I am puzzled by the resistance against female protagonists in the science fiction and superhero genres. For years now, we have seen a welcome diversification in what used to be a rather male-dominated sphere. Sometimes, this has meant bringing known formats to the screen with much fanfare (such as Wonder Woman or She-Hulk), creating new leading roles in existing franchises that had a predominantly male cast of characters before (as in Star Wars VII-IX, Star Trek Discovery, Star Wars: Heroes and Ahsoka) or rewriting known male characters as female (as in Captain Marvel, Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who) to name only the most known cases.
Maybe I am weird, but I simply do not understand the problem. None of the old content is going away. If you want to see predominantly male casts of characters, you have choices. You find Star Trek: Discovery or Voyager too feminine? Captains Archer, Pike, Kirk, Picard and Sisko can easily provide you with enough male role-modeling. You prefer Starbuck as a man? Watch the old Battlestar Galactica, if that pleases you more. You really think Rey is just a remade Luke Skywalker? The old trilogy is not going away. And, I’m sorry, Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, just kicks butt. Yes, I found her beating the entitled hyper-male Yon-Rogg, played by the brilliant Jude Law, immensely pleasing. Just because you identify (or are identified) as male does not mean you have to defend old patriarchal stereotypes.
We are talking about films and television shows in a genre that has regularly been interested in negotiating social issues of the time.
Star Trek has always been on the forefront of what is nowadays derided as woke (even though that word needs defending, and the cause of wokeness is nothing else but the fight for justice and human rights for all). New Trek, starting with Discovery, is only different in one single aspect: Star Trek is finally allowed to show homosexual, trans and queer characters – something the old studio system vehemently stood against. Not all of New Trek is perfect, but I dare you to watch Star Trek TOS episodes like “The Omega Glory” or “Spock’s Brain”, TNG “Code of Honor” or “Shades of Grey” to reset expectations. What did William Shatner say? “I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show!”
As to Star Wars, the movies were always interested in social justice – the core of the entire original trilogy is a call to stand up against fascism. While the original trilogy (Episodes IV-VI) had a more fairy-tale Voyage of the Hero feeling, it still featured a kick-ass female co-lead in Princess Leia, a Black hero like Lando Calrissian, and whatever Wookies stand for. It had some issues though. Due to its fairy-tale-ish setting (featuring a “princess” pretty much gives it away), it was a bit schematic in how it portrayed good and evil. All good guys looked more or less presentable, and all bad guys somehow nasty – especially the aliens. Sadly, the Prequel trilogy (Episodes I-III) doubled down on that when it came to depictions of the representatives of the Trade Federation and especially the junk dealer Watto (probably one of the worst antisemitic stereotypes in all of movie history). Yet the Prequels worked to deepen and politicize the mythology and set the stage for the best thing that happened to Star Wars: The opening up and widening of its filmic universe through the Clone Wars television series. Finally, for those who had not read anything in the expanded universe (guilty as charged; I was in the Star Trek book camp). Everything since then has been an extension of Clone Wars, including a more diverse cast of characters. The third movie trilogy (Episodes VII-IX) has been almost incidental to the success of the franchise, which is the result of the blurring of the lines between movies and television. Yes, the new trilogy seems to be in part a retelling of the old one, but I have no issue with that. It plays into the core idea of Star Wars that good and evil are always fighting for balance, and that no battle is ever won, and that every generation has to take up the fight against fascism. Star Wars – in contrast to Star Trek – very much had to become more woke in order to live up to its original message in a more complex way.
As to the Marvel Cinematic and Television franchise: The emotional core of Marvel is – arguably – Captain America. His core mission is to defeat the Nazis, to stand up for the little guy, to remind America to live up to its promise. Sounds pretty woke to me. In order to fulfill that promise, feminizing and diversifying the horde of heroes sounds like a logical step.
Are all the newer movies and television shows the cultural equivalent of Shakespeare? No, and they don’t have to be.
But maybe I’m already brainwashed, or my standards are too low. Maybe I have watched too much of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and maybe I am enjoying some campy fun a bit too much. I want to be entertained, I want to see an uplifting and thought-provoking story that aims to better humanity in all its infinite diversity in infinite combinations, and I do want to question existing hierarchies and established patterns because we need to constantly adapt to an ever-changing world.
Science Fiction and Sci-Fi adjacent comics (such as Marvel and DC) have always been the key genre for the negotiation and representation of social criticism, social change, notions of progress and refutations of fascism and totalitarianism. They have always had a utopian and progressive drive and routinely have interrogated dystopian nightmares. They are inherently philosophical. They have always represented current discourse.
We are living in a time when questions of racism, sexism and homo- and transphobia are at the center of our political debate. If the key genre for the fictional representations of these debates does not take them on, it would not be doing its job. We are no longer living – at least in the West – in a world where only men are the heroes and women should at best be playing second fiddle, where heteronormativity reigns and ethnic minorities should remain in the back of the bus. Thank goodness. Our stories should represent this new reality, simple as that.
Erratic Attempts 