Delivering sf into the hands of alien creatures

The New York Times has published an obituary of Joanna Russ, by Margalit Fox. Fox characterizes Russ as " a writer who four decades ago helped deliver science fiction into the hands of the most alien creatures the genre had yet seen — women." Here's a taste of her article:

The science fiction writer has the privilege of remaking the world. Because of this, the genre, especially in the hands of disenfranchised writers, has become a powerful vehicle for political commentary. In the America in which she came of age, Ms. Russ was triply disenfranchised: as a woman, a lesbian and an author of genre fiction who earned her living amid the pomp of university English departments.

Some critics found her too polemical, but many praised her liquid prose style, intellectual ferocity and cheerfully unorthodox approach to constructing her fiction, which could include discursions into history and philosophy and sections of quasitheatrical dialogue. (She was originally trained as a dramatist.)

There was palpable anger in Ms. Russ’s work, but it was leavened by wit and humor....

Fox includes a quote from The Female Man to demonstrate Russ's wit. You can read the whole article here.