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UK Female Sci-Fi Viewers Now Outnumber Males
mosel-saar-ruwer writes "The UK Telegraph is reporting that, due to the popularity of Buffy, Lara Croft, and Xena, female sci-fi viewers now outnumber males, at 51%-49%. From the article: 'People have an impression of sci-fi fans being small men who sit in the dark watching Star Trek but it's not like that now ... There has been an increase in positive female role models, whereas in Star Trek, all the women were either aliens or wore short skirts.'"
"Star Trek would have been much more progressive if Roddenberry wasn't teathered by NBC."
Hehe. I have a book about the artwork done for the various Star Trek series. They designed a short skirt for some of the female staff in STNG. They even suggested that in the future, males could wear them too. There actually is a shot somewhere early in the series with a man wearing one of those skirts. They didn't dwell on it. From reading the book, I got the impression that being gay was something that would be around in the 24th century, but not something anybody particularly cared about. They wanted to indicate that it was there, but not have a big dazzling fireworks show about it. The book was vague enough about it, though, that I don't know that I quite interpreted that correctly. Still, it seems fitting.
"Derp de derp."
> Just misclassify things as SciFi.
While this may be true for the shows offered as evidence, it doesn't mean the point being made is wrong. To me it just seems like the article is misattributing what is causing the rise in female viewership.
In some interview on the Firefly DVD set, there were comments made that Fox had concerns that they weren't getting reactions from the audiences they wanted. They said they got a "much bigger" reaction from female viewers than they did male ones.
Though Firefly is only barely science fiction, it only holds claim to the label because it involves a spacefaring humanity in the future, that quote from the interview has always struck me as a bit odd.
Perhaps it's nothing more than the "softening" of traditional sci-fi that is causing the shift.
I'm only speculating since I'm not from the UK, but is this article an indication that perhaps the Sci-Fi channel was heading downhill with respect to other channels and not generating the necessary revenue? To combat this, the management has decided to broadcast a few popular shows, that while don't fall under the category of Sci-Fi, cause people to pay for the channel because they would like to watch those shows?
There is a shot -- I think during the crowd-in-corridor shots before the saucer sep in "Encounter at Farpoint" with at least one male in a skirt uniform. The Series Bible they sent me when they invited me in to pitch mentioned this. (Even though I was invited in to pitch somewhere around the 3rd or 4th season, the Series Bible hadn't changed and still had a LOT of stuff from the original ideas that were dropped.) There was a reference to the fact that men and women would be wearing skirt uniforms and that clothing would not be so sexist (although that wasn't the word used).
There is an awful song by Kate Bush (lyrics here) about socially challenged geeks spending late nights with their computers. Now, of course, everybody spends late nights with their computers, logged on to chat rooms and sending email.
Likewise, the socially challenged geeks used to be the only ones who watched scifi. And now everyone does.
What next...?
Prolog rules
Uh, Buffy isn't scifi. At best it's fantasy. Xena? Same thing, although I suppose you could call Xena something like "historical dramatic fiction", if you really want to stretch the definition. Lara Croft? Fantasy. See, the problem with too many writers, networks, producers, et al, is that they don't understand the if you want to call something scifi, it needs have some SCIENCE in it. Even 2001 went from scifi to fantasy about halfway through.
Sure, I'm being pedantic and purist. But it does keep Harlan Ellison from trying to kill me...
It was Judge Woodlock, in the US District Court for Massachusetts, with a gavel.
Most modern science fiction TV shows have much more deeper characters, more sophisticated intercharacter relationships and often have plot arcs that last more than 60 minutes. It also helps that 90% of everything else is recycled and rehashed.
-- $G
Roddenberry originally wanted half of the crew to be female, but NBC said he couldn't do that because it would make it look like "there's a lot of fooling around going on up there." They said he could do one-third women, which he justified by saying, "Well hell, one-third healthy, young women ought to be enough."
English is easier said than done.
Well, as well as appealing to men, and a large lesbian fan base, Xena (like Buffy) represented a move towards female empowerment. The women on the show were able to look good and kick butt :)
We still have a long way to go to reach equality. I know some of you may disagree...but I've recently decided that a purely scientific measure of gender equality can be attained through clothing. Now if only some social scientist would work out the scale and do the research. Following is an example of what I mean.
What is your reaction to seeing a man in clothing traditionally reserved for women, such as a skirt? If it illicits no different a reaction, apart from sexual attraction, than seeing a woman in pants then that's when you'll know you have achieved true equality.
When women are viewed as having equal power with men, then women's clothing will carry the same status as men's clothing for any gender.
Abstinence is a government conspiracy. www.SafeSexZone.co
Joss (IIRC, maybe it was Tim) said that one of the main reasons that Fox axed Firefly was that (and I paraphrase here) the women were "too strong" and the men were "too weak".
You would think Fox would appreciate that Firefly had one of the sexiest casts in any SciFi/Fantasy show-- the women were hot, and being strong made them even hotter. Kaylee, anyone? She's even cuter carrying around those tools. The men were hot (Even according to my feminist woman friends), and darnit, Mal and the Doc had a sensitive side, which made them even HOTTER. It was even (*gasp*) a couples show!
And gosh, and I even liked the plots and the story of the human diaspora.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Xena?
Lara Croft?
Ok, I'll grant a weak maybe on Lara Croft, but the first two as role models, nope sorry. Plus, as many have pointed out, none of the three are really scifi!
How about these instead:
Samantha Carter
Aeryn Sun
(I will grant that Claudia Black did guest on Xena once, but her integral role in Farscape should far and away excuse that transgression)
What we really need are more good role models in every genre, not just scifi, but that will get me on an offtopic rant
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
True? Who knows, but it's as good a story as any others I've heard.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
There's no if. Firefly is set in a solar system which contains no less than 12 planets, each with no less than 2 moons, the gas giants with at least 10 moons. Few of these planets/moons were inhabitable when humans came to the system (perhaps just one) but they brought teraforming equipment with them which gives every planet/moon an atmosphere and gravity as near to Earth-that-was as possible. How'd they get there in the first place? With a multi-generation space ark. All consistent with the current laws of physics.. which the possible exception of artificial gravity, which is a necessary conceit to make a space drama recognisable. There's plenty of references in FireFly to an aversion to transhumanism, suggesting that Earth went through the Singularity and FireFly is the story of the survivors. Yeah, you heard me, survivors, the few people who managed to get away from the hell of utopia. You may think having a superintellegent mind controlling your destiny is fun, but I'll take the unknown of the frontier.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Excuse me? If we had workable fusion technology we could travel between the planets of our solar system in days.. and that's without suffering anymore than a standard gravity of acceleration. It's all about energy consumption. The highest density fuels we have are made from dead dinosaurs or produce so much harmful radiation that you need to encase them with lots of heavy shielding.
As for the breathable atmosphere, they teraformed lifeless planets/moons so they could colonize their new solar system. Technology to do that is at our fingertips right now: it's called life. We're just so pathetic at manipulating it that we can't see the potential.
If there's anything unbelievable in the science of FireFly it is artificial gravity. Both on the ships and on the planets/moons. Our science can't explain that, but it's unfortunately necessary so us idlers can relate to the characters.
How we know is more important than what we know.
There is nothing unphysical about traveling between the planets of a solar system in days. The distance from the Sun to Pluto is about 0.22 light days. If your maximum acceleration and decceleration is 1g, you can travel to Pluto in roughly 18 days, with a maximum velocity of 2% of the speed of light. If you can tolerate acceleration at 2g, you can get there in roughly 12.5 days, with a maximum velocity of 1.8% the speed of light. All of these are entirely within the realm of possibility, not only within our current physics, but with, from a physics theory point of view, fairly reasonable technologies.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Stargate SG-1, which certainly is sci-fi, and Captain/Major/Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter is not only a babe who can kick butt, she's smart. No miniskirts or skintight body suits, either (more's the pity ;-).
-- Alastair
Xena is not female empowerment
Now this is female empowerment in Sci Fi:
"And just one more thing. On your way back, I'd like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra: 'Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out! Babylon control out. Civilians." [Looks at ceiling.]
Xena isn't.
Disclaimer - I am male. I am judging by what my wife likes and what makes her frown in disgust and change the channel.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/