The Token 'Why' Chromosome?

Spaced Out tries to cater for a variety of people and interests: SF and related topics for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and supportive heterosexual people. To this end, we have always tried to include a mix in every issue of our newsletter – a balance to represent the above-named people, as well as a healthy mix of literary, media and print science fiction. (Readers may judge our results for themselves).

But this issue of “Diverse Universe” demonstrates a growth, an expansion beyond our traditional boundaries of page size and format. We believe we have some exciting material!

This issue attempts to acknowledge and redress an imbalance within our club – the relative scarcity of women. We often moan about the prejudice shown GLBTI people, but fail to recognize the ongoing prejudice against women in a heterosexist world. Is the SF community any different?

Women make up slightly more than 50% of the world’s population, but have traditionally been largely left out of SF, either as participants or as subjects. That is changing. In examining the emerging face of SF, perhaps we can glimpse a future world where all people are treated equally.

DU #17 includes interviews with US author Melissa Scott and Australian author Kerry Greenwood. Two other Australian SF authors – Claire McKenna and Sue Bursztynski – have kindly contributed articles on the two most popular forms of fan fiction written by heterosexual females: gay ‘slash’ fiction and heterosexual Mary Sue stories. We have also included artwork, poetry and fiction, and an in-depth history of Women in SF. Readers will also find a review of a classic award-winning novel written by one of SF’s most famous women: Ursula Le Guin. We even have film reviews of media SF both old and new.

All of this material fits into our theme of examining the place of Women in SF – and some of it may have surprising links to gay/lesbian/queer issues.

Thanks go to our contributors, including some loyal club members, and also a number of women who are not members of our club but have been willing to help us create this bumper issue. Special thanks also to Louis for allowing us to spend so much time compiling this newsletter, and to Chris for keeping us physically well fed while we digested so much food for thought! Thank you to everyone whose help made DU#17 possible.

In examining this expansion of theme and content, our ideas about this publication also seem to be changing. Is this a newsletter, or more of a fanzine (fan magazine) in its own right? What do readers think?

We invite our members and other readers to give us feedback on this and upcoming issues of “Diverse Universe”. Do you want future issues to contain another special theme, such as SF vs. fantasy, multicultural SF, transgender SF, celebrating diversity, or utopias vs. dystopias? What do YOU think?

We hope that this issue will prove to be a treat for our “XX”-Philes. We also hope that, as you read, you will absorb some of the qualities within – fun, challenge and excitement – and that this might somehow inspire us all to create a future that contains such qualities.