Masculinist Conventions In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the origins of masculinist conventions in science fiction. Mary Shelley was a nineteenth century woman writer, best known for her science-fiction novel Frankenstein. Being a female author was a rather rare occupation in a time where men were generally the dominant and active participants in society. Female authors such as Shelley were generally confined in their writing by the male conventions that existed in the society they lived in, which, with exceptions, did not often allow them to write as, and about, women. This persists in the science fiction genre, which Shelley began with Frankenstein. She originated the science fiction genre, becoming the first author in a genre that would also turn out to be male …show more content…
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in their the Madwoman in the Attic argue that women were often written about in one of two ways. Either they were perfectly pure and beautiful angels, or they were depicted as rebellious, ugly, unkempt madwomen and monsters. Due to the categorization of female characters in this way, the female authors of this time were often confined to also writing their characters within the limits of these stereotypes. Mary Shelley, too, wrote about female angels and monsters. In Frankenstein we find these stereotypes in Elizabeth and Justine. Elizabeth is “Of a distinct species, a being heavven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features” (Shelley, 20) She represents the celestial angel. Justine on the other hand says “I almost began to think that I was the monster he said I was”, and categorizes herself as the monster or madwoman stereotype. (Shelley, 22) It can be argued that due to this kind of misrepresentation of women in fiction in the nineteenth century, that the convention of portraying women as sterotypes exists within the science fiction genre now. In modern science fiction women can be categorized as either the virgin, the good wife/mother, the amazon queen, the spinster scientist, and the tomboy girl. (Tuttle) It is in these modern stereotypes we find the gender conventions of the nineteenth century. The virgin and the mother are generally quiet and submissive characters; beautiful, loving and supportive of the main character, much like the angel stereotype in the nineteenth century. The other three stereotypes, on the other hand, are characters which are generally a variation of wild, unkempt, and unladylike. The spinster scientist is unattractive and disordered, not unlike the madwoman stereotype, while the Amazon Queen is ruthless and likely to kill, much like the monster stereotype. The tomboy girl is