Atmosphere: A Love Story

The novel explores the systemic discrimination women face in society and at NASA due to their gender and, for Joan and Vanessa, their sexuality, as well as the various methods and strategies they must use to navigate this discrimination successfully. This systemic discrimination significantly impacts Joan’s life. In her work life, Joan encounters casual gender discrimination and stereotypes while teaching in the Physics and Astronomy department at Rice University, where her male colleagues dismiss her accomplishments and ambitions. They have such little respect for Joan, or any woman scientist, that they can’t comprehend how NASA hired her. Indeed, the men in her department don’t even seem to notice her presence because she isn’t beautiful and glamorous like her sister, thus implying that men value women only for their physical appearance.

Joan’s encounters with discrimination and sexist attitudes don’t end there, however. Despite NASA’s official position to allow women to become astronauts, the system still excludes them in certain significant roles. Vanessa confronts the convenient administrative guidelines that tacitly bar women from becoming NASA pilots. In addition to gender discrimination at the systemic level, Joan and all the women candidates must contend with gender stereotypes and sexist attitudes perpetuated by their male colleagues, best represented by the pilot candidate Jimmy Hayman. In all these examples, the narrative portrays societal attitudes and workplace discrimination that were prevalent in the 1980s, inviting a comparison to contemporary attitudes and reflection on the progress society has (or hasn’t) made. The same is true for the sexuality discrimination that Joan and Vanessa face. Systemic discrimination against queer relationships is codified, legal, and reinforced by societal norms. Even the appearance of, as Antonio describes it, “sexual deviation” could lead to loss of employment and social ostracization (299).

Crucially, the women in Group 9 each navigate this system of discrimination in different ways. Joan resists sexist attitudes by refusing to reward Jimmy Hayman’s crude jokes and bad behavior but isn’t comfortable with taking a confrontational stance. Her tendency to retreat from confrontation is one of her biggest character flaws, leading her to stay silent in the face of problems in the workplace as well as Barbara’s increasingly neglectful parenting behavior. This is especially true when Joan tries to break up with Vanessa, retreating from the workplace threats of being outed. Vanessa, conversely, takes a more active and aggressive approach. She constantly pushes back against the sexist rules that prevent her from piloting the shuttle and defies the NASA administration’s threat to her career. By contrast, Lydia and (to a lesser extent) Donna choose a more permissive stance. Lydia tolerates Jimmy’s harassment, even rewarding it by laughing, while both she and Donna believe that the only way to win in the tacit gender conflict is to play by the men’s rules, which Joan refuses to do.

This highlights the diverse ways that people can confront discrimination in their lives. Each strategy is aligns with the character’s personality and goals while also requiring some kind of sacrifice (of dignity, the moral high ground, or—in Vanessa’s case—her career at NASA). Significantly, however, the narrative values certain methods over others. When Vanessa and, later, Joan decide to fight against the discrimination they face, the narrative rewards them with success and “everything they wanted” (332), thus arguing that standing up for oneself and others against unjust systemic discrimination is the best option.