“I’ll Make a Man Out of You”: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
[tweetmeme] After many months (and years of watching TV) I have finally completed my thesis, bringing to a close my master’s degree. The submitted document is available for download in PDF format for those who are interested in reading it.
Download PDF (756KB)
Heroic women in science fiction and fantasy television shows have done much to represent strong, successful women in leadership positions. However, these female roles that are viewed as strong and empowered embody many masculine identified traits, maintaining a patriarchal division of gender roles. This paper analyzes strong female characters within nine television shows by deconstructing their stereotypically “masculine” and “feminine” gender specific attributes and cross referencing how they play within and against traditional archetypes.
Employing texts from cultural criticism and feminist theory, I explore how representations of groups in popular culture and mass media messaging uphold structures of power by giving higher value to masculine attributes as observed in patriarchal discourse. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of why it is critical to foster television media that supports feminist ideals and breaks out of traditional oppressive gender binaries in order to promote, encourage and envision a just future society.
read your thesis last night and enjoyed it. thanks!
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Some of these things I’ve noticed and thought about (I’ve particularly noticed and been annoyed by the use of editing and camera angle as a tool to objectify women, which you mention briefly; it’s incredibly annoying when the story is trying to tell you that this is a “strong” woman but the camera itself refuses to give her that power) so it’s nice to have all these thoughts together written down and researched… thanks for sharing.
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I’m a little disappointed not to see Samantha Carter (Stargate, Stargate Atlantis) included. Would love to hear your take on that character in particular.
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Anita Reply:
October 5th, 2010 at 8:57 am
I actually didn’t watch Stargate so I couldn’t include Samantha Carter in the study. I would like to hear how she would fit into my analysis though.
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I’m excited to read this as a lover of Sci-Fi/Fantasy and as someone who loves your blog. I’ll probably never look at the genre the same way again, but I’m ready for that. Will comment more when I finish it. thanks for posting it!
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This paper is actually amazing. I’m currently in 4th year of uni and doing my dissertation on the women of Firefly, and how they defy gender conventions as representations of women in sci-fi…I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot with finding your thesis, it’ll be so helpful!
Just one question, have you had this published anywhere? I want to make sure I reference it correctly, should I use it
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Anita Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I’m so glad you enjoyed my thesis and that it’s helpful for you. I would be interested in what you have to say about the women of Firefly because I don’t think they are actually interesting, strong, or full female characters (I only talk about Zoe in the paper but I feel like Kaylee is infantalized even though she’s an amazing engineer *so frustrating*). The paper is only published on this website so you can just cite it from here.
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I must admit, I have not read your entire paper YET, but since you mentioned Mulan in your title, I was reminded of a beautiful dissection of Mulan by a transgender person on an LGBT blog. http://www.bluedevilsunited.com/2010/12/in-which-i-take-mulan-little-too.html
When talking about gender roles, yes, it does seem to perpetuate them, but at the same time questioning boundaries for where women can fit in these gender roles. Is this good or bad? Finally, the movie gets a little more complicated at the end when the men dress as women to climb the pillars. Just something to think about if you get a chance. I think the mere fact that this woman, Mulan, succeeds and is heroic in fulfilling a usual-male role (even though the film harps on the fact it is a man’s role) is a step in the right direction. It could even be argued that the role that Mulan plays is repeatedly portrayed as being a man’s role BECAUSE it makes an even better case for women’s success in fulfilling these roles. Nonetheless, a complicated topic.
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Have you watched Fringe? I feel like Olivia’s role might serve as a complicated/interesting example of this (and possibly an exception to the rule, in some ways).
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Anita Reply:
March 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Yes, I do watch Fringe, and *so far* I really like Olivia’s character a lot.
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Overall, I must admit that I didn’t really like any of the female characters in Firefly; Zoe might has well have been a man, since she was mostly brawn (as you say,”Zoe is hardly seen outside of the rigidity of the warrior”), River only became really interesting in Serenity, Kaylee is infantalized (as you point out above) and Inara was mainly eye candy without much of a presence/purpose except to be Mal’s (non-starter) love interest. I thought Christina Hendricks’ minor character was the most interesting in the series.
Although – as a man – I must admit it’s a bit difficult for me to nail down what I look for in a female character; I just look for strong characters, regardless of gender. I certainly appreciate your fascinating insights into these female sci-fi characters (I think you’re spot on about Captain Janeway).
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Thank you so much for this, and your whole website. You have really inspired me. As a teenage feminist its often hard to remember what it is modern feminism is all about and I think your focus on the media is so spot on – women need to be represented as whole people not just tropes. Its so hard as a young woman to find characters to relate to on TV so thank you for acknowledging this.
Anyway, you inspired me to write this article on feminism.
http://www.atthegrapevine.com/wordpress/politics/the-f-word
Thank you
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I guess this comment is a bit late, but I just wanted to tell you that I really, really enjoyed reading that. I am happy to see women being portrayed in traditional male roles , but it is bothering when those portrayals become a way to enforce the assumption that only traditional male attributes are interesting and worthy of screen time.
I found this site today and I have read all of your posts. I’m really, really loving it.
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Very much enjoyed reading your thesis and enjoy your blog.I dont neccesarily agree with everything you say but thats just because I do enjoy the hot chicks kicking ass.But your views on things do make me think and I would like to think make me grow as a person, keep up the good work….
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[...] lens, because of both her education and her experience. Her master’s thesis is titled, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television”. She has …She regularly hosts seminars and talks across the United States of America [...]
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