Woman and Sci Fi

I came across this article over at Stone Dead Parrots titled Megan McArdle on Women and Sci-Fi…. In it, he talks about a quote from Ms. McArdle (I’ll be honest, I have no idea who she is) regarding women and the science fiction genre:

Megan McArdle has some thoughts on women and sci-fi:

But I think it’s kind of hard to deny that there are a lot of women who do not like science fiction because it doesn’t fit into their conception of girly. Stating that you are a woman who likes science fiction, and lots of women like science fiction, is theatrical, but it’s beside the point; the demographic is overwhelmingly male.

I have to agree with a lot of what the author is saying, but there is one line that I don’t know if I agree with:

I would also go so far as to say that one reason for expanded interest by women in SF and fantasy has to do with a single person: JK Rowling.

I think it would be very egotistical of Rowling or anyone to say that she is the reason that there has been such an interest in the urban fantasy setting. Afterall, all of her novels are considered more youth fiction than anything. Even if you want to consider her straight fantasy (without the YA distinction), there are still a ton of successful UF authors who have been around for a lot longer. For instance, Laurell K Hamilton has been writing since the early 1990’s. By the time Harry Potter and the Sorcercer’s Stone was published, LKH was getting ready to publish her ninth Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel.

There are other UF authors who have been just as successful and have been around for a lot longer than Rowling, but because they were woman writing about vampires, werewolves, magic, etc, they were generally categorized as horror novelists instead of fantasy. At the same time, it isn’t only women writing in the UF genre. Granted, whenever I go through the UF section at the bookstore, there are a ton of female writers, but there are also a bunch of male writers springing up as well. JF Lewis (Staked), Justin Gustainis (Black Magic Woman), Anton Strout (Dead to Me), and Mark Henry (Happy Hour of the Damned) are just a few that are writing in this genre. Now the real question, if they had wrote these novels before the distinction of UF, would they have been considered fantasy novelists or horror novelists?

The whole genre of Urban Fantasy has blurred the lines between romance and fantasy, as well as has delved into the horror side as well. Or at least made more woman look to horror for something other than Anne Rice or Stephen King or to fantasy for something other than Tolkien, Terry Goodkind, or RA Salvatore.

I will say one thing, Rowlings is probably the one responsible for the hype that ends up surrounding certain novels. Before the Potter epidemic, has anyone ever heard of book release parties being as big as they were? Even with the release of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (rumored to be the next Rowling), bookstores across the nations are planning on being open at the stroke of midnight and having parties (Barnes & Noble is having Prom Nights) to celebrate the release. I’m not familiar with any other novels that had this much hype.

Over the past few months, I’ve been finding lots of articles talking about the sudden success of the Urban Fantasy genre and it’s been kind of interesting to see some of the reactions. I’ve seen people say that the fantasy genre is going downhill and that the new authors aren’t worth the time to even try. I’ve seen some complain that they’ve been told that woman are not into sci-fi/fantasy. All I have to say is, it’s been amusing to see the various debates this semi-new genre has been provoking.