She-Refs & She-Hulks

I've been offered a Sci/Fi class for next year. It may happen in the fall, but it will certainly happen in the winter. I've spent the last week or so obsessing about what to cover, & yesterday @ Nicola's I was talking about this w/ a co-worker. When I mentioned The Handmaid's Tale, this person suggested that it may be a bit out-dated & that sort of patriarchal distopian is no longer a possibility. That claim didn't sit right w/ me for 2 reasons. 1) Even if it's an impossibility, the book was important & influential when it came out & 2) I don't know that I really believe a patriarchal future is really out of the question. I mean, we're in a patriarchal present after all. That said, I didn't connect this conversation w/ the previous day's soccer viewing though until just now though.

While watching the Liverpool v Wolves match on Saturday, I noticed that the Assistant Referee was a woman. I'd always wondered why men reffed women's games, but women never reffed men's games. I suppose I should preface that by saying that I always kind of knew why, but didn't want to believe that it really just came down to the sexist bastards in charge of the leagues. Apparently, that's the case though. Or at least, it's clear that the sexism of the higher-ups is still rampant. According to someone on the BBC this morning, this was the 3rd time a woman has worked a like in a Premier League match. Kudos to those 3 for doing that, but also for doing that in the face of people like douchebags extraordinaire Andy Grey & Richard Keys. They were the 2 commentators on Sky Sports calling the game. As the BBC story reported this morning, they left their mics on while suggesting that they should explain the off-sides rule to her because "Women don't know the offsides rule." In their defense, most don't, but most men don't either. It's a tricky rule. However, we're talking about a person who has passed all of the highest levels of testing to earn her place as a Premier League referee. Ironically, she made 2 correct off-sides decisions when the commentators needed to view the replay to acknowledge that she was right. One call lead to a goal that they originally thought should have been called back. The other to calling back an attack they originally claimed should have continued. Perhaps they need it explained to them... by this particular ref maybe... or maybe by Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm, Jayne Ludlow or any other the other 10s of 1,000s of women who have made a living playing or reffing professional soccer.

At least they didn't, as Karen Bradey, the Vice-Chair of West Ham United explained, demand she make them a pot of tea. Bradey said that would have been beyond the pale... & she's right, but no one seems to be discussing what was said during the match... it's all about what they said when they thought no one was listening.

During the match, they referred to her as a "Lady ref." The term "Assistant Referee" came into usage in 1996 (yes, 15 years ago) to curtail the sexist language of the term "linesmen," yet as soon as female referees come into the game, the announcers feel the need to marginalize them. They never referred to the other referees as "Gentlemen refs;" "Lady refs" is clearly ridiculous. It's only 1 step above "She-Refs," & they're not wolves... or Hulks.

Speaking of sci/fi characters, here's the list of Sci/Fi books I'm thinking of doing in my class. It needs some work yet, but so far, it looks like it'll be fun.

Frankenstein: Mary Shelly (1818)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Jules Verne (1868)
or
The Steam House: Jules Verne (1879)
War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells (1898)
We: Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
Brave New World: Adolus Huxley (1932)
Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell (1949)
Childhood's End: Aurthur C. Clarke (1953)
A Clockwork Orange: Anthony Burgess (1962)
Slaughterhouse-Five: Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Philip K. Dick (1969)
The Left Hand of Darkness: Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
or
The Lathe of Heaven: Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
The Princess Bride: William Goldman (1973)
Kindred: Octavia Butler (1979)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams (1979)
Neuromancer: William Gibson (1984)
The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood (1985)
The Sparrow: Mary Doria Russel (1996)
Dream of Perpetual Motion: Dexter Palmer (2010)

I'm also considering a graphic novel (probably an Alan Moore) and an anthology of shorter stuff. Feel free to post your suggestions. I want to try to avoid the more common stuff that they've probably read already, and the books need to be coverable in a week.