Oh, Skiffy

[rhienelleth]

DUDE. This NYT article shows SciFi Channel's sheer frelling arrogance. Not that I'm all that surprised, mind. And clearly, clearly they remain blissfully unaware of how much they have sucked in the past, and how much they continue to suck now, in many ways. Sure, Skiffy has given us some good shows. But sometimes, I have really wondered what the execs' definition of SF really is.

Now I know. WOW. You would think from some of the statements herein, that Skiffy pioneered SF as we know it today. I guess writers like Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, and Ursula K. Le Guin weren't writing SF accessible to women. I guess my own tastes weren't formed early on in life by a deep rooted love of Spock, or my obsession with all things Star Wars. No, Skiffy, you did not need to downplay the spaceships in your ads for BSG to lure female viewers. Because gosh, that show is so not about the spaceships, and you know what? Good SF rarely is! Like any good story, good SF is character driven. But I'm betting the exec being quoted in that article doesn't even know what character driven means.

the_grynne linked this response to the NYT article, and it made me LMFAO. To quote you a bit:

If there's something keeping women away from enjoying science fiction, it's not spaceships. It's not "aliens on some far-off planet." It's the fact that people on our very own planet keep telling us that women aren't supposed to like science fiction. It's a self-confirming prophesy, because the more that scifi creators are told this, the more they imagine that their audience is all boys. So they write rich, believable male characters and boring, cookie-cutter lady characters. They organize conventions with panels devoted to shit like "the hottest women of science fiction" and nothing devoted to female heroes — or the kinds of hotties that straight women might want to see (i.e., men).

Women who do love science fiction see all this going down, and they are ashamed to admit that they like science fiction. I'm not saying this happens to all of us, but many women wind up assuming that there's something wrong with them for liking SF. After all, everybody keeps telling them that SF is for boys, and the only reason why women would like it is if the definition of SF is "expanded" to include magic and romance. (Nothing against magic and romance, mind you — it's just not typical of SF.)

I have never been happier to be writing a space opera with a richly complex female lead, in a setting populated with equally complex, but also uber hot men. What can I say? I enjoy turning a stereotype on its head. :D (Though that was never my goal when I started Nemesis. It's just ironically worked out that way in light of wank like this.)

Comments

[aka-paloma.livejournal.com]

I...yeah. That's just so typical of SciFi.

"It’s about asking that simple question, 'What if?'"

Well, 'what if' you didn't suck? How would you answer that 'simple question', Skiffy? *sighs* Someone really needs to go to Skiffy HQ and pull those executive heads out of their asses before they suffocate.

Edited because of missing words. *facepalm*

[morwen_peredhil]

Oh, FFS! I guess I don't exist, because I'm female and fell in love with SF when I read Dune for the first time at age eight. (That was also the year I first read LOTR. It was an excellent year in reading.)

Fail, Skiffy. FAIL.