The Role of Women in Science Fiction - Term Paper Example

Outline The Role of Women in Science Fiction Introduction A story about the outcome of an awful alien conquest, District 9 shows a surprising and primitive mixture of cinematic forms and varieties. Mostly empty of female characters, the movie mockingly challenges masculinity, demonstrating that masculine views and standards transform men into monstrous entities. The film challenges an array of masculine biases, such as the incompetent, fearless Wikus; the shrewd and merciless MNU officials and state-owned scientist who insist to take advantage of the aliens for their weapons and technology; the manically mannish soldiers; and the savage Nigerian people whose lust for the aliens’ powerful capabilities is noticeable as an actual yearning to devour the aliens (Jackson & Moshin 81). Each of these opposing forms of masculinity seems stressed and exaggerated-- a horrific overstatement. This paper analyzes how the film explores gender stereotypes and relations. The focus in particular is on the role of masculinity and femininity within the film. Female Bodies in District 9 District 9, although challenges masculine subjectivities, also takes for granted femininity, apart from when an insignificant female role works as backstage push for the main character. Besides a small number of roles, the most important female character was Tania, the wife of the lead character Wikus, who, even though has very few exposure in the film, becomes the impetus for Wikus to look for the remedy for his ‘alienness’, becoming friends with the alien he attempted to force out of the area—Christopher Johnson. Tania, who is shown without an actual character or identity, aside from the revelation that she is in a dilemma for she cannot choose between her loyalty to her father and faithfulness to her husband, would not give up faith that her husband will be back. The filmmaker suggests that she is a committed, strong-willed wife who is very much willing to perform her obligation as a wife and devotedly await her husband’s return. Likewise, Dr. Sarah Livingston—the sociologist—and Dr. Katrina Mackee—a medical specialist-- are shown in the film. These two women overlap the division between gender stereotypes and power. They are sophisticated, accomplished, and educated whose views are as important and credible as all the male experts in the film. But yet again, these two women uphold a more compassionate, milder opinion of what is actually a dreadful scenario. Although Dr. Livingston complains and discusses about the dreadful abuse and maltreatment, the men provide a cold critical analysis of the relationship between the ‘prawns’ and human beings; it is an understated dissimilarity in a movie that does not show restraint or sensitivity. A number of other women, non-white women, also appeared in the film. Mostly, their roles emphasize their ignorance about the aliens and the actual state of affairs. Largely, the roles of these women in the film are trivial. Some are mid-level public servants or combatants whereas others are clerks. Those with clerical occupations are usually women of color. The gap between the white women and them in the film, from their knowledge, statuses, and eagerness to support fear, reveal the disparities between the portrayal of women of color and the ‘prawns’ on one hand and white women on the other in the core narrative of the documentary. Not simply are the statuses of women inferior, their fear of the ‘prawns’ instead of consideration for their dilemma advances a continuous story in the movie that contrasts the attitude of the white people toward the aliens. Women of color in this movie are even more trivial or insignificant to the core narrative. They are nameless backdrop characters. They are classified into two kinds of people—food servers and prostitutes. The food servers gaze at the same empty manner that many do in reality, neither complaining nor expressing themselves, only quietly and passively working with apparent contempt and aloofness. Although they are the first unbiased people to identify Wikus in the search, not any of them are asked about their opinion boosting their insignificance from the point of view of the documentary. With regard to the prostitutes, they as well are mute accessories in the film. In a particular act, where the leading character faces the leader of the Nigerian thugs taking advantage of District 9, a woman cries while being maltreated by a number of men. The camera recoils immediately after showing how these men are abusing the woman, but makes use of her ordeal as another evidence of the determination of the Nigerians to seize the technology of the aliens. In the men’s world, with ever greater weapons and power, women are simply valuable insofar as they lessen or ease sexual or social disappointments. Their dignity and value becomes more and more trivial as the film progresses and depicts what kind of a wife Wikus’s wife is. These largely anonymous, mute, grubby, and maltreated women in the film only show that female roles are still regarded with derision and triviality. Such recitals of gender are, similar to the film, fabricated and facilitated. District 9 examines how the science fiction discourses embody conflicts and notions in three domains of feminist perspective: the connection between desire, body, identity, gender; feminist view of science and technology; and identity and difference. Leading political components that influence these conflicts and discourses are universal capitalism and unfair class structures within an expanding global structure—postcolonial affairs; posthuman representation (e.g. commercialization of desire, biotechnologies); and the effect of technologies on the lives of women (Levina & Bui 103). From the interplay of feminist perspectives looking at these themes surface the alien creation of District 9. They reveal the predicament the human-alien interaction brings within the Western notion of prejudice, thus undermining ideological and cultural divisions of gender (Jackson & Moshin 85). As stated by Cornea (2007, 154): Having looked at the ways in which horror and the feminine have traditionally been brought together within the science fiction film, I believe that these images can be usefully compared to the films discussed in the previous chapter. For instance, the generic shifting from films featuring central male to those featuring female cyborgs indicates that issues surrounding gender were as fundamental within the genre as those raised by technological development. At the very least, a comparison based upon the use and adoption of generic codes suggests that powerful male protagonists in science fiction were often figured as threatened whereas the powerful female was frequently seen as threatening. The above statement implies that powerful women, like Livingston and Mackee, play intimidating roles against men, not as a powerful entity on their own. These women serve to reinforce masculine dominance within the science fiction discourse. Nevertheless, the decentered female bodies that arise from contemporary technologies and occupy contemporary science fiction are worrying and possibly empowering. The inclusion of women in the science fiction discourse as symbols of opposition and the rebuilding of their chosen roles as those representing entity are the theoretical goals of feminist models. As symbolical instruments, these female bodies emphasize themes of representation and the creations of science, cultural significance, and their positions in cultural discourses into the study of power relation (Combe & Boyle 61). These female bodies become representations of technology’s undecided connection to the body and purpose in two opposing terms: first, these women comprise components of political liberation and opposition; and second, they symbolize the conflicts and possibilities of feminist perspective and stress the limitations of these perspectives. District 9 is associated with feminist issues as distinctive cultural discourse; the theme of meaning formation and perpetuation of reality in the process of viewing are associated with labels of subjectivity and identity that are visualized in the unusual alien constructions seen in the film. It is in the innovative and imaginative fusion of these two themes—technology, and issues of subjectivity or prejudice—that the film involve the audience in theoretical discourse. As mentioned in SF and Gender (Roberts 101): The science fiction convention of the alien attempts to present otherness in unitary terms, so that ‘humanity’ is uncomplicatedly opposed to the ‘alien’; both Jones and Butler focus on the way in which the opposition seeks to suppress the others of both gender and race by subsuming them within a common-sense notion of what it is to be human. From the perspective of gender discourse, the impact of District 9 and other major science fiction films is the power endowed to constructive representations of femininity by so outrageousness a personification of otherness as the aliens themselves. The association of the alien with femininity overturns several of the conventional sexist beliefs about the essence of being a woman. It is powerful, aggressive, dynamic, and the commodification of that alien that molded it, rejoices the breaking of traditional divisions. Science fiction has been known to be a valuable instrument for exploring societal norms and beliefs and notions of gender (Roberts 107). The traditions of science fiction motivate authors to examine the issue of gender and offer other frameworks for characters and cultures with dissimilar, diverse ideas about gender. Manipulation of a preliminary scientific principle can as simply begin from a belief about marriage traditions or biological nature as a technological development (Loder 97). Despite such capability, science fiction has been argued to provide only views of gender and sex that are popular or debatable in the current period, which it afterward envisions into a future scenario. Science fiction specifically has conventionally been a rigid genre intended for a male audience. Almost all of the conventional allegories of science fiction can be used in such a manner as to be symbols for gender. The predisposition of science fiction to focus on the future and envision various societies furnishes it the capability to explore gender roles and stereotypes, while the application of models and pseudo-historical scenarios in science fiction has frequently involved masculine themes. The depiction of women, or more generally, the depiction of gender in science fiction, has differed broadly all over the history of the genre. Several authors and performers have questioned the gender standards of their society in creating their masterpiece; others have refused to do so. Among those who have questioned traditional interpretations and depictions of gender, there have been important differences (Cornea 135). The widespread view of the role of femininity in science fiction films has long been governed by at least two conventions—a helpless woman and villainous one (Melzer 119). These female roles are more often than not physically appealing and daringly clothed, usually in flimsy shield, and needed rescuing and confirmation by the male protagonist. Conclusions District 9 only proves that contemporary science fiction is still male-dominated. The trivial and mute roles of women, especially women of color, in the film are evidence of the ongoing gender prejudice within the genre. However, the theme explored in the movie could be a subversion of traditional gender stereotypes for it showcases women who have powerful or high-ranking positions. Hence, the film can be viewed in two conflicting views--- a perpetuation of gender-based discrimination and an opposition to masculine subjectivities. Works Cited Combe, Kirk & Brenda Boyle. Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print. Cornea, Christine. Science Fiction Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Ltd., 2007. Print. Jackson, Ronald & Jamie Moshin. Communicating Marginalized Masculinities: Identity Politics in TV, Film, and New Media. London: Routledge, 2013. Print. Levina, Marina & Diem-My Bui. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. Print. Loder, Kurt. The Good, the Bad and the God-awful: 21st Century Movie Reviews. New York: Macmillan, 2011. Print. Melzer, Patricia. Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010. Print. Roberts, Adam Charles. Science Fiction. New York: Psychology Press, 2000. Print. Read More