Neuromancer And Octavia E. Butler's Parable Of The Sower

Science fiction is typically considered to be dominated by men, often leading to the poor representation of women. This issue is particularly relevant to the genre with the growing attention on feminism and women’s issues in society. Despite a recent string of success, the genre has a varied history with the portrayal of female characters, both positive and negative. In exploring the role of women in the science fiction narrative, William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower highlight the differences in the genre as it relates to female representation.

William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) is an acclaimed cyberpunk work in the science fiction genre. In the novel, Molly features as the most, and perhaps only, significant

female character. Gillis notes that, like many women in cyberpunk, Molly’s character is reduced to her ability to fight and her sexuality:
These women are positioned as very much at home in the traditionally masculine domains of both technology and physicality … Yet this articulation of female agency is mediated by the ways in which the bodies of these … women are reduced to either a sexualized or monstrous femininity. Cyberpunk … with physically tough women and girls who are in control of their urban environments. However, these figures are always contained by the language of sexual representation, physically powerful yet always positioned as accountable for and through a sexualized femininity. (Gillis)
As such, Molly becomes more of a caricature than a genuine character.

She largely becomes a prop for Henry Case, the male lead. Following their first meeting, Molly initiates a sexual encounter with Case—she does this rather than answering Case’s question, implying Molly uses sex as a distraction technique. Gillis believes that Molly sleeps with Case as a part of her job and that she still is a prostitute (Gillis). The writing style of this scene removes any meaning from the characters in the moment and focuses instead on the physical act. The two fall into a sexual relationship following the death of Case’s previous love interest, Linda Lee. As Case lays in bed with Molly, he describes her flank as “defined with the functional elegance of a war plane’s fusilage” (Gibson, 44). This serves to emphasize her appeal and physique, something that Gibson takes great pains to emphasize throughout the novel. The Finn further accentuates this when he comments on Molly’s body, “So now you get to find out just how tight those jeans really are, huh?” (Gibson, 53). This demeans her character as a professional by framing her as a sexual object for Case to use. This is further emphasized as Case uses the simstim—Molly “slid a hand into her jacket, a fingertip circling a nipple under warm silk” (Gibson, 56). With this, Gillis notes a power imbalance between the two along with the continued sexualization of

Molly:
As such, [Case] is able to hack his way into anything, including Millions. … Yet what is crucial is that Millions’ body here is merely one more hacking tool for Case, no different from the consoles he uses to enter cyberspace. In this way, the femme fatale Millions becomes no more than a vessel for both Case’s desire and his prowess and her physical ass-kicking abilities are reduced to mere tools for the job. (Gillis)
Immediately following this, Case realizes he doesn’t know anything about Molly—what he does know mostly relates to sex.

This applies to the overall novel, as her sexuality is emphasized over all else. Her character is further reduced to Armitage’s ‘woman’ following the infiltration of Sense/Net (Gibson, 68). Later in the novel, Molly is forced to face a sexual based humiliation as Riviera has sex with an illusion of her in front of an audience. Following this, Case learns that Molly used to work as a prostitute to earn money for her enhancements—“Wake up sore, sometimes, but that’s it. Renting the goods, is all. You aren’t in, when it’s all happening. House has software for whatever a customer wants to pay for” (Gibson, 147). This language acts to mitigate the seriousness of the situation—Molly lost all autonomy and the ability to consent. Following this, her boss took advantage of her and exposed her to dangerous sexual violence. Throughout the novel, Molly is continually placed in the position of a sexual object at Case’s disposal. As such, Molly’s character is not developed beyond this and falls flat as a proper representation of a complex human

being.
Besides Molly, Neuromancer has no other significant female characters. 3Jane plays so small a role in the story that she becomes more of a nonentity while Linda Lee, like Molly, is framed only in the context of her sexual relationship with Case. Wintermute—in the image of the pimp, Lonny Zone—tells Case, “Lindas are a generic product in my line of work …For the little she was worth, she loved you” (Gibson, 144). As Zone, Wintermute lessens her worth as a human being and implies Linda is a whore. Following his discovery of Linda in Neuromancer’s world, Case has sex with her, though he doesn’t quite believe she’s real. This further cements her position in the narrative as only a sexual partner for Case. The female Turing Police officer, Michèle, is also framed in a context highlighting her gender—almost every time she was mentioned, Case mentions her chest. After arriving at Freeside, Case sees her hang gliding and comments on her ‘brown breasts’ (Gibson, 124). He sees her again and notes the girl’s “small hard breasts” (Gibson, 128). As Michèle and the others interrogate him, Case refers to her breasts again as he observes, “She crossed her arms across her small high breasts” (Gibson, 161). Rather than providing her with any character, Gibson highlights her ownership of breasts. The female characters are constantly referred to through the lens of their gender and sexuality. Overall, the relatively few women featured in Neuromancer are largely framed as sexual objects rather than people.