Science Fiction Gender Analysis

647 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender stereotypes and popular culture

How and to what extent does contemporary science fiction television challenge or reaffirm the traditional positions of women within the genre? In this Paper I will aim to explore the role of which women play within the science fiction genre, starting with the original representations of women within science fiction during the sixties to the nineties and then moving onto present science fiction television shows such as The One Hundred, Doctor Who and Continuum. To do this I will draw upon the works of Brooks Landon, Keith Brooker and in addition to this I will incorporate an analysis of two science fiction television shows, the first will be Doctor Who (BBC, 1963-89), this is to show how woman have previously been portrayed in science fiction …show more content…

Therefore there are some programmes that could be considered science fiction by some and not by others. ‘Definitions of SF, like histories of SF, are manifold not because critics and historians of the form are confused, or can’t agree on key points, but because SF itself is a wide-ranging, multivalent and endlessly cross-fertilising cultural idiom.’ (Roberts, A, 2005: 2). There are a few ways of defining the science fiction genre. The first would be to summarize the essential theoretical hypotheses that are out there. Meaning that you take peoples theories and put them into practice and in addition the information or data can be collected and used to check for similarities and differences between the different media texts. There is the formalist approach of which you draw from the large array of specific examples from novels, films and television shows that are seen to be in the science fiction genre. A second method of defining this genre could be using the history from it. This is known as ‘historicist’. The history of science fiction helps when paying close attention to the cultural settings, situations and the effects from

Show More
Related

  • Friday Night Lights Gender Analysis

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.

    Read More

  • Katha Pollitt's Impacts Of Female Role Models In The Media

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Decades ago Katha Pollitt realized there were not enough women is the television industry and preschool aged children were the ones being effected the most. From Pollitt’s article the Smurfette principle was developed and spread worldwide. This principle has helped lead the way for women in the media, but has it been enough? In her dissertation about how female characters are represented in Hollywood, Reema Dutt (2013) points out that “Animated children’s films tend to focus on male characters, with females as ancillary accessories...” Young girls are the most impressionable at the preschool age, yet Hollywood allowed men to dominate the big screen for so many years. Dutt (2013) goes on to explain “This is particularly disappointing given the fact that these films target impressionable children, who are being fed normative and antiquated portrayals of women at a young age.” Pollitt’s outlook was not erroneous, however the differences in television between 1991 and 2016 are astounding. There are twenty three years between Pollitt’s article and Dutt’s dissertation and many aspects still hold true. Over those years there has been much headway made for women in television. According to a study in HuffPost Women Nina Bahadur (2012) reported that “…44.3 percent of females were gainfully employed — compared with 54.5 percent of

    Read More

  • The Presentation Of Gender Stereotypes In The Jetsons

    2263 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although animated cartoons have long been associated with children’s entertainment, the content of many cartoons suggest they are for adults as well. From character portrayal to perceived gender roles, cartoons such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby Doo both reflect societal values from their time periods as well as perpetuate the developed stereotypes. Cartoons produced more recently such as The Simpsons start to challenge these stereotypes instead of following blindly. Comparing the earliest popular cartoons to more recent productions, shows progress towards a less stereotypical character portrayal in regards to gender.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Kaleidoscope Of Gender

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities written by Joan Z. Spade and Catherine G. Valentine is a book about the sociology of gender and the construct thereof. The writers use a metaphor of a kaleidoscope to illustrate their interpretations of the topic. A kaleidoscope is a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of colored glass or paper, whose reflections produce changing patterns that are visible through an eyehole when the tube is rotated. Utilizing the similitude of the kaleidoscope, this collection presents gender as a result of always transforming patterns get under way by prisms that underlie change, both straightforward and complex, bringing about an extensive variety of possibilities. The book

    Read More

  • Modern Day Females: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    In American culture today, women continue the struggle of identifying what their roles in society are supposed to be. Our culture has been sending mixed messages to the modern day female, creating a sense of uneasiness to an already confusing and stressful world. Although women today are encouraged more than ever to be independent, educated, and successful, they are often times shamed for having done just that. Career driven females are frequently at risk of being labeled as bossy, unfeminine, or selfish for competing in many career paths that were once dominated by men. A popular medium in our culture such as television continues to have significant influences as to how people should aspire to live their lives. Viewers develop connections with relatable characters and to relationship dynamics displayed within their favorite shows. Fictional characters and relationships can ultimately influence a viewer’s fashion sense, social and political opinion, and attitude towards gender norms. Since the days of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie, where women were commonly portrayed as being the endearing mischievous housewife, television shows have evolved in order to reflect real life women who were becoming increasingly more independent, educated, and career oriented throughout the subsequent decades. New genres of television are introduced, such as the workplace comedy, where women are not only career oriented, but eventually transition into positions of power.

    Read More

  • Gender: Annotated Bibliography

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.

    Read More

  • Blade Runner: SF Codes And Conventions

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    With countless inventions throughout the 20th century, audiences had a strong interest in technology and the amazing unpredictable future they present. On the other hand, technology, particularly after society witnessed the effects of WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction) in the World Wars, sparked fear and ethical concerns regarding technological abuse (The Levine Institute 2017). As such, in a society filled with innovative technology like televisions, SF filmmakers have been able to take advantage of these widespread worries and wonders and explore captivating themes in a fictional world free of racial, religious and political boundaries. Both Blade Runner and Lucy play on the concerns of audiences and portray a dysfunctional society dominated by dehumanising consumerism and technology. SF, which is viewed as a male-dominated genre, has also been heavily influenced by gender roles during the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1935-1956); a dry period following the World Wars that saw SF increase in popularity (Dirks 2017; Lilly Library 2010). During this time, females were seen as delicate housewives and were not encouraged to pursue science and maths, thus appearing uneducated in these areas (Coob 2005). Men, however, were strongly seen as science, mathematics and machinery lovers (Brewer 2017). As such, SF became a genre for male readers and male writers,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Sex In The City

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    In America women have gone through so many social norms that has affected them throughout a lifetime. Since then with the changes, mass media got involved in this type of movement. American culture shifted where women where becoming professionals in the work force, more independent and less likely to marry. As a result, television networks created a series of shows to expose and associate the female audience to the TV shows. From Charlies Angels to Sex in the City and for our present time Nashville show, incorporate feminism to be shown in the small screen, in every decade shows exhibited the 3 feminist movement waves. For instance, during the 90s the 3rd wave of feminism was represented through Television by revealing female sexuality

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Some Like It Hot and Alien 3

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Representation of Women in Some Like It Hot and Alien 3 This essay will be about how women are and have been represented in films in the past and how they are represented nowadays. I will be looking at the roles and representations of women in 'Some Like It Hot and Alien 3. Some Like It Hot was made in 1958. Marilyn Monroe starts in the comedy as Sugar Cane, a very feminine musician.

    Read More

  • Fifth Business Essay

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    Female characters in literature became more prominent at the turn of the last century as women's role in society changed. At the beginning of the 20th century, men were at the front lines fighting prolonged wars, while women were left to fulfill traditionally masculine roles back home. Women were performing the essential duties at the home front, without which everyday life would not have been sustainable. In Fifth Business, Davies employs an unorthodox approach creating anomalous female characters attemptin...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World qualifies as both a precursor to science fiction and an exploration of utopian literature. Cavendish redefines customary representations of women through challenging the boundaries of gender whilst eradicating conventions of the genre. In her essay Gender, Genre, and the Utopian Body, author Marina Leslie suggests that Cavendish realigns three of the dominant modes of discourse which are employed in the representation of women in literature; misogynistic narratives of women-on-top, literary conventions of romance and finally the evolving textual practices of philosophy.

    Read More

  • Bewitched And I Love Lucy Patriarchy Analysis

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    The classic network era is one of the most easily recognizable and distinct eras in television history. Both Bewitched and I Love Lucy were huge sitcoms that took up issues of gender representation and patriarchy in their programs through the representations of the main male and female characters of their respective series. While both of these series pushed boundaries when it came to the representation of women, in the end, the costuming of these men and women, how the main characters are introduced, and the domestic environment that the atmosphere takes place in, all serve to reinforce traditional gender norms and reveals that patriarchy is dependent on maintaining dominant ideas about masculinity and femininity.

    Read More

  • GENDER ROLES IN LITERATURE

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic individualism and competition, particularly through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. Girls, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout children’s literature. Treasure Island and The Secret Garden are two novels that are an excellent portrayal of the narrative pattern of “boy and girl” books.

    Read More

  • Science And Fiction: The Consequences Of Science Fiction

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and technology in the future. Science fiction provides an approach to understanding the universe.( Chris Mckittrick).It

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Action Films

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 1). 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish.

    Read More

More about Science Fiction Gender Analysis

Open Document