Science fiction fans..

[Kathi]

Just musing here..
Could it be plausible to think that sci-fi fans *could* perhaps be less racist because we got used to blue humanoids & lizard beings & green
Vulcan blood when we were young?
Did sci-fi help some of us accept and understand that everyone is different and we should cultivate an open and accepting society?
(I know, I know..out of nowhere, but I hafta wonder)
it'd be cool if someone did a thesis on this.
(but maybe just to ME! LOL!)

[luna65]

Not everyone, though. Like I've said in other discussions: Fandom (in general) is a spectrum. And not all works of sci-fi are inherently about acceptance and understanding. It's true that sci-fi and fantasy are genres which encourage allegory of various types, and provide social commentary in that way. IMO both genres should be for everyone and encompass the gamut of imagination. But there's plenty of examples of bigotry and xenophobia in some of the works and the people who write them. The whole "Sad Puppies" movement was specifically about keeping out diversity of authors and works in the field.

I would imagine there are any number of books about this very subject, although finding them is another thing.

[pianozach]

Not everyone, though. Like I've said in other discussions: Fandom (in general) is a spectrum. And not all works of sci-fi are inherently about acceptance and understanding. It's true that sci-fi and fantasy are genres which encourage allegory of various types, and provide social commentary in that way. IMO both genres should be for everyone and encompass the gamut of imagination. But there's plenty of examples of bigotry and xenophobia in some of the works and the people who write them. The whole "Sad Puppies" movement was specifically about keeping out diversity of authors and works in the field.

I would imagine there are any number of books about this very subject, although finding them is another thing.

Not nearly as difficult as you might think:

Barbary Station by R. E. Stearns

and others

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/73078.Diversity_in_Fantasy_and_Science_Fiction

[luna65]

I mean non-fiction works discussing Kathi's exact point or something similar.

[Ash Armstrong]

I recall reading a couple of John Norman's Gor books as a teenager in the 70s, and came to realise how abhorrently misogynistic and racist they were. As far as I'm aware they're mercifully out of print.

[kkleinschmidt]

There's little doubt to me that some sci-fi has helped open some minds. OG Star Trek definitely changed a whole generation of people with some of the characters they created like Lt. Uhura and the rest in spite of the captain's old school, ah, attitude. And of course there are plenty of examples of the exact opposite. One of the more interesting books I remember reading that definitely got me thinking was The Forever War which was about a soldier who fought in the first and last battle of a war in space where folks spent lots of time in stasis, and when he stopped fighting everyone was gay/lesbian (because people got along better that way?).

[Homemade Parachute]

There's little doubt to me that some sci-fi has helped open some minds. OG Star Trek definitely changed a whole generation of people with some of the characters they created like Lt. Uhura and the rest in spite of the captain's old school, ah, attitude.

Star Trek: TOS, of course, in which the final broadcast episode was about how women can’t be captains, and the one who wants to is like totally crazy, so no one bats an eye at that bit of Starfleet wisdom… Not that I’m against Trek! but its legacy is, well, mixed…

[madbear]

Who can Captain Kirk snog next?
A lot of sci-fi could be quite colonial and warmongering: invading planets, or at the very least "civilizing" them.
But yes, 60s and 70s sci-fi was often plugged into the hippy countercultural mindset and open ti different cultures and ideas.
But there were also things like Dune, which was basically a book about political and religious power pretending to be science fiction. [I love it btw]

[pianozach]

Star Trek: TOS, of course, in which the final broadcast episode was about how women can’t be captains, and the one who wants to is like totally crazy, so no one bats an eye at that bit of Starfleet wisdom… Not that I’m against Trek! but its legacy is, well, mixed…

Yeah, there is THAT.

The execs at Paramount also had an ultimatum after viewing the pilot episode with Captain Pike: Either lose the Devil character (Spock), or the female 2nd in command ("Number One"). They felt that no one would believe the concept of the show if a woman was in such a respectable position.

[luna65]

But there were also things like Dune, which was basically a book about political and religious power pretending to be science fiction. [I love it btw]

It's an allegory. That's what a lot of sci-fi actually is.

[luna65]

(because people got along better that way?).

And also for population control.

[Ash Armstrong]

One of my favourite science fiction novels, and by one of my favourite writers, is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I must have read it half a dozen times, most recently during lockdown, and it never fails to move me and stay with me after I've finished it.