Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction
Science fiction has often featured sexual themes. The New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s reflected its times by attempting to break earlier taboos about what could and could not be the subject of science fiction.
Signficant use of sexual themes in serious science fiction include:
- Several stories in Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
- Flesh by Philip Jose Farmer
- Strange Relations a collection of short stories by Philip Jose Farmer
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
- Dhalgren by Samuel Delany
- Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg
A number of works of mainstream erotica, including the Gor novels by John Norman, have also used the science fiction format. There is now a separate sub-genre of science fiction erotica that aims to integrate the two genres: writers in this genre include Cecilia Tan.
Numerous science fiction television series and science fiction films have used science fiction plots as an excuse to fit in gratuitous sexual or fetishistic content: one of the conventions of much filmed science fiction appears to be that the future will consist of attractive people wearing skin-tight clothing in shiny materials.