Submitted by Leon_Depisa t3_11x0x7u in books
I'm more than a little worried about how this post will turn out, but here goes.
This past week I read both The Martian and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and I'm hooked. Love the way he writes and what he writes about!
As I read through his books, the next one on my "list" was Artemis. I went in expecting it to be another "escape room" type book but was pleasantly surprised when it focused more on a space-life culture and what it means to be a citizen in a space "colony" (even though I don't think you'd call Artemis a Colony; that's neither here nor there).
Anyway, Jazz never passes up an opportunity to talk about sex. A lot of time is spent talking about her sex life. She rarely passes up an opportunity to lean into the salacious or point out a double entendre she stumbled upon.
Now, I'm no pearl-clutching incel who can't bear to be reminded of the fact women are sexual, like sex, and think about sex. Her being sexual isn't what's catching me off-guard in the slightest. It's the contrast.
Now in The Martian and Project Hail Mary, sex comes up. There's talk of sex. It's fun and funny and breaks the tension nicely. But the comparable word count dedicated to the sexuality of the main character is off the charts for Artemis.
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So as a typical white guy who tends to read books where the main character is a typical white guy, I'm so excited to be breaking my own pattern and relating to this Woman from Saudi Arabia making her own way on the moon, instead of just nerdy guys.
But I've got alarm bells going off.
I'm a white guy. Mark Whatney and Ryland Grace are white guys. Andy Weir is a white guy.
Mark Whatney and Ryland Grace are not heavily sexualized.
The exotic space woman is heavily sexualized.
Am I reading too much into this? Not enough? Am I tripping over a molehill or asking if anyone else has ever seen this mountain? Is she over- or *hyper-*sexualized, or is this a totally typical (and reasonable) representation of women in modern literature?
I'm not a big reader, I'm on the spectrum, and I don't always pick up on things in the right way at the right moment, so I'm asking for constructive input: what lens should I view this writing through? Because this seems like one of those personal growth moments, and I don't want to let it sail by.