I love science fiction. Ever since I read Crisis on Conshelf Ten by Monica Hughes back in second grade, I was IN. My childhood was filled with science fiction, and as an adult, it remains my favourite genre. But science fiction has some issues that get ignored too often. So let’s talk about science fiction’s original sins.
Background
Much like its sibling genre, fantasy, science fiction evolved in the mud of a world of colonialism and normalized discrimination. It also grew from the scientific doctrines and ideologies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where eugenics and the idea of bioessentialism, that a person’s entire set of capabilities and potential is contained in their genes, was completely normal. And the issue is that a lot of science fiction, even the good stuff, perpetuates a lot of these ideas forwards.
Racism by Omission
The future is white. Or mostly white. Racism by omission is the preferred flavour or early (and modern) sci-fi. Minorities are in the background or supporting players at best, and aliens are more acceptable. And this has tracked long into the genre. It’s still alarmingly easy to flip through a modern game book or browse the covers of novels and not see a non-white protagonist or example for a while. Sometimes this habit is “mitigated” with the implication or passing statement that there are separate but equal groups off-screen. Which is, in itself, a whole other set of problems.
And of course, this doesn’t ignore the actual straight up racism prevalent in many works of the past and now.
Libertarian Universe
It’s not just that a lot of sci-fi is unquestioning about capitalism, a lot of it is also libertarian. It takes the self-made man who can do anything they want wherever they want to a whole new level. Often to a degree that’s world breaking if you examine it more than a bit. It’s the worst aspects of the Wild West mixed with capitalism and rugged individualism, then presented as a positive. And the scary thing is that this isn’t by accident. But now, owing to the dominant position of American writers in sci-fi, we have to deal with it.
Eugenics
This one exists in the background of so many works of science fiction. It’s seldom blatant. There aren’t a lot of authors or creators who will have a “Department of Genetic Hygiene” in their worlds or stories. Where this shows is that there’s seldom anyone with disabilities. Even “accepted” disabilities, like glasses or hearing impairment or the “milder” forms of autism are rare. And the implication is that in the future, these things simply won’t exist because of medical science, and that no parents would ever allow their children to be anything but a “perfect” human being given the option.
The problem, aside from the optics of it all, is that it denies agency and assumes that anything less than “normal” is an unwanted defect. I used to wear eyeglasses. I got laser eye surgery. I chose to get that surgery. My mother didn’t have my genes scanned and edited. And that’s the point. Agency and choice. People are people, and everyone deserves representation. But in the eugenics influenced futures we often read about, we don’t see that at work very often.
Bioessentialism
This comes in so, so many different forms.
“The XYZ people are natural…” is everywhere. Warriors. Scientists. Philosophers. Engineers. Thieves. Killers. Slaves. It usually starts with a member of said people making a one off appearance in a specific role or situation, and it sticks. Suddenly everyone from said group is inclined to be or hyper skilled as whatever that first one was presented as or doing. And it’s as problematic and racist here as it is in fantasy.
The other is “everyone in their place” syndrome. It’s related to the above issue, but more subtle. It’s where certain people are always in subservient or supporting rolls. This is broadly applied to all peoples of colour. They’re either supporting or opposing, but seldom in the lead. It’s infuriating to see, but keeps on happening. One factor, in my opinion, being that publishers like white protagonists and pressure authors to make sure they are.
Proxies
Too often, and almost always ham-handedly, early creators threw a coat of paint and cheap makeup effects on stereotypes for a real world people for their heroes to fight. And this practice is still common. “They’re aliens, not people, so if you read it and see real world connections, you’re crazy!” is the usual defence. You know, in the face of the obvious cultural and or visual cues and painful stereotypes. A particularly painful example comes from a game I otherwise loved, 2300 AD. The Kafers (later Kaefers under Mongoose), and their presentation, are a thinly veiled analogue for the Zulu and Black sub-saharan Africans in general. Kafer is too close to the South African slur Kaffir to be a mistake, and they literally had a book titled “Kafer Dawn” released in 1987, parallelling the title of Zulu Dawn, a film from 1979 about the British defeat at the hands of the Zulu at Isandlwana.
Slavery
A lot of science fiction creators bend over backyards to create slaves or de facto slaves and then make it “okay” through justifications. Sometimes its intelligent robots or androids. Less often, purpose bred “humans”. Other times its aliens. And it’s always justified in world as an inevitable necessity of life and industry. Some authors try to sugar coat it by making it “enlightened slavery”. But at the end of the day, it’s present and socially acceptable. And it shouldn’t be.
Another place this flares up with humanity creates a slave species and then is shocked, SHOCKED when they rebel and for some reason don’t want to be reasonable about things. These stories usually place humanity on the defensive, and gloss over the whole “we brought this on ourselves” angle in favour of a narrative of “See? They’d do the same to us!” that ends up supporting slavery and discrimination.
The Celebration of Colonialism
This comes in a few flavours. One is the classic Bringer of Knowledge trope. Where a human, usually a white man, is stranded on a planet with an alien population that’s somewhere in the neolithic to medieval in terms of technology and society, and then proceeds to “show them the way”. Sometimes it’s linked with a chosen one or great white hope vibe.
Another is simply the replication of real world colonialism, but on another planet. A planet where genocide or the destruction of the local cultures is okay because humans are the Ancient Alien stand-ins, bringing death or “civilization” to the primitives. Or other times, they’re simply rounded up, herded onto Reserves, and treated like a problem for not wanting to live on a postage stamp of land under colonial thumbs.
Final Thoughts
Sci-fi has some troubling original sins, and unfortunately, a lot of them persist into the modern day. Some media, like The Expanse and Murderbot, have taken serious steps away from the problematic sludge and shown that these old aspects don’t have to be present to make “good sci-fi”. But they remain present in the background, especially the more insidious and often “subtle” ones like eugenics and slavery (think the Droids in Star Wars). But my big point here is that we need to recognize the problematic parts to avoid repeating them.
When you’re putting together your sci-fi world, what is the bigger picture? What statements, intended or unintended, might you be making? How are you approaching sensitive topics? Is there a better way to portray something?
