Vixen (RV)

The Vixen was a recreational vehicle designed by Bill Collins and built from 1986 until 1989. A total of 587 Vixen motorhomes of three different types were built: the Vixen 21 TD (1986–1987), Vixen 21 SE (1988–1989), and Vixen 21 XC (1986–1987).

Often noted as the "Driver's RV", it has an exceptionally low center of gravity and wide stance for an RV. It had a top speed of 100 MPH, and claimed an average of 30 MPG using a BMW M21 turbo-diesel engine. Wind tunnel testing was used to create a completely smooth fiberglass exterior top and bottom, resulting in a drag coefficient of less than .30 for early TD models.

Initial design

The Vixen was designed as an answer to the GMC motorhome. The Vixen was designed to be stored in a typical garage as it was only 6 feet high and 21 feet long. Despite its small size by motorhome standards, the Vixen was marketed as having all of the features of larger competitors. Such features included a generator and water heater. Two house batteries and one of the first electric inverters in an RV allowed the owner to run the microwave, air-conditioning, and anything else which could be plugged into 110-volt outlets, off the batteries that were charged by the 120-amp alternator. The Vixen could also be plugged-in at a typical campsite outlet. Water came from the fresh water tank or services at a campsite and was heated by a heat exchanger. The same engine heat was used to warm the passenger compartment. Since diesels do not develop waste heat quickly, there was also an auxiliary diesel heater that could raise the temperature of the engine coolant. This helped with winter starting, keeping the RV warm, and the water hot. The heater was fuel efficient, and didn't need to stop for propane to fuel it. Unfortunately, it was notorious for needing service.

Vixen!

Vixen! is a 1968 satiric softcore sexploitation film directed by American motion picture director Russ Meyer. It was the first film to be given an X rating for its sex scenes, and was a breakthrough success for Meyer. The film was developed from a script by Meyer and Anthony James Ryan, and starred Erica Gavin.

The film concerns the misadventures of the oversexed Vixen (Gavin), as she sexually manipulates everyone she meets. The story's taboo-violations mount quickly, including themes of incest and racism.

Plot

In the heart of the Canadian wilderness, sultry and sexually assertive Vixen quickly becomes bored when her husband Tom, wilderness guide/pilot (Garth Pillsbury) leaves for the mountains. The hyper sexual Vixen vents her frustration by attempting to seduce anyone within reach including a couple her husband bring home as clients (separately), a Mountie, and eventually her own brother (Jon Evans).

The film finally veers into political satire as Vixen's racism and the creeping threat of communism are discussed at length among the characters as the film draws to its end. At the end of the film her husband brings another couple home and Vixen smiles, apparently planning to seduce them.

Gender

Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e. the state of being male, female or intersex), sex-based social structures (including gender roles and other social roles), or gender identity.

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, in many other contexts, including some areas of social sciences, gender includes sex or replaces it. Although this change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s, a small acceleration of the process in the scientific literature was observed in 1993 when the USA's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex. In 2011, the FDA reversed its position and began using sex as the biological classification and gender as "a person's self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual's gender presentation." In non-human animal research, gender is also commonly used to refer to the physiology of the animals.

Hoa Pham

Hoa Pham is an Australian author of Vietnamese descent.

Biography

Hoa's most recent novel is Wave, published in 2015. Her novel The Other Shore was a co-winner of Seizure's Viva La Novella 2 competition. Her first novel, Vixen led her to win the 2001 Sydney Morning Herald's Young Writer of the Year award in 2001. Vixen also was a finalist for the 2000 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel but lost to Juliet Marillier's Son of the Shadows. She is was the founding editor of Peril, an online journal for Asian Australians.

Bibliography

Novels

Children's books

Short stories

Plays