May 4th, 2009
by
Ariel Wetzel
The Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica, came out recently on DVD. I just watched it over this past weekend.
Although I’ve had my complaints about Battlestar Galactica not being as genderblind as it claims to be, I found it to be considerably more feminist than most contemporary mainstream science fiction. Whereas Battlestar Galactica tries to reimagine the gender roles in the space opera genre, the feminist elements of BSG were mostly gone in Caprica. Caprica tries to be a legal/detective/ganster drama within a science fiction setting, but it perpectuates all of the same old genre stereotypes: all of the gangsters, politicians, detectives, and lawyers are men, and most of them are white.
The plot largely revolves around two fathers (a lawyer and scientist) trying to technologically resurrect their daughters, who were both killed by a monotheistic suicide bomber. While attempting to resurrect lost family is a compelling motive for the creation of the cylons, I wondered why the show has to star two fathers. The lawyer, William Adama’s father, is understandable as it is within the continuity of what Battlestar Galactica established as Adama family history. But does Dr. Graystone, the other lead, have to be a man? His wife is also a doctor, but she does not do much throughout the Caprica pilot but mourn. I’d be much more interested in her role in the creation of the cylons.
Despite not doing anything new in regards to gender, I’ll keep watching Caprica because the posthuman themes are pretty cool. Can a human being be copied? The character Zoe Graystone has potential to be pretty interesting as the first cylon. I’m undecided if I was impressed or unconvinced that a teenager would be the first person to figure out how to create a sentient, digital copy of herself.
The casting of Caprica also seems diverse but stereotyped at the same time. The Joseph and William Adama are played by Latino actors, but the only black character I noticed was Daniel Graystone’s body guard. One of the teenagers was played by an apparently middle eastern actor. I was pleased by the diverse casting until that character turned out to be a suicide bomber.
![[Slashdot]](http://slashdot.org/favicon.ico)
![[Digg]](http://digg.com/favicon.ico)
![[Reddit]](http://reddit.com/favicon.ico)
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif)
![[Facebook]](http://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
![[Technorati]](http://technorati.com/favicon.ico)
![[Google]](http://www.google.com/favicon.ico)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.stumbleupon.com/favicon.ico)
- More blogging by
Ariel Wetzel at
http://www.lake-desire.com
Previous:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine — Same Old Story --- Next:
Star Trek doesn’t update the gender roles
Filed under TV & Film, female characters | Comments (6)
Two fathers? A suicide bomber played by a Middle Eastern actor? Sounds perfect to me.
Fabulous work here. I find most of the “issues” in BSG to be redeemable based on my perception of lead character complexity for both sex and race. I can’t stand characters who aren’t inherently flawed, hence my taste for disutopic sci-fi, so I think BSG is a step in the right direction for representing a broad range of gender expression that enhances the narrative.
Too bad about Caprica, though I have yet to watch it. We need to enlist more female sci-fi writers, though. My work is on my site. I’ll be linking to yours.
I agree with just about everything you said… Also, I was hoping they’d manage to include at least one LGBT character, but I didn’t see anything to suggest that would happen – except that one shot of two women making out in the V-club. Which really, really doesn’t count. I guess the only lesbians in the BSG universe are evil, dead, brought to you by Quiznos, all of the above, or random unnamed extras who are presumably only there for the viewing pleasure of the straight males in the audience. The fast that nearly all of the (predominantly male) characters’ arcs were set in motion by female characters’ deaths was troubling too.
Random thought: it looked like the writers were trying to portray Caprica as a fairly racist society (evidenced by all the slurs against the Taurons). Maybe it’s supposed to be somewhat sexist as well, hence all the male gangsters and politicians? If that’s the case, though, I hope they make it clear within the first few episodes so we know they’re not just trying to portray a postfeminist society and failing.
Word. There weren’t any topless dudes making out in the VR club.
I think the racism plots have the potential to be very interesting. I won’t mind if the world is intentionally sexist, as long as it’s not the result of careless sexism on the part of the creators!
[...] Source:Caprica disappoints on the gender & race front [...]
[...] out Feminist SFHe who runs may WredeMammothFail ‘09Star Trek doesn’t update the gender rolesCaprica disappoints on the gender & race frontX-Men Origins: Wolverine — Same Old StoryProtein folding science gameA feminist reading of [...]