"Ghosts Of Mars: 'Your Rights Are Protected By The Matronage'" Topic

"Do I get a lawyer, or don't police officers have rights these days?"
"Representation by counsel won't be necessary. Your rights are protected by the Matronage. You can speak freely."

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QUESTION:
From movies, tv or literature you might have come across, in which SF cultures (alien or human) have females had more rights than the males?

Dan

Alien. The Queen was certainly the boss there :) .

Wonder Woman – the Amazons
Some Sci-fi novels I've read had female insects in charge (can't remember which books, though).

"The queen of outer space " And a number of other B movies from the 1950s and 60s

John Carter, Warlord of Mars
Deja Thoris was always getting herself kidnapped…forcing John to go rescue her. And he couldn't just lock her up for safe keeping. So the poor guy really didn't have any choices except to brave certain death. What an egotistical @#$%.

1970s series "Strange New World" AKA The Pax Trilogy had a matriarchal society.

CJ Cherryh's Chanur series… the cat people had a matriarchal society in space; males were not allowed to leave the homeworld.

Futurama – Death by snu-snu!

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The modern West.

Living near the border of Tibet in the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the Mosuo are perhaps the most famous matrilineal society…

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I am looking for extreme fictional societies that are much more than just matrilineal about heredity issues, and that go beyond simply allowing a female ruler to have male and female subjects.

I know there have been few a extreme ones in SF, with a male population that is outclassed and subservient across the board (regardless of the age group or the economic class), meaning that the lowest ranking female still outranks every single male in that society, a bit like hyena society on our planet. I might be wrong, but I think that was the social structure in Ghosts of Mars too. No man could outrank a woman or give her an order, right?

I think there was something like that in Star Trek TNG, right?

Dan

The women of Opar in "Tarzan and the Jewels Of Opar".

ST:TNG Angel One?

Doug

Yep. As I recall Strange New World put all women as higher rank than any man. Men were slaves who called any woman "Mistress" no matter what her social standing may have been in relation to other women. In Ghosts of Mars, although women were clearly in command, men seemed to have some equality of authority in certain cases (there were no women running the train, for example). Male Police carried weapons and were subordinate, but not subservient, to women. There were female prostitutes as well.

One of EE Doc Smiths Lensman books had such a society. Don't ask me which one, I read them a long time ago.

pvernon, you're talking about the Matriarchs of Lyrane II.

The Matriarchs are classified as human to all degrees, but they are extreme sexual dimorphs; Despite the females having a general appearance and range of attributes similar to other human races, their males have developed along a line of extreme aggression and physical strength, being described as "vicious dwarf creatures " with an intellect equivalent of a mobile plant species noted for having no intellect, and a disposition to violence rivaling that of a well-known predatory chiropteraform, the Rigellian cateagle.

Their society is depicted as a hierarchy based on both intelligence and strength of psychic powers, most notably a telepathic ability to bend others to one's will ( Their psychic talents are limited to this, probably evolving as a way of controlling their males for the act of mating? ); Notable and subtle features of their society are the lack of personal grooming ( Hair is described as mostly being unkempt 'shag cuts', as most women "Lop off any locks at random that get in the way of work" while styled hair is a sign of privilege ) and make-up ( Jewellery, however, exists as badges of rank ). Clothing is worn "merely for protection, such as an engineers coveralls" as well as due to the clement climate and the less clothing a Lyranian wears is again a sign of high importance and ability in society.

On the whole, the Lyranian Matriarchs are described rather sympathetically by Smith; They respect a visiting Lensman, despite inbuilt prejudices against males, when he demonstrates abilities that equal their own, and in an even-handed fashion find alien females with lesser abilities to be considered inferior rather than automatically equal simply for being female. They are rather xenophobic, most likely due to the fact that they differ from other human and alien species so much that their mental state jars so much with others.

I will also note that in the "Well Of Souls" books by Jack Chalker, there are several races with similar societies from similar biological causes as well: In fact, in one book, a race of matriarchal wasp-like sentients spend many years of research on their ape-like neighbors to determine if they can make that race's females equal the males in intelligence and mobility ( The apes live in colonies like meerkats, and the females are like Mole rat, ant or bumblebee queens ), finally grudgingly admitting defeat and forming an odd alliance with them. :)

you're talking about the Matriarchs of Lyrane II

Thanks for that! Don't recall seeing those, and will have to do a bit of diggin' as to which book.

After the Kzin and the Ferengi, at least at first descriptions, women were doing very poorly in sci-fi. ;->=

Doug

1970s series "Strange New World" AKA The Pax Trilogy had a matriarchal society.

Oooh, and Mariette Hartley with a double innie. :)

KF