I’ve always found “The Shoddy Lands” an awful pile of sexism, too. Admittedly, it’s not as bad as Tarts in Space, but reading the two in quick succession tends to blow out of the water the usual explanation for The Shoddy Lands, which is “This isn’t how Women think. it’s how a particular woman thinks.” Tarts in Space demonstrates Lewis’s belief that there isn’t a female sex worker on Earth capable of long term strategic planning, and there isn’t a woman on Earth so passionate about space that if it takes acting as a sex worker to get her there, that’s how she’ll do it. And the inherent limitations that implies are fully exposed in The Shoddy Lands.
I’ve always found “The Shoddy Lands” an awful pile of sexism, too. Admittedly, it’s not as bad as Tarts in Space, but reading the two in quick succession tends to blow out of the water the usual explanation for The Shoddy Lands, which is “This isn’t how Women think. it’s how a particular woman thinks.” Tarts in Space demonstrates Lewis’s belief that there isn’t a female sex worker on Earth capable of long term strategic planning, and there isn’t a woman on Earth so passionate about space that if it takes acting as a sex worker to get her there, that’s how she’ll do it. And the inherent limitations that implies are fully exposed in The Shoddy Lands.