Women representation in sci-fi films... Any opinions please!

[Star Scream]

Hi,
I'm a Media student and im doing critical research on the representation of women in Sci-fi/Fantasy films. I have three focus films which i can use, and i have chosen Aliens, Transformers and Terminator 2. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment on how you think women are portrayed in Sci-fi/Fantasy movies, and how you think it affects the audience.

Megan Fox's character Mikaela in Transformers knows more about cars than the men that drive them, and in Aliens the soldiers at first feel threatened by being given orders by Ripley. How does this make you feel as a person?

It would be great to get both male and female responses, but any help would be much appreciated!

[matt-browne-sfw]

My comment it that portraying women has changed significantly. Let's just take Star Trek: TOS's Uhura with a minor role on the bridge but still a revolution in 1966. Then came TNG's Troi with a major role as the ship's counselor. Finally VOY with a female captain and her own way of leading the ship (not as a copy of earlier male captains).

More recent sci-fi series feature also more foolhardy fighters like Kara Thrace in BSG.

Often sci-fi reflects society projected 10 - 15 years into the future. But not necessarily more. Therefore Uhura did not captain a starship in a series made in 1966.

[chrispenycate]

Indeed - in my youth the role of any female character was to scream, panic, faint and be carried off (preferably in revealing or torn costume) by some marauding BEM – purely decorative. I consider the development positive.
Though I don't know the films in question (though the DVD of "Aliens" is here in the rack, I won't wait to answer until I've watched it) but the trend is obvious; Women and minorities will get roles as heroes, and villains.
And so much the better for the art.

[iansales]

Using the Aliens franchise for a thesis on women in science fiction is a bit of cliche these days. Why not pick a less well-known film with a positive female role model, such as Queen of Blood?

[Dave]

If you are going to stay with Aliens, you should spend some time considering the Vasquez character as well as Ripley.

Hudson: "Have you ever been mistaken for a woman?"
Vasquez: "No, have you?"

But I agree that you have plenty more interesting choices you could make.

How about Altaira Morbius in Forbidden Planet for one of those women Chrispenycate mentioned:

Altaira: "Then why don't you kiss me like everybody else does!"

Or, Leeloo from The Fifth Element

Leeloo: "Leeloo Dallas mul-ti-pass!"

Or, River Tam in Serenity.

[gully_foyle]

Let's not forget Princess Leia. A spy, a rebel, leader of a successful rebellion and (I assume) leader of the post imperial galaxy. Pretty handy with a gun too.

[ironvelvet]

I've only seen Terminator II and Aliens but their female leads are a-typical to the general mass of science fiction/fantasy females in being able and not significantly dependant on men.
I don't think that this sexism is particularly corralled to SF/F. Nobody ever mentions the female characters in Raging Bull or The Godfather or Shane etc. Hitchcock seemed to cast entirely on hair colour and scream ability. I don't mean to imply that any of the actresses in these films lack the ability to act, I'm suggesting that they aren't often asked to do more than support the central theme-which is usually carried by the male characters.
So does your media project address whether film as a medium is driving or reflecting this essentially demeaning ( and I hope misleading!) portrayal of more than half the worlds population?

[Troo]

Originally Posted by gully_foyle

Let's not forget Princess Leia. A spy, a rebel, leader of a successful rebellion and (I assume) leader of the post imperial galaxy. Pretty handy with a gun too.

But ultimately a telegraphed message: WOMEN! KNOW YOUR PLACE!

You may think you're 'ard as nuts, but you'll turn to jelly as soon as a buff, self-serving miscreant turns up to treat you like rubbish, and you know it!

Leia isn't the strong woman character that a lot of men claim she is. She's a supporting character whose main purpose is to get Luke Skywalker into the film. She, like most women in sci-fi and fantasy, is regularly captured, imprisoned, and manhandled, as well as being put into a revealing costume to show off her baps. While again there's an argument that this is due to some big slug wanting her in a bikini so his tongue has unimpeded access to her, in reality a scene in a movie cannot happen if nobody has written, directed, and acted it. And frankly there's not a straight man alive when that was first released who stopped to think "Hmm, Leia's a powerful woman. This is a terrible thing that has been done to her." No. They all went "Phwoar, baps" and promptly fantasized about her during the next wank they had.

She's a relic of the time when most men truly believed that all a strong woman (or a lesbian, for that matter) really needed was a real man to show them the error of their ways. That way women wouldn't have to be men for themselves, they could go back to doing what they were supposed to do (bear children, be motherly, look good, and make dinner). Once Leia hooks up with Han, her personality is subsumed by his, and she becomes arm-decoration. Sure, she gives rousing speeches and medals... With Han at her side as her True Source Of Power.

That is, if that's how you choose to see it

[andrew.v.spencer]

The representation of women in scifi, has pretty much followed the general trend in movies over the last fifty years. They started feep and weeble, became stronger and are seeking a more normal level. They still tend to be improbably attractive, but then the men are usually improbably handsome or muscled or both.

[Connavar]

I enjoy seeing women in SF like Ripley,Sarah Connor ,River and Inara,Zoey from Firefly.


I dont like the damsel in distress in SF, the cliche feeble female character. Way too stoneage from my taste.

[pyan]

And let's not forget Aeryn Sun in Farscape - I know it's TV rather than films, but that's where ST and Firefly started as well.

There's been at least a couple of really high raking women in the genre, as well: Mele-on Grayza, again from Farscape, and Servalan in Blake's 7 - no-one could accuse those two of being typical stereotype women.

[Humaren]

I believe things have changed a lot over the years in the way that woman are portrayed, and I believe it to be to the positive. Take Elektra, Ultra Violet and Selene from Underworld. All strong and self sufficient, but also able to show a degree of compassion and tenderness without being overly vulnerable. As for overly beautiful, I would agree most times, as in the above three, but let me point out one of my favorites, Col. Samantha Carter of SG1. Brilliant, Attractive (but not overly so) and a formidable leader and Fighter. As for a little skin being shown...well ladies...tell us what you thought of Arnold half naked in Predator. The list of half to fully naked men and women in sci-fi and fantasy may not be quite equal, but it’s not far off. And face it, men and women like their eye candy and sexism has nothing to do with that...That’s just nature.

[Lith]

That is, if that's how you choose to see it

Which I don't. It sometimes seems like the only way people will accept that a woman can live alone is if she actually does live alone- and that's not something most people want to do. As for Leia, anyone can see she's ten times the fitter ruler than Han Solo; he's too undisciplined and irresponsible.

Since we're jumping into SF television- I'll nominate Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5.

[Troo]

That's just it though. What I was trying to say (a little too subtly perhaps) is that you write the theory that you want to write, and you pick your evidence to support it. So long as your research supports your idea (or, where it detracts from it, you can show it to be something against the "norm"), you're fine. If you want to propose that the representation of women in SF has come along in leaps and bounds since the fifties, there are plenty of examples for you to use. If you want to propose that women are still quintessentially represented as inferior to men, there are plenty of examples for you to use who are the same characters that you could use to "prove" the former theory.

Let's look at Sam Carter. You could argue that she's a strong female lead who is inspiring to women SF fans, or you could argue that the character is just a man being played by a female actress - that for women to become "strong female leads", they have to become men in every way but genitalia.

It all depends on what paper you want to write

[Lith]

True 'nuff. I've seen people argue with all sincerity that the Harry Potter books are completely backward, that JKR is essentially regressive when it comes to gender-roles, and that Ginny (and others) are wasted characters because they became "convenient wombs" for the male characters they end up with. The only way for Ginny to prove she was a "fully-realized, independent female" would be if she broke up with Harry and ran off to realize her dreams. It's a curiously forward-backward way of seeing things.

Just noticed something in the OP- the girl in Transformers- I didn't really buy that she was that good a mechanic, but to argue seriously against it would require me to take the movie seriously, and I just can't do that. The thing about stereotypes is that where you get one, you usually get more (a lot more), and it's difficult to separate the stereotypes from the just plain bad writing, so it isn't fair to pick on one part of it.

And it's interesting that we've generally responded with women role models, but the topic of the thread isn't limited to that (or it doesn't specify that)- what about non-respectable women? Sure, there's the prostitutes and other low-living women, but what about plain wimps? Offhand, the only place I've seen outright wimpy women in a long time is anime.