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Home Page Most Dangerous Feminist Book Contest
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"MOST DANGEROUS FEMINIST BOOK
IN SPECULATIVE FICTION "
CONTEST 2002
(THE MARGARET SANGER AWARD )
Following Suzette Haden Elgin's lead, we note the following:
- Feminist fiction is treated rather poorly in the speffy (speculative fiction) world.
For example, if you grant the premise that men and women see the world in a significantly different way, it isn't enough for women characters to behave like men. They should behave like women at their full potential as women, whatever that means. In the current speffy culture, it is considered enough for women to behave like men. That's a shortcoming. - Speffy authors and fans are supposed to know better and be forward looking but aren't.
If we cast men and women as two sets of aliens who happen to meet while concurrently exporing a planet affable to both races, we would balk if we were told the two races were equals, but the one race could only achieve true equality by emulating the other. (Please note: emulate means "rival with intent to better.") We would expect both races to be fully developed, with cultures that were very different and yet still fully developed. In the real world, we very quickly accept a woman character's equality because she can smoke, drink, and chew and likes to go with the boys that do. This is a shortcoming. - Speffy is the place where we can work out our future society by exploring NOW the ramifications of our choices, before we make them.
Speffy is the place we can ask and answer: - Is there such a thing as women's culture? If so, what will happen if we ignore it?
- Is behaving like a man the same s being an equal for a woman?
- Is there a difference between males and females and the cultural constructs "man" and "woman"?
- This particularly applies to women and their future.
All the evidence indicates women have vastly different concerns than men, yet all the evidence indicates we aren't doing much to represent those concerns. Imagine what would happen if everyone agreed that black people have vastly different concerns than anyone else but refused to do anything to represent those concerns. Our culture may be treating women like this today, which is kind of funny seeing as how they are 51% of the population. If women want equal representation under the law, they'll have to try something new, 'cause all the old stuff isn't working much. Speffy is a uniquely flexible arena in which to work out the new stuff.
Still with us?
Good. Here's some of what we mean.
The idea is to have a "Most Dangerous Feminist Book in Speculative Fiction" contest. Note this isn't the BEST book or the MOST FEMINIST or MOST SPECULATIVE but the MOST DANGEROUS FEMINIST book depending from a speculative idea
—a book somehow
than any other book this year.
The hardest word there is probably speculation. Here's a paraphrase of Dave M. Cox:
"I define literary fiction as a story with compelling characters and plot that informs the reader about being human. Good speculative fiction must also include something futuristic, otherworldly, fantastic, or outrageous as an integral part of the story."
Let's see those characteristics again—it must include something
as an integral part of the story to be speculative.
As for feminist, let's use the old saw "feminism is the radical notion that women are people."
What are we calling it?
The Margaret Sanger Award for the Most Dangerous Feminist Book in Speculative Fiction
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Why Margaret Sanger? Ms. Sanger, for all of her other faults and foibles, added the final piece to the liberation of women and their getting equality: body freedom. By disseminating reproductive information and educating women about their reproductive options, she gave modern women the right to control pregnancy, thereby freeing them to participate in society and culture at any level at all--dare we say it?--as fully as men, but not necessarily as men. We have equated her with the Most Dangerous because, to this day, some 60 years after she began her work, she and her work are still under the most vigorous attack: Planned Parenthood clinics are still being picketed, and many of them have been bombed or burnt. No one bombs and burns women vote, who try to break the glass ceiling, who publish, who speak, who make democracy for themselves (in the USA, anyway), but who Ms. Sanger's clinics find themselves on the defensive against the kinds of acts most egregious in an open society: public violence; thus, her work is still so dangerous that her opponents feel it necessary to take up arms. |
Ready for the Rules?
They are pretty simple.
- Your submission must at least 15,000 words but please submit only the first 50 pages. In some cases, your whole submission may be less than 50 pages, and that's fine. Send it in.
- It must be postmarked between midnight, January 1, 2002 and midnight, January 1, 2003.
- It must be submitted as follows:
- Physical Submissions
- On white paper sized 8 1/2" x 11" or A4;
- with 1" (2.5 cm) margins all around;
- typewritten with dark black type (no faint or obviously dot matrix print, please);
- with font at least 12 point and preferably serif (Times, Palatino, or Garamond, for example);
- with 1.5 or double spacing;
- with your name, the name of your book, and a page number on every page.
- Electronic Submissions
- Send in MS Word format or RTF (Rich Text Format).
- Use a floppy disk or a Zip disk. (We can take Mac or Win disks.)
- You can submit by email with permission. Email to get permission. Books submitted by email without permission will be deleted unread.
- You must also send three self-addressed, stamped postal cards so we can tell you we got it and tell you if you have been cut or advanced.
- You must send a cashier's check or money order for $25 payable to Stone Dragon Press.
- If you break any of the other rules, we'll can your entry, sight unseen.
Hey! you want us to send money??
Yes, we do. Please hold on as there is one more rule.
OK, what happens to the money?
Purses and admin.
This is how the money will be used:
All rounding errors are moved to the administrative fees.
What happens if I win?
You get one of the purses, and we publish your book.
See the Stone Dragon Standard "Rich and Famous" Contract for more information about that.
How do I know I'm getting a fair shake?
Who's judging this thing?
You don't. We've asked some authors, some critics, and some editors to form our panel of judges. You just have to believe us when we say, "We think they can do the job," and "We didn't have a secret favorite before we began."
How do I know if my book is the right kind of book?
Well, IDEALLY, it needs to be speculative, and we dealt with that above; it needs to be feminist, that is, somehow teaching the full humanity and equality of women to members of a man-dominated culture (or somehow exposing the repression of women in that culture); and it should challenge other repression-related beliefs. The more of that it does, the better, and the degree to which your book doesn't do that is the degree to which it is likely to be rejected or not advanced in the contest.
Will you take submissions from men?
Yes.
What is the submission period?
All of the year 2002. The award will be presented in 2003.
Where? When?
Haven't decided. We'll be sure you find out if you win.
Are you giving any profits away?
Yes. 5% of profits from sales of the winning books will be given to Planned Parenthood, and the other 5% will be given to a women-oriented non-profit, like Planned Parenthood, the National Organization of Women, or UNESCO.
It's your chance to make a difference!
