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UK Female Sci-Fi Viewers Now Outnumber Males

Posted by Zonk on from the better-stories-longer-skirts dept.

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.'"

16 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. Short Skirts by Valcoramizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...And they mention Xena?

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    1. Re:Short Skirts by moonbender · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Star Trek isn't just TOS, and neither Xena nor Buffy are sci-fi. That is all.

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    2. RE: short skirts by Tezkah · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      Interesting, is that where Futurama gets Zap Brannigan's short short skirt from?

  2. I'm an overweight man by geoffrobinson · · Score: 5, Funny

    who watches sci-fi in well-lit rooms. So much for stereotypes.

    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
  3. Hmmmm, United Kingdom they say... by Traegorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    *buys first available plane ticket to England*

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    TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
    1. Re:Hmmmm, United Kingdom they say... by Mr2cents · · Score: 5, Funny

      Great, now they have to do a recount.

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      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
  4. Ahh.. by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thats a good way to widen your audience -- Just misclassify things as SciFi.

    Laura Croft is no more SciFi than Indiana Jones -- Its adventure.
    Buffy/Xena is Mytho. No Science involved at all, just adjusted beliefs leading to an alternate reality.

    --
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    1. Re:Ahh.. by fireboy1919 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Firefly is only barely science fiction

      Yeah...and the pope's only barely Catholic. Microsoft's only a little power hungry.

      They've got a consistent mechanism powering the ships (spinning matter/energy converter things). They've got a complete future history that includes the mixing of all peoples (so that everyone now speaks the two widest used languages- Chinese and English), colonization of another galaxy, and a civil war. Then they deal with the results of this - including the law of supply and demand, and variations in society.

      Heck, they even went so far as to explain (**MINOR SPOILER WARNING***) which part of the brain the people who experimented with River used to do it, and why.

      If this isn't Sci-Fi, then what is? You don't have to explain things using the particle-of-the-week (like Star Trek: TNG) just for it to be Sci-Fi.

      In all seriousness, I think you've hit upon the root of the problem. Its sort of hard to classify Sci-Fi because it means different things to different people.

      I would personally consider Firefly/Serenity to be pure, uncut, and mainstream Sci-Fi. I'd go so far as to say that you could use it as an paragon example when someone asks "What is Sci-Fi?"

      But I guess that's just me.

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    2. Re:Ahh.. by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

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      How we know is more important than what we know.
  5. That's not Sci-Fi by evilviper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since when does Buffy, Lara Croft, or Xena count as Sci-Fi? It's "FIction" of course, but I don't see any SCIence in any of them.

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  6. I'll be glad to see the old stereotypes go. by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's nice to see that people are finally realizing that all the old sci-fi fan stereotypes aren't really accurate. I, for one, am a mature, emotionally well-developed thirty-four year old male with a life and I-

    -hold on, Mom wants me to clean out my room in the basement. Be right back.

  7. ahem by xpatiate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    speaking as a female sci-fi fan, I feel the need to point out that women can be aliens *and* wear short skirts *and* be positive role models, all at the same time.

    Linking the increase in women viewers to shows being more 'character-led' might seem like a stereotypical generalisation but it rings true for me. The sci-fi I've always been most into is the kind that uses speculative, imaginary environments to explore big ideas and hopefully arrive at some interesting truths about human personalities... rather than the car-chases-in-outer-space kind.

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  8. Immigration to UK Website ... by cpu_fusion · · Score: 5, Funny

    Immigration to UK website soon to be slashdotted.

  9. Re:First to defend Gene Roddenberry by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    There actually is a shot somewhere early in the series with a man wearing one of those skirts.

    You can see it here.

    Yeah, I think I'm glad they dumped those. What's too bad is they never refer to them later in the series. Why not take a jab at themselves for a laugh? For example when Riker makes a comment to Picard about how he hates the dress uniform, Picard could reply that, "at least he didn't have to wear those awful skirts."

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    /)
  10. I can't believe... by PFritz21 · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...that anyone hasn't mentioned http://www.sg1archive.com/bios/at.shtmlUSAF Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, Ph. D.

  11. Re:First to defend Gene Roddenberry by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Which episode was that?"

    It was that episode where the Enterprise entered a strange area of space. Mr. Data generated a theory that correctly explained what it was they were experiencing. Riker used a metaphor to describe the phenomenon so bumpkins like me could understand it. Mr. La Forge set up some strange energy thingy to fire at it, but that didn't work. Worf suggested battle stations, but Picard didn't want to appear aggressive. Wesley knew all along what to do but nobody listened to him. Troi said people were scared. I forget how they got out of it but the effect was pretty neat. The most notable aspect of this episode was that the Holodeck was in perfect working order.

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