The battle against 'sexist' sci-fi and fantasy book covers

[rug]

Science fiction and fantasy novels routinely portray scantily clad woman on their covers - a device that draws the heterosexual male eye but may turn away women readers. Lynsea Garrison finds one fantasy author aiming to zap gender stereotypes.



A pose by fictional super-being exterminator Kitty Martini is recreated by Jim Hines

18 January 2013 Last updated at 09:13 ET

Jim Hines straddles the remnants of a defeated alien species (a table), and clasps a pistol (a toy gun) as he triumphantly raises a cyborg's head (a toaster). Sometimes he fights battles alongside his romantic interest (a large teddy bear).

But no matter the mission, Hines shows some flesh. Just because he is waging a war, it does not mean he cannot be alluring at the same time, right?

Hines, a fantasy author, is posing like some of the female characters on science fiction and fantasy book covers he says objectify women.

He gets into character by twisting his body into the same contorted positions as the female characters on the books.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21033708

[malthaussen]

1. Doesn't have the courage to wear the spikes, I see.

It takes a brave and masochistic man to dare wear spiked heels, even for seconds.

-- Mal

[exboyfil]

2. Not my Frazetta covers

Which I grew up with. Lots of scantily clad buff male heroes as well (Conan, Tarzan, John Carter).

[tabasco]

3. CALL CONGRESS RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!1!

This Hines guy is an attention whore, that's all.

[MadrasT]

4. Love how they put 'sexist' in quotes...

...as if it's up for debate, or not *really* sexist.

I've seen this Hines guy before, love what he's done.

[Posteritatis]

15. It's actually a BBC style guide thing

They'll put even single-word quotations in quote marks, even if it's fairly straightforward.

It means you'll occasionally see things like "two people 'killed' in multiple homicide" because the officer they were talking to about the event used the word "killed."

[MadrasT]

28. Ah. I did not know.

Thanks!

[Fumesucker]

5. Striking dramatic poses is pretty much what fantasy characters do

[Fla_Democrat]

6. Someone call Fabio

tell him he can retire now, we found his replacement.

[quinnox]

7. the left illustration is a whole lot

Prettier and easy on the eyes, that is for sure.

[A Little Weird]

8. That pose mostly just looks uncomfortable.

To be fair, I guess the sci-fi covers are no worse than all the buff, shirtless men you see in the romance novel aisle (although many times the women are portrayed just as badly so I guess it's not quite the same).

If male superheroes were drawn like female superheroes:
http://www.thegeektwins.com/2011/09/if-male-superheroes-were-drawn-like.html

[rhett o rick]

9. His shoes are much more sensible. Just sayin. nm

[ReverendDeuce]

10. Oh for fucks sake... REALLY?

[link:http://bit.ly/109zO37|

[Revanchist]

14. If you think the covers are bad....

You should try reading them. My wife is legally blind so she gets books on tape (no digital cassettes) from the National Blind Library. We were in Wisconsin waiting on her to undergo a medical procedure and her mother was with us. I walked in on them listening to a book by J D Robb(?) and the description of sex was so graphic I had to quickly turn around and leave the room out of embarrassment (and I was in the Navy for 20 years)!

[Romulox]

11. This is only OK when men are portrayed this way in women's novels.

[Odin2005]

12. It used to be a lot worse.

I'm the book guy at a thrift store and the sexism and gratuitous nudity in sci-fi book covers in the 70s was REALLY bad. The pic in the OP is tame by comparison.

[Posteritatis]

18. Still annoying that there's so much pushback against the idea of addressing it even now

Even this thread's flooded with "but what about the menz?!!" reactions.

It'd be nice if we got genre publishing to the point where authors were actually allowed a say in their cover art outside of exceptional circumstances - I've seen way too many cases of "no, I know your main character's black, but we're putting her on the cover as white," or generic clip-art monstrosities (or both), because some marketing type who hasn't updated their views on the genre since the days of Heinlein is convinced readers couldn't handle a sensible cover.

Things are less outrageous now than with the covers you're talking about, of course, but that's still a case of "this broken leg sure beats two broken legs."

[cthulu2016]

13. And the men on paperback covers are so unobjectified

[Posteritatis]

16. By any reasonable kind of comparison? Yes, actually, we are. (nt)

[bunnies]

22. I think I just drooled on my laptop.

Is that bad?

[randome]

23. Remember to take the pancake off your head next time.

[bunnies]

24. lol!

damned pancake gets me every time!

[petronius]

17. Aside from the fact that she's going to need physical therapy, I'd say the worst bit

of the left-side image is that little owl-monkey-creature thing staring up her skirt, with a phallic symbol monument right next to it...

[dogknob]

19. Ever Read "Bimbos of the Death Sun" by Sharyn McCrumb?

It is a murder mystery set in a sci-fi/fantasy convention. This topic is discussed at length. Fun book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbos_of_the_Death_Sun

[whistler162]

32. One of my favorite books.

The book cover in the OP is quite tame by any standard.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. So, you want writers who are already struggling to get their books published to

write sci-fi novels that will be appealing to both women and men? Or is it just the book covers you object to?

The whole point of the cover is to attract the attention of a certain niche reader. That is true of sci fi and romance novels.

Maybe you should begin with book covers that are targeted for women, before you go after the ones that are targeted for men? Because, the book covers that I find the most offensive are bodice rippers. The message behind the books that are specifically targeted for women are steep in objectification.

[loose wheel]

21. Honor Harrington

Just check the sexist covers of the Honorverse titles...oh wait, women and portrayed roughly the same throughout the series and on the covers of the books.

It does get to be tedious reading. I got tired of reading about Honor's melancholy over her former lover as she heads off to sleep with her lover (and future husband) with his wife's (future sister wife) permission.

[RedCappedBandit]

25. All else aside, that cover is just cheesy

I hate that I love fantasy, when so many books are covered with these absurd covers.

But then, none of the fantasy I actually read looks like that.

THIS is a cover!

[Recursion]

26. I call the cover the "Bechdel pre-test"

Though I also know the cover isn't always the author's decision.

[Posteritatis]

27. It almost never is, actually

Authors (at least with US publishers) need to either get really lucky with their publisher or earn something of a name before they get to have any say in the cover; sometimes they actually aren't allowed to see it at all until the book hits the printers.

[enlightenment]

29. There's an interesting website/blog

called "The Hawkeye Initiative" that plays around with this idea. Their description:

"How to fix every Strong Female Character pose in superhero comics: replace the character with Hawkeye doing the same thing."

http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/

Some of the entries are so poorly drawn that they defy comparison, but some do make the point that if a hero (Hawkeye) looks ridiculous in the pose, it's probably a ridiculous pose for a heroine.

I can't get too heated up over book covers - bodice rippers have been objectifying both sexes forever and a day - the old Tarzan/Conan stuff with the overly muscled, half naked male oozing testosterone (and the semi-naked, large breasted female standing around looking subservient and helpless) did the same thing.

Frankly, I'm more concerned about why the woman in the picture appears to have no hips . . .

[Moonwalk]

30. Apples & Oranges to compare with Bodice Rippers--

Science Fiction & Fantasy *were* dominated by male writers and readers, meaning through the pulp years they usually offered great science but also sexist male fantasies of space and other worlds; and if any publisher were to re-issue these stories then I would have no objection to maintaining the old style covers--as, for example, the old Conan stories. They indicate exactly the sort of story the reader will get.

But Science Fiction and Fantasy grew up in the 70' & '80's and the vast majority of it left Conan-land, or ray-gun land way behind. Yes, many stories are still just "fantasy" but most are as sophisticated and mainstream as any in the literature section, and there is no reason to suggest to any buyer, with a particular cover, that this or that story is a male fantasy like Conan. Would one put such a sexist cover on "Frankenstein"? Why not? It's a science fiction. How about "1984" also a science fiction? "Lord of the Rings"? Fantasy.

Why should we assume that Sci-fic & fantasy deserve such covers just because they're sci-fi/fantasy?

As said earlier, there have been some big controversies especially over things like making the female character on a cover match the description as written up by the writer--like having her be a white woman instead of a black woman. These not only mislead the reader, but cut off other potential readers of the book and, worse, of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. They keep the public thinking that sci-fi/fantasy is still back in the pulp era, and that it's only for nerdy white males.

This is not the same as a bodice ripper which by no means misleads the reader as to what kind of fantasy is between the covers. So the comparison is not at all apt or reasonable.

[Cleita]

31. If Kitty Martini were Jim Hines twin I don't think there would be the same

hot factor. If you are going to put a guy in that photo, find one that's more photogenic to make your point. Fail.