Week 9: The Martian (6)

 

Andy Weir’s The Martian has been praised for its excellent humor, commitment to hard science, and general well-told story. I don’t read too many survival narratives, because I’m faint of heart and I can only handle so many suspenseful life or death situations. The Martian’s humor and constant refusal to take itself too seriously helped to temper all of that suspense.

However, as much as I enjoyed The Martian's wit and entertainment value, there was one thing about it that bugged me beyond belief, and that is how this book treated women. The men in this book seem It’s no secret that there is a general lack of women in the STEM field, this is due to many things, but a big reason is the way that women in STEM get treated by their male coworkers. I can only assume that Weir was aiming for realism when he portrayed the men in this novel generally just treating and talking about the women around them in a way that's just generally pretty icky.

An example of this is when Teddy and Mitch get in a screaming match in the office, a frankly unprofessional thing to do when there are lives hanging in the balance, and Teddy tries to excuse this behavior to Annie, the only female in the room, with the line “What can I say? Sometimes men let testosterone take over.” (168) Still, Teddy is definitely “the bad guy” in this scene, not for condescending to a female coworker but for trying to minimize risk in the rescue mission. Perhaps his attitude towards Annie is a facet of how sucky he is in general. 

But then why is Mark Watney engaging in the same behavior? In a letter to who he thinks is his most attractive coworker, he asks: “looking like that, why are you such a nerd?” And then tells her to “try not to think about all those guys wanking to your poster.” The women in this book seem to exist so that Weir can prove he knows what a woman is. 

Still, the book was ultimately entertaining, it’s a shame about the woman problem.