Feminist Ca

64 / The Secret Feminist Cabal
this issue, Russ also re-asserts the cultural, political, and economic elements
of sexism: “sexism isn’t a personal failing, it’s institutionalized
oppression” (Russ 1975b: 39).
The tone of Russ’s letter is interesting to note; in the year that the
Female Man was published, already a certain weariness in having to
explain sexism and defend her theoretical position is more than evident.
After opening with thanks to the editor for sending her a copy
of the previous issue, she comments “I’m glad the exchange in Vertex
has sparked something, though I sometimes wish someone else had
done it. Because, you see, I must answer…” (38). Russ answers, presumably,
because she cannot resist the pull to try and explain — once
more — that sexism is not always conscious, or personal, but can inhere
in “small things” like the ratio of female contributors to male in
the fanzine index, or the use of hearts and a (three-cup) brassiere in
illustrating an essay on women in science fiction.
Contesting the texts of feminist sf
The clash of invested narratives about sf occurred in response not
only to feminist critiques of the field, but also to the overt feminist
sf appearing in the 1970s. A good example is the reception of Russ’s
works “When It Changed” and The Female Man, which rewrote and
challenged sf tropes and disrupted conventional narrative structures. 35
Many of the reviews and responses to her works in magazines and
fanzines rehearsed the criticisms she predicted in the interjection in
The Female Man:
We would gladly have listened to her (they said) if only she
had spoke like a lady. But they are liars and the truth is not
in them.
Shrill…vituperative…[…]this shapeless book…of course
a calm and objective discussion is beyond…[…]no characterization,
no plot…[…]this pretense at a novel…trying to
shock…[…]a warped clinical protest against…violently
waspish attack…[…]we “dear ladies,” whom Russ would
do way with, unfortunately just don’t feel…ephemeral trash,
35 “When It Changed” was first published in Harlan Ellison (ed.), Again, Dangerous
Visions, New York, Doubleday, 1972; The Female Man (1975), Boston, MA:
Beacon, 1986.