Hugo, Girl!

Dune is important to men.

So goes one most memorable phrases from the ladies at the Hugo, Girl! podcast. I am a man and Dune is important to me. There are a lot of reasons why Dune is important to men and I do not want to talk about them here. You should listen to the Dune episode yourself. What I want to do is express my appreciation for the podcast.

Hugo, Girl is a book podcast where “Three space feminists read and discuss Hugo Award-winning fiction.” If you like science fiction, you should be listening.

It is a funny show. The hosts: Lori, Haley, and Amy sound like they truly enjoy each other’s company. More importantly, their jokes land with the podcast audience. There isn’t any need to know them personally, follow them on social media, or have listened to every single episode to catch the funny bits. It is a smart show. Everyone involved has insightful takes to add to the conversation without derailing the others too much. They’re all really intelligent and willing to do good research in an attempt to build the appropriate context for the book being discussed.

But whatever. Any halfway decent podcast has smart and entertaining hosts. If it did not, nobody would listen.

Hugo, Girl matters because of the outright and unapologetic feminist perspective it brings to science fiction. As a feminist-first podcast instead of a podcast with liberal hosts, their message is rarely diluted with other political discussion. Occasionally it happens and the hosts will go off a small tangent, but most of the time they focus on this one aspect of progressive thought. This spotlight is so important for people like myself who consider themselves feminist but do not feel very educated about it. I would much rather listen to the hosts discuss feminist in the context of a book I already know and love than re-read The Problem that Has No Name. Nothing against Betty Friedan. I simply know that people learn better when they are learning in a way that incorporates their personal interests. As a pieces of feminist writing, I bet most science fiction fans will get more out of The Left Hand of Darkness or Dreamsnake than The Second Sex.

That is what Hugo, Girl does so well. Obviously they will pull out the feminist themes in Hugo winners, themes that may be too subtle for readers who have not dipped deep into the well of feminist thought. More importantly, put on blast the all-too-often misogynistic themes in these books. I be the first to admit as a middle-class white guy, I missed these themes when I read so many of these books back in high school. I was not savvy or educated enough to truly grok what I was reading. In many ways I am still ignorant.

So shout-out to Hugo, Girl! for helping me be the person I want to be.