I Would Date Robert Heinlein

Apparently, girls aren't supposed to enjoy reading Robert Heinlein. At best, his critics claim his target audience was adolescent boys (true enough) and his novels aren't able to hold the interest of female readers. At worst, he was a chauvinist pig and therefore unworthy of female interest.

I like Heinlein. I am a girl. A conundrum.

I haven't read too broad a swathe of his work yet--I've only finished Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and though I started Stranger in a Strange Land I've been derailed by the beginning of the school year--but one of the reasons I enjoy Heinlein is because I like his female characters. When perceived by male characters they are inherently set apart, different, special. Woman are so different from men they cannot be compared. They are a mystery, a precious enigma.

I admit that such a point of view is not in vogue and does not reflect current trends in gender role enlightenment, especially because the sheer alien aspect of women in Heinlein novels borders on making them objects. But doesn't that gulf between the sexes exist? How much ink has been spilled, breath wasted, tears cried over the misunderstandings between male and female? We are alien to one another.

But keep in mind I'm also the kind of girl who laughs at barefoot-and-pregnant jokes and read John Donne's sermon discussing whether or not women have souls with an open mind.