{"id":488,"date":"2004-02-01T01:12:52","date_gmt":"2004-02-01T01:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/?p=488"},"modified":"2021-03-10T07:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T07:51:02","slug":"strong-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/strong-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong Women Characters in Early Heinlein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strong Women Characters in Early Heinlein<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by G. E. Rule<\/span> <\/strong>(Geo Rule) \u00a92003<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong> This article is based on a presentation given by me at BayCon 2003, May 24, 2003, in a panel discussion by Heinlein Society members on Heinlein’s Women characters. My portion of the discussion was on the portrayal of Women characters prior to 1942 when RAH met his third wife, Virginia, who is often credited as the role-model for many of his later strong women characters. My point was to show that he was using strong women characters from the beginning (which is not to deny that Ginny was the model in many cases later on). Other panelists were Bill Patterson, Robert \u201cDoc\u201d James, David Silver, and Deb Houdek Rule. Deb pretty much stole the show, but then she is the \u201cmost qualified\u201d to discuss the subject!\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The version given below is slightly expanded from that given at the Con, with good lines stolen from fellow panelists (Thanks!) in some instances. The whole \u201cMagic, Inc.\u201d section was added when an audience member mentioned it as a good example of what I was trying to show.\u00a0 I\u2019d remembered it mostly as an EPIC-inspired political shenanigans fantasy, but when I went back to look, darn if the audience member wasn\u2019t right. As Deb pointed out in her section, this was one of Heinlein\u2019s great strengths\u00a0 –he had a great ability to \u201cteach under the radar\u201d on subjects that were only peripherally connected to the story at hand, and so subtly that you usually didn\u2019t catch him at it unless you were on the lookout for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no doubt that remarkable woman, Ginny Gerstenfeld Heinlein, was the model for many of Heinlein\u2019s later strong and talented women characters.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t my purpose to attempt to disprove that truth. My co-panelist Doc James (author of \u201cRegarding Leslyn\u201d available in the Heinlein Journal<\/em>, issue 9<\/span><\/a><\/strong>) will tell you that Leslyn MacDonald Heinlein was a model for some of the strong characters in the period I am about to discuss. I don\u2019t deny that either.\u00a0 All I am trying to show is that RAH was writing strong women characters right from the beginning of his published career. He liked strong, competent women.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let There Be Light\u201d<\/strong> (1940 Super Science Stories<\/em>; \u201cLyle Monroe\u201d after Campbell turned it down for being too sexy \u2013does not appear in all copies of the \u201cChart\u201d, but Douglas & Martin and their sunscreen does. Published by a young, wet-behind-the-ears editor by the name of Fred Pohl.)<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know what Heinlein\u2019s \u201cFuture History\u201d is, then you need to buy a copy of \u201cThe Past Through Tomorrow\u201d (which contains most of the Future History) and \u201cThe Man Who Sold the Moon\u201d (which includes \u201cLet There Be Light\u201d) and find out what all the shouting is about.\u00a0 Polls of science fiction aficionados consistently place RAH\u2019s Future History as one of the great achievements in SF history. A thematically connected series of stories that assumed and built on each other while being entirely separate at the same time, it was a bold concept for its time. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Future History was co-founded by a woman.\u00a0Mary Lou Martin <\/strong>is a bio-chemist and ecologist with \u201cenough degrees for six men\u201d, so many that her soon-to-be-partner Archie Douglas assumes \u201che\u201d is going to be an old man, and can tell that \u201che\u201d is a \u201cheavy-weight\u201d in scientific circles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFigure like a strip-dancer\u201d, blond, blue-eyes. Sassy. Lots of sex-appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

She initiates the contact with Douglas, traveling 1,500 miles to work with him after reading one of his articles on \u201ccold light\u201d.\u00a0She makes the conceptual breakthrough \u201cwhy can\u2019t we cut a crystal that would have a natural frequency in the octave of visible light?\u201d that leads to the \u201cDouglas-Martin sunscreen\u201d. She pulls, prods, and bullies him into completing the engineering. Finally, she is the one that realizes that the only way to beat the big power companies who are trying to throttle them with lawsuits is to make all the details of their discovery public to the whole world.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll notice that the poor girl still doesn\u2019t get top-billing, however. Maybe we should start an online petition to change the name to the \u201cMartin-Douglas Sunscreen\u201d! <\/span><\/p>\n

The raw material of the Douglas-Martin Sunscreen is clay, available anywhere.\u00a0 The cheap, abundant, and efficient power, heat, and light provided by the Douglas-Martin Sunscreen is the technological foundation for the rest of the Future History.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMagic, Inc\u201d <\/strong>(1940, Unknown,<\/em> Robert A. Heinlein) <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

An out-and-out fantasy about what would happen if magic was just another part of the world, much like science and technology. The hero, Archibald Fraser, is a building supplies contractor. The story revolves around the ubiquitous use of \u201ccommercial magic\u201d, with Heinlein showing a great deal of inventiveness in how magic could be used profitably for very mundane purposes. This story is usually remembered as a \u201cpolitical shenanigans story\u201d, with Heinlein clearly using his experiences as a lieutenant in Upton Sinclair\u2019s EPIC organization in the 1930\u2019s. This background provided most of the details of parliamentary procedure and techniques of political skullduggery used in the maneuvering to gain or forestall monopolistic control of the magic that most businessman required to keep their businesses profitable. <\/span><\/p>\n

Amanda Todd Jennings<\/strong> is a \u201cwhite witch\u201d, described as grandmotherly and \u201cninety years older than Santy Claus, and feeble to boot\u201d. She is also an incredibly strong and determined woman who is the real hero of the story. Her command of the denizens of the \u201chalf world\u201d (gnomes and such) and Hell itself is very impressive. In one remarkable scene she makes Satan himself back down:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSatan Mekratig,\u201d she said slowly, \u201cdo you wish to try your strength with me?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith you, madam?\u201d He looked at her carefully, as if inspecting her for the first time. \u201cWell, it\u2019s been a trying day, hasn\u2019t it? Suppose we say no more about it. Till another time, then\u2014\u201c. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

He was gone.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Jennings characterization made me want to do some research on Heinlein\u2019s grade-school teachers in search of her model. Her handling of the Gnome King reminded me of nothing so much as a surly third-grader being brought to heel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sally Logan<\/strong> is a political insider at the state capitol, who gets her way by knowing everyone and everyone owing her a favor. She never accepts political patronage jobs, and is highly respected because of it. Another main character, Joe Jedson, describes her to Archie Fraser as \u201ccombining the shrewdness of Machiavelli with the great-hearted integrity of Oliver Wendell Holmes\u201d. After meeting her, Archie describes her thusly:<\/span><\/p>\n

I had unconsciously expected something pretty formidable in the way of a mannish matron. What I saw was a plump, cheerful-looking blond, with an untidy mass of yellow hair and frank blue eyes. She was entirely feminine, not over thirty at the outside, and there was something about her that was tremendously reassuring. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

She made me think of county fairs and well water and sugar cookies.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And she also knows where all the bodies are buried at the state capitol and who dug the graves. Possibly she was handling the shovel on more than a few of those jobs herself. <\/span><\/p>\n

In talking about Sally Logan, Joe Jedson describes why he prefers her to many other women in politics.\u00a0One must remember that this is 1940 we\u2019re talking about, but the following description is very informative:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSally isn\u2019t a woman politician, she is simply a politician, and asks no special consideration because of her sex. She can stand up and trade punches with the toughest manipulators on the Hill. What I said about women politicians is perfectly true, as a statistical generalization, but it proves nothing about any particular woman\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like this: Most women in the United States have shortsighted, peasant individualism resulting from the male-created romantic tradition of the last century. They were told that they were superior creatures, a little nearer to the angels than their menfolks. They were not encouraged to think nor to assume social responsibility. It takes a strong mind to break out of that sort of conditioning, and most minds simply aren\u2019t up to it, male or female.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cConsequently, women as electors are usually suckers for romantic nonsense. They can be flattered into misusing their ballot even more easily than men. In politics their self-righteous felling of virtue, combined with their essentially peasant training, resulted in their introducing a type of cut-rate, petty chiseling that should make Boss Tweed spin in his coffin\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Sally\u2019s not like that. She\u2019s got a tough mind which could reject the hokum\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not in love with her, are you?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho, me? Sally\u2019s happily married and has two of the best kids I know.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One could read the above passage as an attack on \u201cmost women\u201d in politics, circa 1940, but I suggest that a much more accurate reading would be a profound admiration for strong, competent women with enough character to reject pervasive patriarchal societal stereotypes without losing their femininity in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the purpose of this essay is to look at strong female characters in Heinlein\u2019s work prior to 1942, I simply can\u2019t leave \u201cMagic Inc.\u201d without looking at Heinlein\u2019s handling of race in this story as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Royce Worthington <\/strong>is a \u201cwitch-smeller\u201d, sort of an anti-witch. He is impeccably dressed and speaks with \u201ca cultured British voice, with a hint of Oxford in it\u201d. Archie describes their first meeting:<\/span><\/p>\n

My office girl brought in his card a half hour later. I got up to great him and saw a tall, heavy-set man with a face of great dignity and evident intelligence. He was dressed in rather conservative, expensively tailored clothes and carried gloves, stick, and a large brief-case. But he was black as draftsman\u2019s ink!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I tried not to show my surprise. I hope I did not, for I have an utter horror of showing that kind of rudeness. There was no reason why the man should not be a Negro. I simply had not been expecting it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One suspects \u201can utter horror of showing that kind of rudeness\u201d is the author speaking for himself as well. Sexism and racism have often been linked, and as a corollary, anti-sexism and anti-racism are also often found together. Dr. Worthington is a native African, and Archie ruminates on stereotypes founded on African-Americans:<\/span><\/p>\n

We white men in this country are inclined to underestimate the black man \u2013I know that I do\u2014because we see him out of his cultural matrix. Those we know have had their own culture wrenched from them some generations back and a servile pseudo culture imposed on them by\u00a0 force. We forget that the black man has a culture of his own, older than ours and more solidly \u00a0grounded, based on character and the power of the mind rather than the cheap ephemeral tricks of mechanical gadgets.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Strong, in-your-face stuff for 1940.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf This Goes On–\u201d<\/strong> (1940, Astounding<\/em>, Robert A. Heinlein)<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most celebrated of Heinlein\u2019s stories, and a cornerstone of the Future History, \u201cIf This Goes On\u2014\u201c describes the overthrow of a theocracy that has replaced constitutional democracy in the United States. The rule of the \u201cProphet Incarnate\u201d uses religious superstition and advanced science\u2014carefully restricted to governmental use\u2014to control the population. Meanwhile, the \u201cCabal\u201d\u2014based in part on Free Masonry and in part on the secret societies active in Heinlein\u2019s own Missouri during the Civil War\u2014works to overthrow the Prophets and restore the U. S. Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heinlein\u2019s protagonist is the twitterpated choirboy, John Lyle. Lyle is a West Point graduate and newly made \u201cLegate\u201d (read 2nd Lieutenant) in the \u201cAngels of the Lord\u201d stationed at the Prophet\u2019s palace in New Jerusalem. Lyle becomes infatuated with the Virgin Sister Judith. \u201cVirgin\u201d is her condition as well as her title, and she\u2013and Lyle\u2014become horrified when her true duties to the Prophet Incarnate become unmistakably clear in a very earthy manner.<\/span><\/p>\n

If written up by the official historian of the Cabal, Sister Maggie Andrews <\/strong>would be the real hero of the story. It is she, another of the Prophet\u2019s wives, who precipitates the crisis early in the story that moves Lyle, his worldly-friend Zebadiah Jones, and Sister Judith from peccadilloes to treason. When a clandestine meeting between Sister Judith and Lyle is discovered by a spy, it is Sister Maggie who attacks the spy and kills him; quickly and quietly by sticking a blade between his ribs.\u00a0 She vouches for Lyle to her brethren in the Cabal, saving his life when many of them are not sure they can take a chance on a young man who is so clearly deeply indoctrinated in the rightness of the Prophets\u2019 rule. While the others are safe in the arms of the Cabal, it is Sister Maggie who ventures out to see if the authorities have discovered that they are the culprits \u2013a job that easily could have resulted in an excruciating death at the hands of the Grand Inquisitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Sister Maggie is not well-educated nor trained because of the society she lives in, she is another of Heinlein\u2019s supremely competent women, fearless and clear-eyed in a crisis.\u00a0 After leaving her undercover work, she becomes \u201cSergeant Andrews\u201d with the Cabal and works for the final overthrow of the Prophet.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is interesting to note the difference between Zebadiah Jones and Sister Maggie in the early part of Heinlein\u2019s story.\u00a0 Zebadiah is highly intelligent and trained, and clearly understands the immorality and basic sickness of the society in which he lives.\u00a0 He is the wise City Slicker to John Lyle\u2019s Country Cousin. He knows about the Cabal, and knows that Sister Maggie is a member of it. Yet when the story opens he isn\u2019t doing anything concrete to oppose the regime, except to play the game to his own advantage in a sardonic above-it-all manner.\u00a0 That is until Sister Maggie\u2019s actions precipitate the crisis that forces him to confront the situation and make a choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heinlein rewrote this story in 1953, and an interesting difference between the two is that in the earlier story Heinlein allows Lyle to marry the inconsequential piece-of-fluff Judith.\u00a0 In the later story, Sister Maggie becomes John\u2019s wife, in spite of her checkered past (we are told she had many affairs once the Prophet \u201cwas through with her\u201d).\u00a0 We are also told that that her personality chart shows a dominant personality that \u201clooks like the Rocky Mountains!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c–We Also Walk Dogs\u201d<\/strong> (1941, Astounding <\/em>\u2013Anson MacDonald)<\/span><\/p>\n

General Services Corporation will provide any service (except murder) for a price.\u00a0 Grace Cormet <\/strong>is an \u201caristocrat of resourcefulness\u201d that handles the special customers with the highest credit ratings and most outrageous requests. Married, she does not use her married name, but instead stays \u201cMiss Cormet\u201d. Cool, unshakeable, terrifically competent. She immediately recognizes the serious nature of an unusual request from a Planetary Official and decides on her own authority to disregard company policy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Not particularly sexual (from what we can see), but she is willing to be so if the job requires it. A natural brunette with a dark complexion (a tip-off that she is modeled on Leslyn MacDonald Heinlein), she dies her hair blond and bleaches her skin to influence a government official whose \u201cweakness is blonds\u201d to fulfill one mission. Her boss regards the makeover as \u201cstupendous\u201d, but she immediately returns to natural when it is no longer necessary. Grace Cormet leads GSC\u2019s successful effort to invent a \u201cgravity-shield\u201d and secure incalculable advantages to Earth (and, oh yeah, General Services Corporation too).\u00a0 Just another successful commission for GSC and Grace.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strong Women Characters in Early Heinlein by G. E. Rule (Geo Rule) \u00a92003 \u00a0 This article is based on a presentation given by me at BayCon 2003, May 24, 2003, in a panel discussion by Heinlein Society members on Heinlein’s Women characters. My portion of the discussion was on the portrayal of Women characters prior…
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