• Krem [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    17 hours ago

    heartbreaking when Heinlein was the very rare example of an old guard male SF writer writing actually somewhat complex female characters sometimes

    • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Heinlein writing about a tattooed MILF in "Stranger in a Strange Land" somehow bodyslamming other classic Sci Fi writers in the contest of who can write a woman character

      Actually hilarious bit

        • someone [comrade/them, they/them]
          ·
          13 hours ago

          I admit I haven't read much Heinlein. I think I read "Friday" decades ago and didn't much care for it. I can't recall ever reading other works of his.

          • buckykat [none/use name]
            ·
            13 hours ago

            Read the plot synopsis for I Will Fear No Evil and tell me it was written by a cis man.

            • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
              ·
              12 hours ago

              There's also the author-insert character in Time Enough for Love having this "hmm, yes, I thought about going through a magic future sci-fi tech sex change, but ah, alas, it doesn't work at the genetic level!" reflection scene and his reaction to learning that even that "flaw" could be fixed is interest followed by dismissing it when the suggestion is genetically engineered and artificially grown clones, a mind copy, and killing the original body. Although the clone thing still happens and the female clones of the author-insert join his weird incestuous harem because this is a later Heinlein novel and they're all really fucking weird and horny like that. But overall that whole sequence is such a "no cis man sits contemplating becoming a woman and agonizing over every little flaw before rejecting it for the dumbest and most trivial of reasons" moment.

              • buckykat [none/use name]
                ·
                7 hours ago

                Yeah, and there's also autistic trans woman Elizabeth Long in Number of the Beast, plus Mycroft/Mike/Michelle the computer in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress whose gender presentation matches that of whoever they're talking to at the moment.