Yin and Yang Duke it Out

'''Gordon, Joan. "Yin and Yang Duke it Out"' (also "Yin and Yang Duke It Out: Is Cyberpunk Feminism's New Age?") In Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction.'' Larry McCaffery, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1991: 196-202. On-line form liked with note.

Finds "Overt feminist SF" though the 1980s to be "in a rut," with essentialist (our word here) views of the Yin-ish nurturing, Nature-rooted woman vs. the Yang-ish (i.e., thugish (also our term) males. Now, however, cyberpunk has appeared. At first glance it seems to be overt masculinist science fiction - men are men, waving guns and knives, [...] and plugged up to the gills with pollutant technology. But look at the women in mirrorshades - Molly in Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), Deadpan Allie in Cadigan's Mindplayers (1987), for instance - aren't they tougher than the rest? I would suggest that cyberpunk is covert feminist science fiction. On that night foray into the underworld [...], men and women travel as equals. Furthermore, and potentially liberating for feminist science fiction, the cyberpunk vision is a radical departure from traditional feminist SF. This difference allows an escape from the present nostalgia for a distant and irrecoverable past.

In addition to the works mentioned above and a typically bracing example of Joan Gordon's prose, see for working into the discussion of feminism and cyberpunk, William Gibson's Burning Chrome (story collection) and Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net.

Also note Gordon on feminist SF and technology, and her use of Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949) and the descent motif. So the cyberpunk vision would allow feminist science fiction writers to consider the possibilities of a less antagonistic relationship with technology and to examine women's identity in the "credible future," but cyberpunk has more to offer. Another characteristic which has not been exploited by feminist science fiction is cyberpunk's extensive and gritty handling of the motif of the journey to the underworld. [...] In every case [of psychological descent in Mindplayers]], the trip reveals the underside of the human condition; hence, the "hard-edged, gloomy passion" with which Sterling characterizes Gibson's literary tone.

Feminist SF has investigated movingly and convincingly the underside of the male power structure, but only rarely has it explored the underside of female identity. It has been necessary to explore what is good and strong about female identity, and what is dangerous about an inimicable male-dominated society. But since every human being has a dark side, for us to acknowledge our full female identity requires that we undertake the journey. [...] A version of the mythic journey to the underworld will help us capture our own dark side. [... And/but] the risk may well be worth it in both psychological and literary terms.