I’ve been a sci-fi fan since I was young — mainly TV and books, but also to some extent movies. However, I’m also a female with a strong sense of female competence and a huge resistance to stereotyped roles and expectations.
I think I was in my mid-twenties when I saw the movie Logan’s Run, and it put me off sci-fi for ages afterwards. There were two reasons: male and female escape from the city, cross country, crest a hill and see something neither have seen before (another city). She looks up at him and says in girlie, frightened voice “What is it?”. He looks down at her and answers in his assuring, manly voice: “I don’t know.” Good grief! Not long before (or after) that she, of course, sprains her ankle while running. For heavens sake!
This whole woman-sprains-ankle-while-running cliche is sooooo tired and pathetic. I wish plot writers would get a grip and discover that women can walk and run without falling over themselves.
It’s Friday night, I’m tired and have been watching Season 9 of Stargate SG1 on DVD. The epsiode The Scourge is pretty silly, but at least reasonably humorous. But why does the female diplomat have to stumble and twist her ankle while the group are on the run?
The redeeming feature was that it was one of the male diplomats who became hysterical.
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you should watch battlestar galactica – the remake version. it’s brilliant! excellent women characters and totally addictive series
Ah, Logan’s Run. I remember when I first saw that movie. I was in Boston with a high school friend and a dad. He worked in Boston at the time and commuted from New Jersey weekly. He got us a 2-bedroom suite at the Marriott downtown. He’d work during the day and my friend and I — just 15 years old — would explore Boston by foot and “the T” (if I remember right).
That was in 1976. no? A LONG time ago, before the world realized that all women weren’t idiotic burdens to their male counterparts. Before Lara Croft, Samatha Carter, and fill-in-the-blank heroic female lead or supporting character. (My brain, as usual, has failed to come up with a good third example, probably because I don’t watch enough television or movies.) If you recall, even the first two Raiders of the Lost Arc movies (late 70s, early 80s) featured weak female leads that could do little more than bash a bad guy on the back of the head when the male lead was in dire peril.
Things are different now — thank heaven! — and female characters are getting stronger every day. But I think we’ll always find that if it isn’t the female who sprains her ankle, it’s the dorky kid or obviously feminine male who will do it. The strong male lead’s injuries are always more manly and easily overcome — remember Bruce Willis walking barefoot through broken glass in Die Hard?
Princess Leia, of course. She’s a good third example and possibly one of the first strong women in modern movie making.
(I could have sat looking at the Submit button all day and STILL not come up with that third example until after I clicked it.)
Ah yes. I already have the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and Season One under my belt. S2 is right here beside me. I have one more disc of Stargate to watch, then I’ll be on to BG.
Excellent series!
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