genre-themed gay and lesbian anthologies

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Cinema and television

Year	Written by	Title	Comments
1968	Terry Southern&Roger Vadim	''Barbarella''	Celebrated 1960s film of a science fiction comic book heroine and her sexual adventures
1968	Meyer Dolinsky	''Plato's Stepchildren'' (Star Trek episode)	First inter-racial kiss shown on US television, between Lt Uhura and Captain Kirk
1971	George Lucas&Walter Murch	''THX 1138''	'Soma-like drugs used to suppress emotion, including sexual desire; characters include a holographic porn actor and scenes include a female character's use of an upright electronic device for providing sexual stimulation
1973	Woody Allen&Marshall Brickman	''Sleeper''	''Orgasmatron'' orgasm booths after all men become impotent and all women become frigid
1982	Anne Carlisle&Slava Tsukerman	''Liquid Sky''	A comedic science fiction film in which space aliens land to feed off of endorphins released during orgasm
1995	Dennis Feldman	''Species''	An alien mimics a human in order to reproduce
2004	Carlos Atanes	''	Not only sex, but physical contact between human beings is forbidden.
2006	Russell T Davies, et al.	''Torchwood''	Every character has both heterosexual and homosexual experiences, however fleeting: 1950s time travellers allow different attitudes to sexuality and sexual conduct to be explored

Other works

★ The Jerry Cornelius stories of Michael Moorcock and others

★ A number of works by Philip José Farmer: ''The Lovers'', ''Flesh'', his collection of stories on this theme, ''Strange Relations'', plus two science fiction pornographic novels, ''Image of the Beast'' and ''Blown''.

★ Many works by William S. Burroughs mix vague and obvious science fiction themes with sexuality, particularly homosexuality and deviant behavior.

★ Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series contains a society (the Dragonriders) with human hierarchy partially based on the sexual partnerings of dragons. When dragons mate, their riders do the same. As most riders are male, homosexuality is common.

★ The ''World War and Colonization'' series by Harry Turtledove explores the differences between the sexual patterns of humans (who have relatively restrained sex all the time) to that of lizards (who have unrestrained sex only during a mating season). Turtledove offers some very interesting theories as to how our sexual nature has improved our species' rate of civilization.

Themes explored

Some of the themes explored include:

★ Sex with aliens, machines and robots

★ Reproductive technology including cloning, artificial wombs, uterine replicators, and genetic engineering

★ Sexual equality of men and women

★ Male- and female-dominated societies, including single-sex societies

★ Polyamory

★ Changing gender roles

★ Homosexuality and bisexuality

★ Androgyny and sex changes

★ Sex in virtual reality

★ Other advances in technology for sexual pleasure such as teledildonics

★ Asexuality

★ Male pregnancy

★ Sexual bonding and politics

★ Sexual taboos and morality

★ Sex in zero gravity

★ Sex with anthropomorphs

★ Birth control and other, more radical measures to prevent overpopulation

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 fans of erotic science fiction.
Science fiction erotica is frequently associated with Gay science fiction, Lesbian science fiction and S/M (Sado/Masochism) Erotica.
In recent years there has been a growing BDSM awareness in the science fiction and fan community.

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).
The various ''Star Trek'' series treat sexuality in different ways. James T. Kirk earned a pop-culture reputation for bedding countless green-skinned or otherwise exotic alien women portrayed in the soft lighting characteristic of 1970's romantic pulp. '', usually regarded as a pinnacle of principled (i.e., less gratuitous) science fiction TV, featured a risqué theme in episode #2 that involved sex between female officer Tasha Yar and the android Mr. Data. The focus on sexy females was ramped up in all of the subsequent series (with increasing obviousness) - notably '''s Jadzia Dax, '''s B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine, and 's sultry T'Pol.
The re-imagined version of ''Battlestar Galactica'', by contrast, set out to portray sex in a more realistic fashion. The gratuity and fetishism of bad television "science fiction" 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.
Influential female sex symbols from movies include characters from the 1968 movie ''Barbarella'' as well as Princess Leia in '', where she wore a metallic bikini.

See also

★ Gay science fiction

★ Lesbian science fiction

★ Nudity in science-fiction literature

★ Pregnancy in science fiction

★ Slash fiction

★ Erotic fantasy

★ Gender in science fiction

★ Feminist science fiction

★ James Tiptree, Jr. Award

★ WisCon

External links

★ Imagined Sexual Futures: reading list

★ Feministsf.org: Feminist SF, Fantasy & Utopias: annotated bibliographies

★ Feminist science fiction wiki