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Queer & Trans Theory

The New Routledge Companion to Science Fiction

Collaboratively written by the Beyond Gender Research Collective

“In this chapter, we follow Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘science fiction is political theory’ to read Rivers Solomon’s SF novel The Deep (2019) as and alongside contemporary queer and trans theory. We argue that queer science fiction is not simple escapism, but a tool for refashioning the self and the present. Queer and trans writers and artists are not fleeing from the world as much as they are reshaping it by crafting science-fictional worlds which defy the stultifying norms of hetero- and cis-normativity. These re-imaginings of the self and communities are intertwined with the embodied reality of queer experience, and Solomon’s novel exemplifies sf’s ability to grapple with the various facts and fictions used to police queer and trans lives, such as the purported primacy of biological sex and kinship. Articulated in three interconnected sections, our chapter first uses Elizabeth Freeman’s concept of ‘temporal drag’ to find a purposeful re-writing and mythmaking in Solomon’s work that counters the violence of white supremacy. We then turn, via the work of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, to examine Solomon’s rejection of the natural world as an implicitly heteronormative realm. Instead, faer embraces the many parthenogenetic, intersex, polymaternal and decidedly non-normative creatures of the deep. Lastly we find in Solomon’s rejection of heteronormative kinship an imagining of collective being and reproduction that resonates with Sophie Lewis’s concept of amniotechnics and José Esteban Munoz’s vision of queer utopia. Finally, we turn outward to suggest that Solomon’s The Deep is not a static text, but one that constantly invites its reader to transform the story – and possibly, the world."

Editors: Mark Bould, Andrew Butler, & Sherryl Vint

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Review: Abolish the Family!

BSFA's Vector Journal

Collaboratively written by the Beyond Gender Research Collective

“We work, not for inclusion into the family, or a queered version of it, but for a queer mode of being together which retains what Lewis calls the “abolitionist freight” of the word ‘queer’, “signifying resistance to capitalism’s reproductive institutions: marriage, private property, patriarchy, the police, school” (19). This non-contingent, non-privatised way of living is what Abolish the Family offers us, as people and as SF scholars. We hope that those in the business of creating, shaping, reading and tearing apart the imagined worlds of SF texts will take Lewis’ challenge to think more critically about the family to heart. More than this, we hope that they will work to nurture the “latent utopian kernels” of family abolitionist possibility located in our present (82).”.

Editors: Jo Lindsay Walton & Polina Levontin

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Feminist Science Fiction Art

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction

“Feminist science fiction is a category most frequently associated with literature, film, and television. This chapter challenges these associations, theorising SF art as a space for queer/trans/feminist resistance. Specifically, SF artworks by Sophia Al-Maria, Sin Wai Kin, Tai Shani, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley are read as feminist theory—a method drawn from speculative and repro-utopian feminisms—which seeks to locate theoretical knowledge both within and beyond academic writing. Subsequently feminist SF artworks are contextualised within wider feminist and/or science fiction traditions, communities, and discourses. Feminist SF art is framed then not as a genre populated by individual auteurs, but as a community of artists engaged in coauthorship. This chapter focusses specifically on artists working with collaborative worldbuilding, a range of artistic strategies which further embed coauthorship and recursivity into SF art production”.

Editors: Lisa Yaszek, Sonja Fritzsche, Keren Omry & Wendy Gay Pearson

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Collective Close Reading: Queer SF and the Methodology of the Many

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction

Collaboratively written by the Beyond Gender Research Collective

“Beyond Gender Research Collective are a group researchers, activists and practitioners brought together by a shared commitment to imagining the world differently through collaborative explorations of queer, trans, and feminist science fiction. As Beyond Gender we understand ourselves as an example of what Jasbir K. Puar describes as a queer assemblage; we form, and are formed by, a practice we have developed called “collective close reading” (CCR). We begin this chapter by outlining CCR as a practice of utopian worlding: CCR is our method for reading and enacting science fiction, through which we exercise our capacity for imagining, dreaming, and building together. We apply this methodology to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Shobies’ Story” (1990), particularly focussing on the ways in which Le Guin’s narrative gestates both new modes of art and of kinship, based on celebration of communal activity and politics of affinity. We conclude by connecting this reading of and through Le Guin’s tale to our collective practices of performing science fictionality and of empathetic friendship. In doing so, we demonstrate how––like Le Guin’s Shobies––Beyond Gender’s dedication to communal play and care allows us to insist upon expansive, heteroglossic, and generative possibilities in our collective futures”.

Editors: Lisa Yaszek, Sonja Fritzsche, Keren Omry & Wendy Gay Pearson

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Drowning in the Cloud: Water, the Digital and the Queer Potential of Feminist Science Fiction

Technologies of Feminist Speculative Fiction 

Collaboratively written by the Beyond Gender Research Collective

“Water is frequently associated with a naturalized, trans-exclusionary understanding of womanhood. In this chapter we challenge this association. Focusing on the cyborgs of feminist SF and the waters in which they swim, gestate, and struggle, we theorize water as a technology that plays a crucial role in the self-consciously unnatural politics of queer resistance. In order to navigate these turbulent waters we have deployed the methodology we call Collective Close Reading—a practice of nonhierarchical knowledge production founded on a complex web of interdependence. In this way we seek to model the watery, cyborg collectivity depicted in the strange worlds of feminist sf. We swim together, beyond, against, and into gender”.

Editors: Sherryl Vint & Sümeyra Buran

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Vagina Dentata Zine, Issue 002

Available Here “We’re back, and we demand utopia! It’s been two years since Issue 001, but it feels like a lifetime. In that pre-Trump, pre-Brexit landscape, Science Fiction was being whimsically adopted on every runway. Whilst the genre remains as culturally relevant as ever, the way creatives are adopting SF has significantly changed. Issue 002 utilises fantasy as a medium for defying oppressive politics. For some this is confrontational, for others escapist; whether explicit or subtle this collection demands change. (210mm x 210mm, 40 pages - staple bound) *Best viewed through tiny matrix sunglasses.

Featuring collaborations with Dana Trippe, Aoi Itoh, Pol Kurucz, Natalie Baxter, Munachi Osegbu, LUPAE, Noémi Szabo, John Yuyi and Daisy Collingridge” "Somehow, this issue is even more bonkers than the last one....an explosion of colour with nods to aliens, Harajuku and the United Nations. Yes, all in one magazine…" – It's Nice That Editor – Smin Smith

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Vagina Dentata Zine, Issue 001

Available Here “It’s here! Vagina Dentata Zine is a visual exploration of Science Fiction and Fashion’s relationship. The zine provides a space for women, LGBTQIA+, POC and non-binary creatives to design the futures they want to see, utilising “fictioning” as a political tool. With a square format (210mm x 210mm, 40 pages - staple bound), and rejection of ‘fashion stories’, it provides a clashing visual journey emulating the way in which we consume and curate imagery through mediums like Instagram. Issue 001 features collaborations with Marina Fini, Jeleza Rose, Andrey Onufrienko, Anna Fearon, Hannah Grunden, Rosie Williams, Olin Brannigan, Bex Isley, Anna Milada, Aleksandra Klicka, and Alice Dear” “Out of this world…it’s the little touches that build this into a cohesive and unique publication” – It’s Nice That “It’s pretty much the most perfect title of any zine that dedicates itself to sci-fi and female fantasies…their Instagram feed is a must-see mood board of things they’ve cherry picked from around the interweb, feat. cyborgs, glitter and Sailor Moon” – Dazed Digital Editor – Smin Smith

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Vagina Dentata Zine, Issue 001 (Book Edition)

Available Here “It’s here! Vagina Dentata Zine is a visual exploration of Science Fiction and Fashion’s relationship. The zine provides a space for women, LGBTQIA+, POC and non-binary creatives to design the futures they want to see, utilising “fictioning” as a political tool. With a square format (210mm x 210mm), and rejection of ‘fashion stories’, it provides a clashing visual journey emulating the way in which we consume and curate imagery through mediums like Instagram. Issue 001 features collaborations with Marina Fini, Jeleza Rose, Andrey Onufrienko, Anna Fearon, Hannah Grunden, Rosie Williams, Olin Brannigan, Bex Isley, Anna Milada, Aleksandra Klicka, and Alice Dear” Editor – Smin Smith

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A future collectively salvaged from the rubble 

Architectural Review, Issue 1486: Where do we go from here?

Collaboratively written by the Beyond Gender Research Collective

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Beyond the Binary: Queer Feminist Science Fiction Art

SFRA Review, Volume 51, No. 1, Symposium: Beyond Borders

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Transmedia Worlding in Marine Serre’s FutureWear 

BSFA Vector Journal, Issue 292: Speculative Art

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��🌐📡Cyborg Queen📡🌐🛸 

Issue 002 of Science Fiction Art & Fashion (FKA Vagina Dentata Zine) 

Photography – Natalie Baxter

Styling –  Smin Smith

HMUA –  Heather Lines 

Model –  Lucy @ Revolt Model Management 

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🌈🌟Magical Girls🌟🌈

Polyester Zine in collaboration with Hello Kitty

Photography: Natalie Baxter 

Styling: Smin Smith

HMUA: Heather Lines 

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👸🏼🐁Florence Rose🐁👸🏼

Crybaby Zine’s Community Issue

Photography: Natalie Baxter 

Styling: Smin Smith

Model: Florence @ Milk Model Management 

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🦇🐺🔮Bitchcraft🔮🐺🦇

Sukeban Magazine 

Photography – Natalie Baxter

Styling –  Smin Smith

HMUA –  Heather Lines

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🦇🕸👻Bitchcraft👻🕸🦇

Sukeban Magazine

Photography – Natalie Baxter

Styling –  Smin Smith

HMUA –  Heather Lines

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💕🎀🌸 Girli 🌸🎀💕

Crybaby Zine’s Fame Issue

Photography – Natalie Baxter

Styling –  Smin Smith

HMUA –  Nadia Becker