Gender, Technology, and the Reinvention of Extraterrestrial Nature

Abstract

This cultural studies article examines some trends in the Euro-American reinvention of the sea and the cosmos in the period following the Second World War. It argues that since, for a number of reasons, both extraterrestrial regions were being discursively prepared for conquest and colonial invasion, technoscientific discoveries intertwined with, and at times, reinforced age-old imageries on gender and ethnicity associated with the two areas. Ancient images of Mother Sea and Father Sky re-emerged in a brand new setting.The study draws on analyses of popular cultural discourses such as film and literature in order to outline the similarities and, above all, the gendered and ethnicized differences constructed between inner and outer space. Whilst the former engendered images of the wild, yet noble ’others,’the latter connected with highly advanced supercivilizations.1