Yes, I know he also named Gene Wolfe.  Women still outnumber men on that list. 

Ok, so it looks like all my fandoms and subcultures are just trying to kill me through high blood pressure induced strokes.  First, the fucking Dickwolves, now this.

Really?

A.  I hate genre policing.  It’s a bullshit empty past time.  Is Alien SF or Horror?  Who the fuck cares?*

B.  You do not fuck with Lois McMaster Bujold on my watch.

Yes, yes, I get it.  Girls got icky character development and relationship cooties on your lists of starship parts.  Wahhhh!  And I know, he doesn’t say they’re bad, just that they aren’t Science Fiction.

One of his beefs with Lois McMaster Bujold  is that she spends too much time talking about uniforms.

Really?  David Weber ring a bell?  I mean, it’s been a while since I’ve read the Honor Harrington books, but I seem to remember some pretty intense uniform porn.  Also, Eric Flint’s (with David Drake) Belisarius books, which I’m sure Mr. Cook** would argue are not strictly SF, in spite of the presence of alien intelligences trifling with everything, spends a fair amount of time discussing both clothes (uniforms and not) and *gasp* relationships!!!  Belisarius and his wife are very much in love.  By the end of the series, even the hardened killer Valentinian has a wife he appears to love.

Which brings me to the complaint about, apparently, too many of Ms. McMaster Bujold’s characters having relationships, especially the title character of her most popular series, Miles Vorkosigan.

Sigh.

Because no male SF author ever wrote his main character having a functional relationship.

Ok, I’ll give you they are pretty few and far between, but several of them do manage it.  See the above-mentioned Eric Flint.  But maybe, just maybe, if SF writers did spend a little more time on people and development SF fans could have a better imprint for how to engage with the opposite gender.  And I’m not just talking about the guys here.  Oh, hell, no.  I have known some women with absolutely abysmal abilities when it came to dealing with the gender they’re attracted to.  It’s just that when they can’t get laid, no one feels sorry for them.  (Sorry, couldn’t resist the Nice Guy ™ dig.)

I do not see how having character driven stories with human relationships in them can be anything but a positive.  And hey, maybe if you read outside your comfort zone you’ll learn a few things.  Granted, I read ALL THE THINGS.  I read really fucking fast, and I get it, not everyone can breeze through an entire novel in one uninterrupted afternoon, so they’re fussier about what they read.  I’m just saying, give it a try once in a while.  You might be surprised.

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*Ok, this is the BIG one.  I hate genre policing no matter what the media.  It’s a bunch of mental masturbation designed to make the masturbator feel better, and annoy the piss out of everyone else.  Also, no one ever agrees.   

**Reading his other columns, Mr. Cook also seems to believe that sexual harassment at conventions is all the fault of these kids and their Facebooking.  Ok, first, congratulations on realizing it is a problem.  But… it’s always been a problem, women are just finally speaking up about it.  It was problem when I attended my first DreamCon in 1989.