In the World of Movies and Books----My Webiolography

The question I response to is If science fiction is a genre that imagines our future, what happens to gender and race?
The follow five is my choice:

Articles 1

Cavallaro, Dani. (2000) ‘Cyberpunk, gender and sexuality’. In Cyberpunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson. Continuum International Publishing. 121-126. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gqLY-B4PZoKEDmGeNZQ_jgEOybGjA0WkPzPgjQxrydU/edit?hl=en&authkey=COzf5JYD

(accessed 11 March 2011)

Summary:

Dani stated that gender in cyberpunk do not have a clear distinction. In cyberpunk, the image of gender can be both traditional and radical. As Dani explained, gender were stereotyped according to technology mentioned in cyberpunk fiction that mostly shown in William Gibson’s work. William wrote a lot of cyberpunk fiction tried to break traditional stereotyping in society. Characters were described as emotionless and took actions were considered as the other gender. For example, a woman kept her femininity while she was killing people. After Gibson’s inspiration, many cyberpunk fiction follow a certain narrative of telling their stories. Started with a girl that is under the patriarchy system society and being abused, represent the traditional gender idea. The story will go through the changes on the girl where she becomes a strong women, against men who were once abused her. Here they form a sense of radical idea of gender.

Dani also mentioned the objectification of women in cyberpunk fiction. When women tried to become stronger than men in fiction, these women tend to have surgical operation to transform their bodies into cyborgs. This could be the reasons of why cyberpunk fiction attracted male consumers, because as a cyborg, women became body that was technologized and natural (Cavallaro, 2000, p.125). Yet cyberpunk still is a platform for author to try demolishing the patriarchal ideology in society.

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Articles 2

Leonard, A. Elisabeth. (2003) ‘Race and Ethnicity’. James, Edward and Farah Mendlesohn, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. UK: Cambridge. 253-263. https://files.pbworks.com/download/NWfwQm3VhB/templefyw/30798217/Leonard%20-%20Race%20and%20Ethnicity%20in%20Science%20Fiction.pdf (accessed 5 March 2011)

Summary:

In this Chapter, Elisabeth pointed out that there are many authors concerning gender issues when they wrote science fiction, but race issue was considering less by readers and authors. When authors and readers acknowledged the changing roles of female along the development in science fiction, they seldom considered the representation of race in science fiction. Science fiction was largely a white dominated world, where other races were usually symbolized in other species than human, such as aliens. However there were a few authors who considered the race issue in their works. For example, W. E. B. Du Bois who is an African American, wrote a science fiction about a black women time traveling back to the ancient time when her ancestor lived.

These authors made the race issues visible and provided readers room to reflect on the issues. Elisabeth brought out the idea that author who mentioned race in science fiction were writing in white’s perspectives(Leonard, 2003, p.257). For examples, there was a story about the white protagonist transformed into the other race in order to understand how the opposite felt. Some other were about black protagonists were treated equally in a world only when their worlds were isolated. Elisabeth hoped in the future racial minority will be a characteristic in science fiction rather than a special feature among certain author’s work.

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Articles 3

McGill, David (2008) ‘'I Aim to Misbehave' Masculinities in the 'Verse’. Rhonda V. Willcox and Tanya R. Cochran, eds, Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier. New York : I.B. Tauris. 75-86. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxVQFF9nHAzMYmUwODMzNzYtMTllNS00ZTNjLWJiYjEtNjJjNzNmNjg0YWIy&hl=en&authkey=CN-9iroC

(accessed 10 March 2011)

Summary:

This chapter discussed the gender representation in a science fiction shown in a TV drama, Firefly (2002) and a movie, Serenity (2005), which were created by the same man. David showed readers that the TV drama and the movie challenged traditional masculinity in the society. First of all, he pointed out that the supporting male characters were less masculine. It indicated the uncertainty of male’s identity in the society.

On the other hand, supporting females were appeared to be more masculine than their counterparts. The two main female characters were in rather important positions in the play. David suggested that the femininity of the female characters was used to supplement what masculinity is. But he pointed out the screenwriter, who was also the director believed gender is not naturally biological but socially constructed. (McGill, 2008, p.78) David discussed a lot about the ethical vision on the main male character. He clarified that both the gender demonstrated the idea of socially constructed gender. Also He explained that the character Captain Malcolm demonstrated a rather traditional masculinity throughout the TV series based on his own ethical vision and the vision was applicable on any gender. The masculinity Captain Malcolm showed was against and challenged the traditional hegemonic masculinity.

The picture showing one of the female crew member in the drama Firefly. Meet Kaylee, the mechanic.
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Articles 4

Merrick, Helen. (2003) ‘Gender and Science Fiction’. James, Edward and Farah Mendlesohn, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. UK: Cambridge. 241-252. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxVQFF9nHAzMZjQ2NmQ4NzMtODA2Yi00MzZkLTljZTQtNjVhNmVkY2JhOTI4&hl=en&authkey=CPjqhLEJ

(accessed 5 March 2011)

Summary:

In this chapter, Helen examined the development of gender roles in science fiction in recent decades. She also looked into how science fiction became a platform for authors to criticize or explore further in gender issues. From 1930s to 1990s, science fiction went through various stages regarding gender as well as its representation of reality.

In 1930s, science fiction was generally considered as a male world especially in hard science fiction where numerous technologies and science were shown and explained to readers. Female were the supporting roles to reflect male’s masculinity, sometimes women were even not considered as human. For example in stories human against aliens, aliens are always symbolized as women or female characters. However there were radical changes on gender issues in science fiction until 1970s. Using some significant stories in 1930s to 1970s, Helen concluded that there were three major ways of re-constructing the gender relation in science fiction. They merged the binary sex in a single-sex world or created a planet where female can reveal their independence. The second way was to hide or ignore the classification of the binary sex. Lastly, they created a world with multiple genders. (Merrick, 2003, p.242 ) Helen believed that these “worlds” in science fiction reflect the social view of gender.

During 1970s, not only more female characters were included in fictions, female characters were much more important. The most important was that author stop comparing the two gender’s ability regarding science and technology. They developed male and female characters and treated them equally and regarded both gender as “human” (Merrick, 2003, p.250). After 1990s, there was a little backlash that is the traditional idea of gender has been clearly expressed through the cyberpunk.
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Article 5

Nama, Adilifu. (2008) ‘Human Unite! : Race, Class and Postindustrial Aliens’. Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film. USA: University of Texas Press. 96-122. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxVQFF9nHAzMZDgwMDM5ZjMtYWFiYS00OGNiLWEzMGYtYmI1YTA4YjY1ZmRj&hl=en&authkey=CN6EqsYJ

(accessed 8 March 2011)

Summary:

The chapter studied some of the famous science fiction films that were produced after Cold War. It presented the reflections of these films on certain social issues that concerned Americans in those days, such as the anxiety towards deindustrialization, the Mexican immigrant issue. The chapter also looked into the issue of race and gender in that period. The author found that the formation of equal status in gender and race was actually created by the increasingly worrying economic states of USA. For example, film Rollerball (1975) and Alien (1979) both with characters of black and white who together as a team, fought against the corporations that are controlling the lives of the public. Under capitalism, corporations exploited on everyone, especially those low paid minority groups. The author explained the enormous corporate power on ordinary people led people of black and white join together to fight for survival.

Filmmakers suggested that there is a possibility of racial diversity and equality in the near future. And these films proposed that without the cooperation of different race and class, also gender, USA cannot go through the economic recession (Nama, 2008, p.107). Although the race and class issues were in science fiction films, the author believed that these issues are not being seriously considered in the society.

The first picture is the black character and white character in the film Alien mentioned in this chapter.

The second picture is the main actress of the same film. Ripley.







By Apple