Science Fiction, Nationalism, and Gender in Octavia E. Butler's "Bloodchild"

Science fiction (sf) can be seen as a relevant genre for the exploration of nationalist discourses. Invasion, or future-war, stories constitute a subgenre of sf that has often justified a conservative, nationalistic discourse. A possible way of reading many of the sf novels, as well as low-budget films, produced during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the early Cold-War period is to see it as a thin disguise to depict the struggle between the free West and the evil East. The giant vegetables and bug-eyed monsters threatening scantily-clad women on the covers of the pulp magazines are none other than representatives of the “Red or Yellow Peril” that valiant heroes from Earth—read the West or, more likely, the United States—are ready to defeat. But sf has come a long way from these stereotypical representations and, in the last thirty years, has offered a more critical look at society. With the development of what has been called an anthropological sf, writers have started to investigate the construction of the “Other” and the developments that come from the encounter—one that can often turn into a clash—with other cultures, nations, groups, or species. Thus, if sf can be one of the privileged genres for a discussion of nationalism, gender is often a relevant category in this discourse, because of the issue of reproduction and its control. A horrific reminder of the link between nationalism, violence, and gender is the growing number of ethnic rapes, where the act is justified by the fact that a woman is perceived as property of the enemy and as the most precious and symbolic extension of the self (read culture, land, and blood) because of the children she has given or can give him (Bimbi 2000: 44-45; use of the male generic is intentional). One text that can help us explore these issues is “Bloodchild,” the 1984 Hugo and Nebula Award-winning story by Octavia E. Butler, a complex and powerful tale about reproductive choices in a coercive situation. The theme of reproduction—a cornerstone in feminist sf—should not only be seen as a way to reconsider gender relations, but as a way to explore the hybridization of different cultures and the power inequality that informs relations.