Fantastic Metropolis

M.M. Hall: Colin Murray, your husband is also a gifted editor. Is he your first reader and does he help out in editing your work before it heads off to the publisher?

Lisa Tuttle: He’s usually my first reader, and he does make comments, when I ask for them, about my work at various stages. I’ve never asked him to actually edit my work, though. (Hey, that’s his job; he gets paid for that!)

M.M. Hall: Feminism helped shape you as an author. Do you have any comments on the state of world feminism?

Lisa Tuttle: I’m afraid I don’t know much about it! What is the state of “world feminism”? In some countries women have achieved freedoms and responsibilities and rights nearly equal to those of the men of their own class, and have little to complain about; oppression of women as a class is much less commonplace and pernicious than it was when I was a child—though that is not to say it is non-existant. This is probably why, for a lot of women in America, “feminism” appears to have become largely a theoretical, academic study. But in other parts of the world, feminism has scarcely been felt, and it continues to be a necessary battle. But these days the idea that “patriarchy” is a great evil or that women are uniquely oppressed seems very old-fashioned—I certainly feel that unrestrained capitalism, and the glorifying of “market forces” is a much greater danger to women (_and_ men) than some notion of “male oppression.” Sorry if this is all a bit of a jumble, and rather off the top of my head—a very serious subject, which I’m not equipped to address.

M.M. Hall: You probably know more than you give yourself credit for, certainly more than I do. You did write the Encyclopedia of Feminism, afterall! The word “feminist” in the past ten years or so has assumed a stain. Why do you think that is?

Lisa Tuttle: It had a stain when it began! Believe me, this stain is not recent. I want to quote something Rebecca West said, but unfortunately can’t recall it exactly—it was something along the lines of being a feminist was just the sensible stance of refusing to be treated like a doormat instead of a person. Take a look at the history of that phrase “I’m not a feminist, but…” which I recall Ms. Magazine making great play with more than twenty years ago. And the number of times “feminism” and “feminist” has had to be re-defined is mind-boggling. Basically, what underlies any form of feminism (and there are many, some a lot more radical than the perfectly obvious idea of expecting to be treated like a human being first and foremost) is the idea that women can and should be looked at as a class; that women have been systematically deprived or mistreated entirely on the basis of their gender. Some people (male and female) don’t like to believe that, and take offense at any attempt to suggest it might be so, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they are sexists who believe women are naturally inferior to men. (Unfortunately, there are still a few troglodytes who do think that way, and I will accept no excuses from unrepentant sexists!) Others simply feel that there are other, more pernicious distinctions (class, race, age) which should be addressed more urgently, and that, for example, black women should make common cause with black men against an oppressive white-dominated society, rather than trying to team up with white women. Because of the confusion between “sex” as sexuality and sex meaning gender, being “feminist” is sometimes equated with “lesbian”—not that lesbian should be a derogatory description, but certainly in the recent past it has been used as an attempt to belittle and diminish women, to imply “not normal” or “unattractive to men.” So, Ithink there are lots of reasons why “feminism” may be rather unpopular at present.

I do know quite a lot about the history of feminism—and at various times in my life I’ve been involved in various feminist campaigns or women’s organizations—but I do feel I’ve become rather out of it over the last decade—that’s why I hesitate to make any great statements about what feminism is, because I don’t really know what it is right now. I do get the impression that in some ways it has become a largely academic discipline, connected with gender studies, and not as grass-roots and political and immediate as it once was… but this is just the impression of someone way out on the sidelines.