Female role models in Sci-Fi

[eponinethen]

The Fembot explains why Firefly's Zoe is the type of woman she would want her daughter to grow into.

[...] Should Earth ever ‘get used up,’ and humankind conquer the frontier of outer space, then Zoe, from Firefly, is exactly the woman I wouldn’t mind my daughter growing into. Tough as nails when she needs to be, independent though extremely loyal and protective of those who are close to her, she displays the natural maternal instinct of women in her own way. She loves her husband fiercely but he doesn’t control her life; they’re equals in their own respect. Zoe can also be feminine, without being dainty or covered in lace. She embraces her Amazonian figure, using it to her advantage to make her strong or sexy, depending on the need. While her physical strength and attributes are impressive, it’s more than likely her emotional strength that many of us admire. Be it confronted with the torture of her husband, the destruction of her unit or the possible end to her own life, Zoe takes each moment with such aplomb that any woman cannot help but wish to mimic in similar circumstances. [...]

Read the whole article here: Link (http://scifibrain.ign.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2444&Itemid=0)

[JollyApe]

Here, here. Love the character of Zoe, she really is kick arse, but in a good way. Trust Joss to give this type of characters to you, one can only imagine what he is going to do with the character of Wonder Woman.

The people I went to see Serenity with, who hadn't seen the show before accused her of being cold, but I don't think so. Just because a woman doesn't show all of her emotions openly does not mean she doesn't have any. In my eyes Zoe really is a role model in so many ways, hell I wish I could grow up and become like her.

[goldenboy]

The people I went to see Serenity with, who hadn't seen the show before accused her of being cold, but I don't think so. Just because a woman doesn't show all of her emotions openly does not mean she doesn't have any. In my eyes Zoe really is a role model in so many ways, hell I wish I could grow up and become like her.
Wonder if they were reacting to Zoe's reaction to what happened with Wash...I mean, she's like borderline catatonic at that point. I think it's easy to understand the psychology—she has a freakout, then she's suppressing the pain to get the job done. Then she goes a little nuts on the Reavers. Then, at the very end, she's extremely stoic, stiff-upper-lippy—part of her residual military mindset. That all felt like old-fashioned genre Hollywood to me. I liked.

[nerd4hire]

There's another little blog thing on Joss Whedon and feminism here -

http://blinkandyoullmissit.typepad.com/momenttomoment/2006/03/the_joss_whedon.html

She makes this curious point concerning Zoe...

Zoe is probably the most ‘masculine’ character aboard Serenity, considering the positive traits typically ascribed to the masculine – she is stoic, calm, strong, heroic etc.

[goldenboy]

Huh, that's an interesting blog. If she likes ambiguity and complexity, I think that blogger could actually find quite a bit to chew on—if she checked out Angel. Cordy, Lilah, Darla...

I think that blogger's got a point about Zoe's type as a traditionally male character. The reason I was thinking of classic Hollywood and Zoe is all the brilliant stuff from the 30s, 40s...Greta Garbo, Kathryn Hepburn, Lauren Bacall...sometimes they were locked into traditional roles, but they were often playing very bright, strong, independent, sometimes stoic characters. Some of the femme fatales in noir pictures too...

Seems like female movie characters often became less strong, more stereotypically feminine again as the 50s rolled around.