Yeah, wot Aqua said….
I’m with aqua on much of this….. and hey Aqua, what the fuck is going on with the recent (or maybe not so recent) trend like in Supernatural where every beautiful woman dies – usually horribly – AND that’s a show aimed at women!!
I do notice that women in sci fi can, at times, lead active lead roles some of which can be, intelligent, interesting even overtly antagonistc to men and yet still very feminine. In particular Zev/Xev from LEXX and Ivanova from Babylon 5. Both series, but the series let you can explore the character more so than in a film.
Xev was portrayed as a sex slave yet she was far from submissive. Ivannova played a hard nosed commander who broke down when a prospective lover was killed trying to save her life (those imortal lines, "and I never even boffed him…. sob, sob…")
Sci fi has grown up a lot since that prehiostoric film with wassername, erm… Raquel something.
And yet, the film that portrayed the woman of this geezers fantasy was (and I’m sure many other sadgeezers would agree), Barbarella. Our heroine was a nieve, bimboesque sort of character that simply wouldn’t be allowed to be portrayed nawadays. And rightly so, If I saw a modern remake of Barbarella with the same personality, I’d be turned off and worse, dissinterested. Modern female characters in sci fi are more interesting because our view of the female role in society has changed. It’s possible now to have a strong female hero playing along a male wimp, it actually makes her more sexy! Unheard of 20 years ago.
My missus very much appreciates her masculine husband, but god forbid I tell her to clean the house or wash the dishes if the kitchen is untidy! And I (for my part) would expect her top organise things and take and equal role in important decisions – in fact I demand it! (she didn’t watch me write this by the way 🙂
And sexually, hell – I have a fantasy about meeting a beautiful bimboesque female and taking her home to meet the wife!
I think (obviously this is from a male perspective) that men are less intimidated by strong female characters nowadays – especially in sci fi (writers can get away with a lot more in sci fi).
And yet… I godda say that space babes are very sexy. I know, I know, I was doing so well!! But there seems to be something more interesting about a beautiful female character in an alien universe. Sci Fi ladies seem more attractive (except of course in Battlestar Galactica – not countling the female robots of course – god forbid!).
I wonder if that is because sci fi babes are far less attainable to geezers and that is what makes them more interesting.
I dunno, and I’ve had too many beers.
Barbaralla rules!!!