Phil Stern's Blog - Posts Tagged "fantasy"
Sex And The Sci-Fi Girl
With the domination of Young Adult, today’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy landscape lacks sex appeal and realistic adult female characters.
By Phil Stern
In the not-too-distant past, Science Fiction was a highly sexualized genre.
In 1966, Raquel Welch burst onto the scene in the soft-porn caveman epic One Million Years B.C. In 1968, Jane Fonda repeated the trick in the equally absurd Barbarella, complete with the famous zero gravity undressing scene and torture via the orgasm organ.
Of course, in those days “sexy” and “sexist” generally went hand-in-hand. The original Star Trek featured weekly doses of helpless, ineffectual women in short skirts. In Robert A. Heinlein’s novels, women were nothing more than pretty sex objects. The quasi sci-fi James Bond films were outrageously sexist, none more so than 1964′s Goldfinger, featuring possibly the most famous Bond girl of all, Pussy Galore.
Into the late 1970′s nothing much had changed. The original Battlestar Galactica featured more young actresses in even tinier skirts, while Erin Gray of Buck Rogers may have been the only colonel, in any military, to dress like a call girl.
But today’s science fiction has swung back to the classic 1950′s mentality, with straight-laced good girls airily berating the local vampires into waiting for marriage. Heroes gradually became a bore because the characters refused to grow up. Once Upon A Time is a big tease. Grimm is okay, but totally sexless.
Yes, we have HBO’s True Blood. But isn’t it interesting how you have to set a highly-sexualized Urban Fantasy show in a southern slum? Clearly, sex is for the underclass.
The purification of speculative entertainment began with the onslaught of Young Adult literature, starting with Harry Potter and Twilight, but now completely dominating the field.
Written for teenagers, much of the sub-genre’s appeal is the ability of teenage girls to resist male sexual advances, even when personified by powerful, predatory beings like vampires and werewolves. I can understand how YA became a potent counter-pull to an increasingly sexualized culture, a refuge for girls yearning for a simpler world where they once again were in control.
But here’s the problem. Sci-Fi now lacks healthy, realistic, twenty- and thirty-something female role models. It’s morphed into the old good-girl/bad-girl paradigm that held women back for so many years, threatening to turn speculative fiction from a progressive force into a regressive drag.
In other words, teenagers should be good girls and boys. But where’s the Sci-Fi for adults, particularly the mass-market 18-39 crowd? Or to be more specific, why aren’t there any female characters adults can relate to?
There have been a few. The Starbuck of the modern-day Battlestar Galactica started out as a rounded female character, but her “toughness” soon came to blot out everything else. Selene of the Underworld films is a strong, sensual woman, but that whole series has devolved into mindless action flicks. Sarah Walker is perhaps the best personification of the beautiful, resolute, emotionally vulnerable science fiction character, but Chuck just went off the air.
In my own writing, I’ve always gravitated to strong female characters. Eve Scott of A Time For Ryda is a 24-year-old confident, sexy operative on a mission to contact her old teenage lover. The mixing of teenage emotions and adult realities creates an interesting dynamic.
In Witches another twenty-something young woman is called upon to defend her kind from a powerful male wizard. Along the way, Tiffany Smith must confront doubts concerning both her abusive father and the aggressive sexual habits of her fellow witches. (Okay, so that sounds a little weird, but it works.)
The bottom line is that Young Adult has it’s place, but give me a break. While we don’t need to go back to the stereotypical sexpots of the 1960′s and 1970′s, let’s get some adult themes, and invigorating female characters, back into speculative fiction.
Actually, here’s a prediction. The next wave of books and television shows to hit big will feature smart, independent, capable, sexually confident, yet emotionally vulnerable women in their 20′s and 30′s. Women that don’t break down and need a man to save them, but do things in their own right.
Because right now, female science fiction characters are relegated to two types, innocent girls or sexual deviants. And frankly, that doesn’t resonate with modern audiences at all.
By Phil Stern
In the not-too-distant past, Science Fiction was a highly sexualized genre.
In 1966, Raquel Welch burst onto the scene in the soft-porn caveman epic One Million Years B.C. In 1968, Jane Fonda repeated the trick in the equally absurd Barbarella, complete with the famous zero gravity undressing scene and torture via the orgasm organ.
Of course, in those days “sexy” and “sexist” generally went hand-in-hand. The original Star Trek featured weekly doses of helpless, ineffectual women in short skirts. In Robert A. Heinlein’s novels, women were nothing more than pretty sex objects. The quasi sci-fi James Bond films were outrageously sexist, none more so than 1964′s Goldfinger, featuring possibly the most famous Bond girl of all, Pussy Galore.
Into the late 1970′s nothing much had changed. The original Battlestar Galactica featured more young actresses in even tinier skirts, while Erin Gray of Buck Rogers may have been the only colonel, in any military, to dress like a call girl.
But today’s science fiction has swung back to the classic 1950′s mentality, with straight-laced good girls airily berating the local vampires into waiting for marriage. Heroes gradually became a bore because the characters refused to grow up. Once Upon A Time is a big tease. Grimm is okay, but totally sexless.
Yes, we have HBO’s True Blood. But isn’t it interesting how you have to set a highly-sexualized Urban Fantasy show in a southern slum? Clearly, sex is for the underclass.
The purification of speculative entertainment began with the onslaught of Young Adult literature, starting with Harry Potter and Twilight, but now completely dominating the field.
Written for teenagers, much of the sub-genre’s appeal is the ability of teenage girls to resist male sexual advances, even when personified by powerful, predatory beings like vampires and werewolves. I can understand how YA became a potent counter-pull to an increasingly sexualized culture, a refuge for girls yearning for a simpler world where they once again were in control.
But here’s the problem. Sci-Fi now lacks healthy, realistic, twenty- and thirty-something female role models. It’s morphed into the old good-girl/bad-girl paradigm that held women back for so many years, threatening to turn speculative fiction from a progressive force into a regressive drag.
In other words, teenagers should be good girls and boys. But where’s the Sci-Fi for adults, particularly the mass-market 18-39 crowd? Or to be more specific, why aren’t there any female characters adults can relate to?
There have been a few. The Starbuck of the modern-day Battlestar Galactica started out as a rounded female character, but her “toughness” soon came to blot out everything else. Selene of the Underworld films is a strong, sensual woman, but that whole series has devolved into mindless action flicks. Sarah Walker is perhaps the best personification of the beautiful, resolute, emotionally vulnerable science fiction character, but Chuck just went off the air.
In my own writing, I’ve always gravitated to strong female characters. Eve Scott of A Time For Ryda is a 24-year-old confident, sexy operative on a mission to contact her old teenage lover. The mixing of teenage emotions and adult realities creates an interesting dynamic.
In Witches another twenty-something young woman is called upon to defend her kind from a powerful male wizard. Along the way, Tiffany Smith must confront doubts concerning both her abusive father and the aggressive sexual habits of her fellow witches. (Okay, so that sounds a little weird, but it works.)
The bottom line is that Young Adult has it’s place, but give me a break. While we don’t need to go back to the stereotypical sexpots of the 1960′s and 1970′s, let’s get some adult themes, and invigorating female characters, back into speculative fiction.
Actually, here’s a prediction. The next wave of books and television shows to hit big will feature smart, independent, capable, sexually confident, yet emotionally vulnerable women in their 20′s and 30′s. Women that don’t break down and need a man to save them, but do things in their own right.
Because right now, female science fiction characters are relegated to two types, innocent girls or sexual deviants. And frankly, that doesn’t resonate with modern audiences at all.
Third Cross-World's Coven book now out!
The third Cross-World's Coven book, Rivals, is now out! I hope you check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/Rivals-Cross-Wo...
http://www.amazon.com/Rivals-Cross-Wo...
New Cross-Worlds Coven novel is now published!
Sorceress is the fourth book in the Fantasy/Science Fiction series!
More books are on the way, so check back here for more updates.
More books are on the way, so check back here for more updates.
New Release from Phil Stern!
Unbridled Boundaries: Powerful Women in Science Fiction & Fantasy is now available. It contains three separate action-packed pieces featuring powerful women in unique worlds.
The first two are stand-alone stories, though The Terian Imperative may become its own series. The third one (Barley Six) is from the Cross-Worlds Coven universe.
Check it out and tell me what you think.
Phil
