From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> Lest anyone think that I'm being overly sexist and base by appreciating "the women of Firefly" as I do above, give a listen to this award acceptance speech from the guy who created these characters, and his perfect answer to the question, "Why do you write such strong female characters?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaczoJMRhs I've posted this before, but I'm reposting it in hopes anyone might be interested in the larger questions it brings up -- why *are* strong, independent, and powerful women characters so rare on TV and in movies? And who are some of your favourites? Never saw Firefly but loved Buffy (how could you not?) and it's clear what his intentions were and clear that he succeeded. I have to stop you here, even though I suspected this slightly when I posted what I did. You have never seen "Firefly?" Oh, what wonders lie before you. On a fan-created Firefly-related DVD I have, noted scifi author Orson Scott Card tells the story of his son returning from college for Xmas vacation and giving him a DVD copy of the first and only season of "Firefly." He tells this story very well, especially the part where he admits during his son's next vacation to having never seen it, and watching his face shift and take on the look of a person who has just heard his father admit to murdering babies. "Firefly" is that kinda series. Really. Orson Scott Card goes on to say in this fan-doc, after having watched the series, that "Firefly" is the best science fiction TV series ever made. Ever. I agree with him. I have never seen its equal. The only thing even close is Joss Whedon's own followup series "Dollhouse." His stuff is clearly in stark contrast to women in Star Trek and especially in Dr Who where the female lead always made the tea and screamed a lot. They did try having a female scientist as a companion for the doctor once but it was hopeless as there was no one to ask those stupid questions that allow an explanation for the benefit of the audience about what was going on. I'm not being hard on them though, they didn't fight it even thought there must have been other ways round the damsel in distress dilemma, I think was just the way society was in those days. Even in later shows like Blakes 7 the women were intended to be stronger but ended up in the usual, catering and comfort zones. The memes changed though, was it with Ripley in Alien that decent female leads went mainstream? Pretty much. She predated Sarah Connor in "Terminator" by 5 years. I'm not enough of a sci-fi historian. I know the novels I read had a lot of good female leads, Heinlein's Friday in particular. Larry Niven, most of the ones I can think of actually. I must have grown up with it without realising it. I remember reading that Nichelle Nichols wanted to quit her role as Lt Uhura in Star Trek because she thought it was too demeaning just to be saying "hailing frequences open Captain" but it was Sammy Davis Jr who persuaded her that just having a black women on TV was worth the sacrifice, and then she had the first inter-racial kiss on TV with Kirk! What a strange time that must have been for that to seem like a big deal. Similar to Billy Crystal being the first openly-gay actor on American TV, in the underappreciated "Soap."
