Science Fiction and Gender Wars
A recent Spearhead article written by Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech illustrates how feminist ideology has changed the direction of science fiction over the last decade. An example of this change can be observed by watching the evolution of the SyFy channel (formally known as Sci-Fi) over the past decade.
Bonnie Hammer was hired to transform the Sci-Fi channel so that it would be more female friendly. Traditional science fiction tends to focus on action and technology which typically appeals to men and does not attract most women. So Bonnie made the decision to create more female friendly programming that was focused primarily on interpersonal relationships. The idea was that women would be more attracted to story lines that dealt more with emotional drama versus space combat. So instead of grand space epics with weird technology and aliens, the story lines became basically “Sex in the City” set in space.
While it is not necessarily a bad thing to change science fiction to appeal to more women, the consequence is that such a change tends to repel most guys. Guys (especially young boys) like the stereotypical action based plots complete with geeky technology. Boys want to see a male hero fighting some weird space alien to save the day. They typically don’t care to watch a plot that deals with emotional angst complete with gossip and jealousy.
Of course, as always, there are exceptions to the rule. Many girls love traditional science fiction (hurray, for these girls) and there are some guys that prefer the Lifetime Channel stuff. But the exceptions don’t invalidate the rule. And the question of the article is – Is it OK to have programming that appeals primarily to men? Or must we quickly change anything that appeals to men in order to be more “inclusive”?
The Spearhead article somehow went viral and created a firestorm of comments. The notion that maybe it is OK and good to have programming that appeals primarily to men sent off warning alarms of potential heresy amongst the feminist zealots. The faithful quickly descended upon the blog and quickly accused any man with a dissenting opinion as obviously being a fat loser with a small penis - the typical retarded language of Feminists that is used in place of critical thinking. Even actor Brent Spiner, who played Commander Data on Star Trek, commented that the article was obviously supported just by a bunch of “ass hats.”
So congratulations to Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech for writing an article that obviously hit a nerve among the SciFi community. Due to political correctness, many people are too scared to say or write publically what many people think privately. And when someone dares to write something that is against the orthodoxy, it is amusing to watch the resulting hysteria.
We're all fat ugly loser geeks living in basements, can't we all just get along? :)
ReplyDeleteSo new management is why scifi channel went to hell? I never noticed anything feminist/romantic going on but I did notice a serious decline in quality. I stopped watching after Farscape ended. There was nothing left of value.
As an example, when I left the channel's most advertised show was LEXX a big flying penis ship with testicles that ejaculated to attack it's enemies, with a bunch of naked booby bimbos everywhere - maybe I'm missing something.. how exactly is this feminist?
In all honesty I had thought Scifi channel was becoming another Spike TV --the total opposite of what is being ranted about on that article.
Until you pointed out Battlestar as feminist I always thought it was another fluffy T&A show along the same line as Lexx, I avoided it - that's the way it was blatantly advertised. Tits everywhere on magazine covers, sweat glisteny women touching one another on TV guide.
Are you sure you haven't just filled your minds with so much anti fem propaganda that.. you're maybe imagining things?
Just the way of all business/marketing. Idiots, male and female, have been absolutely ruining every good action/scifi movie with romantic situations all the way back to the original Star Wars and James Bond movies.
Do I really care if Spock finds a wife? Why are Han Solo and Princess Leia kissing? Cassiopeia & Starbuck are in love (original Battlestar Galactica)? Did the Transporter just fall in love with the girl in the trunk?? Seriously wtff.
This BS has been alive all the way in the 70s so no one tell me about the good old days. The only way it can be totally avoided is going way way back to the writings of H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, maybe Isaac Asimov.
That’s because there is an undeclared war on real science fiction on TV and in movies.
This part of the article made me lol hard. It is so absurd to blame the bad decisions of one business person on every one of a particular gender who adores a genre. But it's to be expected from a person who wants to wipe out all women from the earth and replace them with artificial wombs. So, grain of salt.
One of the traditional story telling devices was that of a young boy who kills the evil dragon to save the princess and win her heart. Prior to political correctness, pretty much all epic fantasy followed this formula. Think of Star Wars – the young Luke Skywalker is mentored by an older man to hone and develop his skills. This allows Luke to destroy the evil Death Star and win the affection of Princess Leah (prior before it known she was his sister).
ReplyDeleteWhile the “save the princess” plot line is pretty trite, it has for hundreds of years captured the imagination of young boys. And this desire is rooted deeply in the biological differences between boys and girls. Absent of rape, boys tend to display and girls choose in matters of sex and mate selection. Girls are genetically wired to be attracted to the dashing hero who kills the dragon and saves the day. As such, young boys like to fantasize as being the hero such as Luke Skywalker or Superman.
However, feminists found this whole plot line to be offensive. They asked - why should the hero always be a man? Why can’t the hero be a girl that kills the dragon and saves the prince? Based on political pressure (which is huge in determining who gets Hollywood gigs), the storylines have been changed to emphasize strong women and weaker men.
The problem with the feminized sanitized plot line is that is does not appeal sexually to boys or girls. Girls still are attracted to dashing hero that saves the day. Despite the propaganda, a typical girl is not attracted to an emotionally weak man that has to be saved by a female hero. Similarly, young boys cannot relate to female heroes. Young boys want male role models in real life and in their fantasy.
Personally I find nothing wrong with the hero being a man or woman - it's fiction. I'm more concerned with a good story, good acting. Not concerned with genitals.
ReplyDeleteChivalry stories? Is that what anti-feminist men want then - to rescue women, save them from evil oppessors, kindness & respect to all women? Yeah I'm pretty sure that's not it. But you're welcome to open all of my doors for me Ramzpaul lol
Star Wars isn't really a good universe to base an anti-female argument on because women and men have always been pretty equal opportunity in Lucas' world, not weak females needing rescuing. There are 2,765 females in the star wars universe--female jedi, sith, bounty hunters, the list goes on:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Females
"With women killing science fiction on television" he writes. One idiot business person who happens to be female and suddenly it's vaginas and all their emotions destroy scifi.
Antifem also mentioned original Star Trek -- considering that Lucille Ball is the mother of the classic Star Trek, women have helped science fiction quite alot. If it wasn't for her standing behind the original show, pushing to continue it, there would have been nothing.
I'm infinitely happy that men who are scifi fans and writers don't have the strange anti-woman belief system that article has.
Most of TV has always been pure garbage. It comes down to one thing: If you don't like what's on don't watch it. There is a little button on the remote that will turn the TV off :)
<< Most of TV has always been pure garbage. It comes down to one thing: If you don't like what's on don't watch it. There is a little button on the remote that will turn the TV off :) >>
ReplyDeleteAnd that is what men and boys have been doing for the past decade. Male television viewership has fallen off a cliff as men have turned more to the internet and video games for entertainment. Men and boys are just not that into watching shows such as “Sex in the City” and so forth.
And the feminists didn’t quite advocate the “turn it off if you don’t like it” philosophy when THEY found characters that they deemed were demeaning to women. No, they insisted that the Networks enforce their political views within the plotlines. So now we are treated to an endless stream of strong, independent, you go grrrrl characters and men are typically shown as bumbling fools.
Personally, I don’t care that much as I do my own thing. But as the Networks and Hollywood cry and bitch about declining viewership and revenue maybe they should rethink trying to alienate 50% of the population.