I guess it’s an indication of how much has changed that stuff that used to seem progressive now seems backward. Have you watched any old Star Trek lately? Okay, the original TV show was campy and all, but I love the story Whoopi Goldberg tells about her Uhura Aha moment, when she ran to get her family to come see there was a black woman on TV who wasn’t a maid or serving food. But then you watch the Star Trek movie where Kirstie Alley plays Savik, and my god, how baldly sexist is it the way they treat her character? All the men are like “Did she change her hair?” and then when she ‘pilots’ the Enterprise out of dock they are all nervous about her being a “woman driver.” (Despite the fact that all she does is give the command to the helmsman anyway…!!) Someone thought that was acceptable humor at the time, I guess…

I read those Pern books when young and impressionable, along with a lot of Marion Zimmer Bradley, which was certainly considered forward-thinking for its time. But I wonder if I read “Hawkmistress!” now, what I’d think. I still have it on the shelf…