SOURCE: "The Traditionalism of Women's Roles in Frank Herbert's Dune," in Extrapolation, Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring, 1985, pp. 24-8.

In the following essay, Hand explores Dune's depiction of a male-dominated future society in which women act within traditional feminine roles.

It is no surprise to anyone who has read Dune or its sequels that the universe Frank Herbert posits is maledominated. A majority of science fiction writers seem to mine the human past in order to find patterns through which to express their hopes and fears for the human future. One may be condemned to repeat past mistakes through a lack of knowledge of history; but a knowledge of history may also force, or at least tempt, one into extrapolating backward as well as forward. In the single novel Dune, which is the cornerstone of that series, Herbert creates both an interplanetary empire and planetary societies which, no matter how...