Gender and Sexuality (Blog Post 8)

      In the story "Day Million" by Frederick Pohl is a very short and interesting story. I find it almost crazy how he practically predicted our near future and how spot on he was about almost everything. First of the gender role and representation has been starting to mesh and blend lately (although are meshing and blending of the sexes aren't as severe and seemingly normal as in the story Pohl creates); however, the LGBTQ community rising up and working its way into pop culture is happening in our world. While sexual transformations (and people-who aren't completely people but technologically infused- not caring) are there in this story. Also, how Dora and Don casually falls in love gets married, split up, and go on with their normal lives as if nothing has ever happened kind of reminds me of today's celebrities. Today celebrities such as Kate Winslet (divorced twice), Jim Carry (divorced twice), and Angelina Jolie (divorced twice) are getting married and divorced faster than you can even blink. However, despite these things, Pohl's story concentrated little on the simplistic love story between Dora and Don but focused his attention more towards the reader simply because of the fact he writes in second person (rare in writing because it is the least used writing point of view). The central idea of his writing was to question the sensibility and rationality of the reader. For example, on page 383 he states "...if I try to tell you any of that you will simply stare. Or glare; and grumble, what the hell kind of love-making is this?" Pohl is directly challenging the reader's small-minded world view and our prejudices because we "glare," "grumble,"  and "stare" at the things we don't understand or cannot relate to like the idea of Dora getting sexually aroused and stimulated by herself through an analog of memories and characteristics. 

          When I think of the story "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ, I immediately think of feminism in all of its glory. In Whileaway (a world with only women) they established their own political system, defense mechanisms, social structure and reproduction processes without a feeling of lack while also being fulfilled in reproduction, sexually, and in relational matters. The Whileaway women view men (in a more extreme) way that most feminists today probably view men, the direct chasms that separate the two genders.