Oh yeah definitely the one thing sci fi and fantasy has been missing is the male gaze
April 09, 2026 - 02:46 UTC
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As we all know, the fields of fantasy and science fiction have been entirely dominated by female writers:
Harriet g wells
Juliette Verne
Wilhelmina morris
Joanna Rr Tolkien
Clementine s Lewis
Iris Asimov
Ariel c Clarke
Roberta Heinlein
Raylene Bradbury
Phillipa k Dick
Francine Herbert
Harriet g wells
Juliette Verne
Wilhelmina morris
Joanna Rr Tolkien
Clementine s Lewis
Iris Asimov
Ariel c Clarke
Roberta Heinlein
Raylene Bradbury
Phillipa k Dick
Francine Herbert
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Listen, the Lord of the Rings movies had 5 ladies in it. How are men supposed to enjoy what the other 80,000 men are doing?
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Scifi and fantasy have centered male desire for decades. What’s happening now is what's happening in every space that men have dominated, other voices are getting space and that loss of privilege is being framed as exclusion because men are, by and large, childish piss babies.
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There was a period in the 80s where fantasy was seen as more female coded and SF more male coded. Marion Zimmer Bradley, especially, was a major force and highly visible presence in any bookstore.
This was also the height of the Cold War right-wing SF novel, when the genres were much further apart.
This was also the height of the Cold War right-wing SF novel, when the genres were much further apart.
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Saying “for men” simply means less emotion and human connection, it's a self own. That’s just refusing to engage with story. Scifi is about people, the problem is men regressing, not the genre.
"Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition."
"Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition."
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i’m not gonna fill your thread with photos of my book collection, so you’re just gonna have to imagine bikinis made from shiny space age materials.
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I don’t think the OP is referring to old school, barbarian queen with big tits fantasy crap.
Rather fantasy/science fiction that appeals to male traits other than just staring at cleavage. The whole, geeky handyman, we can fix it ethos of ‘The Martian’, for example.
Rather fantasy/science fiction that appeals to male traits other than just staring at cleavage. The whole, geeky handyman, we can fix it ethos of ‘The Martian’, for example.
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Yeah you’re right there’s absolutely none of - hold on I’m just getting a call, someone has been buried under an avalanche of that kind of book at the Galleria Barnes and Noble.
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Yes, when I was growing up it was actually difficult to find SF and fantasy without it. There was Anne McCaffrey and Ursula Le Guin outnumbered many times over on the shop and library shelves. 'The Female Man' was around but it was only when it came out in The Woman's Press editions alongside
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other SF/F books from them that it was very visible to your average reader. People forget that without the internet, if it was not in a shop or library near you or did not feature in a magazine or newspaper, then you largely had to rely on word of mouth or what publishers were putting out into the
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Every book gets a Frazetta cover and you choose if you’re buying the book because you like the beefcake dude or if you’re buying the book because you like the beefcake lady, and you just roll the dice with what the story’s actually about.
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Haven't you heard? It's an emergency when men don't have 100% control of something anymore. Time for more boy books, stat
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It’s such a radical concept, books written by white dudes for white dudes. I can’t even conceive such a thing, so I asked AI to imagine it for me. This is what it came up with:
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Yeah, no. This is just rebranding of the Sad Puppies. We're not anti-woke, we just want stories with mediocre white dudes in it turning out to be awesome somehow. You know. For reasons.
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Oh wait I've heard of something like that... I think it was called "the entire literary canon" or similar
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It's giant robots. It's always been giant robots.🤣
But seriously most guys are not picking up books for fun. I have never been in a book club that was mostly men.
But seriously most guys are not picking up books for fun. I have never been in a book club that was mostly men.
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I don’t want to read ‘real man books for real men’, I want to read women writing for women, trans/enbie/ace people writing for them, different cultures, times, outlooks! Real man books don’t excite me at all. Currently reading ‘My Darling Dreadful Thing’ (Johanna Van Veen) which is outstanding!
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Until I heard about Robin McKinley in a Babysitter’s Club Book (really) every single fantasy novel I picked up until the age of 14 was about some teen boy finding out he had a destiny. Every single one!
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Ugh... The hero's quest.
My childhood was full of Tolkien reboots too. (MInd you, some of them were great, but fantasy lit can be so much richer.)
My childhood was full of Tolkien reboots too. (MInd you, some of them were great, but fantasy lit can be so much richer.)
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I eventually pawed around and found my way to L’Engle, McKillip, Butler, and Le Guin, but you had to HUNT.
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And all the female protagonists in fantasies were so angsty or edgy. Like, they thought the only reason why they thought people would read about a girl was if she "wasn't like other girls" siiiigghhhhhh I have never read a book where the girl mc is funny or fun in any way really
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Sci-Fi was mostly written for teen-age boys and it is a great market because we never grow up.
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lol but back when the movies first came out, this girl on livejournal posted parody scripts of each on in which the characters are all very deliberately queer-coded, and they are works of art.
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If only there wasn't the entire sci fi backlog of books written before (checks notes) 2010 for these guys to read!
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This shit is obviously easily mockable but you yourself are more or less admitting that their premise about gaps in contemporary publishing is correct!
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I wish they would just admit they’re in sci-fi publishing but haven’t read any Heinlein. *sigh*
We already have so so so many of these books….
We already have so so so many of these books….
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I would technically be in that market but the entire idea just makes me want to slam my head against the wall repeatedly until I lose the ability to read. "Man-tasy" . . . what the ever-loving fuck is wrong with the dudes?
Also, I first read it as "mantisy" and was like "books about mantises?"
Also, I first read it as "mantisy" and was like "books about mantises?"
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Reading sci fi from long ago is the weirdest thing because the authors could imagine so many changes but saw gender roles remaining always as they were in the 1950s or whatever
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There are so many women in the replies who clearly don't understand how men think or what men and boys actually like, but goddamn if they don't have the confidence to assert as if they do.
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