I'm retooling my science fiction and philosophy syllabus and looking for fun examples of classic sf short stories, preferably by 'major' writers (but I'm flexible), that are gender-themed but weirdly boldly-go yet not-go-there about it. 1/
Examples are easy to come by. It's harder to find non-examples. Namely, interesting SF that is about gender yet doesn't boldly re-imagine it. (Why would you bother?) But, equally, most classic SF now seems almost comically conventional about gender roles, in retrospect. 2/
I'm going to start in 1915, with "Herland" and "Princess of Mars". A feminist utopia. A nostalgic tale of a Confederate former officer, living his best life on Mars. Dejah Thoris is an egg-laying alien. Of course, she's also one hot chick. 3/
If it's ok for a dude to have sex with an egg-laying alien, it's a bit hard to see why certain other stuff wouldn't also be ok. Obviously Edgar Rice Burroughs doesn't go there. (That's not the nostalgic fantasy here.) 4/
SF gives you aliens and wild changes in human life, so there's an inherent tendency for sex and gender to get caught up in that overall 'why not?' But SF is often very anxious about change. 5/
What are YOUR favorite examples of classic SF tales that seems to want to rev the imaginative engine about gender while simultaneously putting on the brakes or shifting into reverse? (I'm mostly looking for short stories, but go ahead with your TV and film cases.) 6/
