Science Fiction on Screen: Gender and Race
Gender Blending and the Feminine Subject in Science Fiction Film
This source observes changes in the representation of prominent issues since the early days of science fiction and how the conventions and constraints have shifted. Beginning in the 1950’s, the characters were predictable and females were always victimized and portrayed as helpless and in distress. They are represented as the caretakers and are usually in the background while the ‘serious business’ is left to males. However, after the 1970’s New Right Movement, the female focus shifted and took a much larger role, most commonly as the vessel of reproduction. Several examples such as Back to the Future, (where Marty’s mother was one of his greatest concerns) and The Terminator, where female protagonist Sarah was labeled “the mother of the future”, reinforced this idea that survival was reliant on a female character. It argues, “Generic shifting from films featuring central males to those featuring female cyborgs indicates that issues surrounding gender were as fundamental within the genre as those raised by technological development.” In the present, we are shown that science fiction has now broken away from the traditional moulds and possesses more conventions of the action genre. The female protagonists are now superheroes and ultimately decide their own fates. It argues there has been an obvious shift in the portrayal of gender in the Science Fiction genre.
Meaning of Race: Where No Text Has Gone Before
This source addresses ideas of “representation and narrative functions”, creative network limitations and the significance of how race is continually portrayed in such a popular genre, all with close reference to Star Trek.According to Bernardi, Star Trek was one science fiction text that drew heavily on the ‘real’ world when constructing the future, “(it) draws upon and engages real space-time politics and experiences.” As real-time issues influenced it, being written in the 1960’s meant that “signifiers and myths” were conveyed in the texts such as racial discrimination. One example showed that those who were ‘new species’ were more likely to be darker skinned, and more particularly, those who were the enemy were usually dark skinned. In the episode entitled The Next Generation, a new species was found, all were dark skinned and portrayed as tribal. However not all racial minorities were represented so primitively, a Chinese-American was cast as a communications officer, a supporting role. According to this source, the racial minorities in Star Trek were portrayed like the racial minorities of the 1960’s. Therefore Star Trek projected a view of the future, where the lessons from the past had not been learned.
Source three addresses issues of race and gender in the science fiction genre, in the context of a more recently developed production, television seriesBattlestar Galactica. The main argument is how the female characters are linked to the technology, with strong examples of the ‘Cylons’, a sort of cyborg on the spaceship who are predominantly seductively dressed, with tight, short skirts and high heels. Numerous examples are given of how the Cylons use their sexuality and provocative personas to achieve what they want in the series, most often the female character ‘Caprica Six’ who “uses her sexuality to exert a powerful and negative impact on events and the remaining human population.” The idea of Film Noir’s Femme Fatale is also discussed, as the conventions are reflected though many of these Cylon characters, suggesting that with time, the conventions/constraints of traditional science fiction are fading and the female is no longer the victim. Most importantly though, it raises ideas of a connection between females and technology, giving examples such as artificial insemination and surrogate mothers, where females are becoming more and more technologically involved. They are also being viewed as at one with technology, especially sexually, “if we are all cyborgs, is it such a stretch to think that humans would desire synthetic lovers?” The men are obsessed with technology, which is what leads them to desire the female cyborg (mechano-eroticism) so greatly, as it is their ultimate fantasy. Gender relationships on their own as well as in relation to technology are evolving and in this case, suggesting the boundary between human and machine will soon be blurred.
Science Fiction and the Future
This particular source is useful when related to the guiding question as it clearly addresses the idea of science fiction as the imagined future. It explains that although it is a projection of the unknown, it relies on the political, social and economic state at the time, in order to predict what is to come.Furthermore, it argues that in order to consider the future scientifically, one must critique the past and how it has led us astray. This however is also addressed as a limitation on the creativity of science fiction writers and the reason for the traditional codes and conventions of science fiction, as what they are portraying is not “visionary”, but is all derived from a scientific basis. One particular quote sums this statement up well, “rather than assaulting an unknown by bold risks of the imagination, …(it) articulates one present aspect of our present human situation in a way no other literary form can”. This has resulted in earlier science fiction texts, stereotyped characters such as male authorities and their female delegates and racial minorities, often to distinguish different species or tribes. It is not until more recently that writers have decided to break these boundaries and experiment with these themes. In conclusion, according to this source, the genre of science fiction utilizes the past and present to create a potential view of the future however issues such as gender and race, are often reflective of the genre restriction and the current societal status at the time.
Feminism, Humanism and Science: feminism and Anxiety in Alien
Cornea, C 2007, ‘Gender Blending and the Feminine Subject in Science Fiction Film,’ in Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality, Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland. Available from: Google Books (excerpt)
[7 September 2010]
Bernardi, D 1998, ‘Meaning of Race: Where No Text Has Gone Before’ in Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey pp. 1-26. Available from: Google Books (excerpt)
[8 September 2010]
George, S 2008, ‘Fraking Machines: Desire, Gender, and the (Post)Human Condition in Battlestar Galactica’ in The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader, ed J.P. Telotte, The University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky pp.159-174. Available from Google Books (excerpt)
[7 September 2010]
Huntington, J 1975, ‘Science Fiction and the Future’, College English, vol. 37, no. 4, pp345-352
http://www.jstor.org/stable/376232
[7 September 2010]
Newton, J 1990, ‘Feminism, Humanisnm and Science: Feminism and Anxiety in Alien’ in Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction, ed Annette Kuhn, Verso, London pp. 82-85. Available from: Google Books(excerpt)
[7 September 2010]
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