SF Carnival  Blog Part I:

An informal conversation with A Dude about women in space westerns. 

Q - What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?  What specifically do you remember?  Movie? TV?
 

A - I don't recall reading a lot of space westerns, so most of it was television.  We didn't think of them as space westerns -- westerns in early television came about before space westerns.  As space became something cool and interesting in the 60's, with going into space and to the moon, space shows began appearing on TV, like Star Trek and Space 1999.

Q - What was your favorite from childhood?

A - I really liked Buck Rogers, though I have no idea why.  I also really liked Dukes of Hazzard, which is completely unwatchable now, so...

Q - What about the women in space westerns? What do you remember?

A - Well, they were pretty limited characters.  They got to be either the love interest or co-pilots (sidekicks).  That's at least how I remember it.

Q - C' MON!  Wilma Deering!  With those crazy supershiny jumpsuits and those boots and a gun?  She was HOT!

A - Yeah, but she never got to save the day.  She may have saved buck Rogers so HE could save the day.  But she never got to do it by herself.

Q - Oh.   That kind of sucks, in retrospect.

A - Yeah.

Q - How has that changed?  I mean, Kara Thrace is about as ass-kicky as it gets.

A - Well, if we're talking genre --

Q - --we're talking babes --

A - --in the 70's we started to get Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Charlie's Angels...  women began to be accepted as primary hero figures, capable of saving the day on their own.  Earth II, which was before the new Battlestar Gallactica, before Farscape, before Firefly--

Q - I don't remember Earth II.

A - Earth II came after Star Trek Next Generation.  It was the first time I remember seeing truly strong female characters in charge in a space western context.  There was still a differentiation between men doing stuff like handling weapons and machinery, and women were still like the doctors and so on, but they were also more cerebral---is that the word?  Solved things by thinking about them or talking about them or working through them, not by force.  Farscape had the first female gunslinging character

Q - And then followed Firefly and the new BSG... wait --  didn't Babylon 5 have something like that?  You know my TV watching history is pretty spotty...

A - Babylon 5 did have a female administrative ass-kicker in Commander Ivanova.  She was *very* popular.

Q - So, could you define a space western for me?

A - Hmm.  Difficult to think about it.  A space western is a story that usually evolved around central themes of lawlessness or very little law due to remoteness of location -- in this case, remote locations off-planet.

Q - A genuine frontier.

A - Yes.  Original westerns didn't take place in Boston -- they took place in the middle of nowhere.  Similar idea with frontiers in space.

Q - Like your great-great-something granddaddy being a Texas ranger?

A - I'm not sure how many greats, but yes.

Q - What about the appeal of space westerns?  What draws people to them?

A - They're about maintaining integrity in situations where no one is enforcing that integrity, nobody's forcing you to do the right thing.  Even the hero who dies while remaining true to himself (herself) is still a heroic figure.  In a frontier society you have to police yourself, always testing how far you'll go and still do the right thing.

Q - Does that scenario pose any special problems for women characters?

A - I think the modern space western has deconstructed the roles -- both antagonist and protagonist roles -- so they can be played by either gender.

Q - But c'mon!  Kara Thrace is far more intriguing than any male character in BSG --

[A -  -- second most intriguing character!  Gaius Baltar!  But after him the next four most interesting characters are all women.  In order:  Starbuck, President Rosilyn, any Six, any Boomer/8 variation.

Q - agreed.]

A - But yes!  And the women characters in Farscape as well--

Q - Why?

A - Because I think the majority of writers and developers of modern science fiction are still men, and writing female characters has become more interesting to them.

Q -  Like in superhero fiction. Why, though --  because it's hipper?  Sexier? What?

A - Because it's *new*.  It may not seem new, but it really is.  It hasn't been that long we've had women in the role of gunslinger/ hero archetype in this particular genre.

Q - Hmm.  I'm, ready for a fresh pint, so I guess that's it.  Thanks for your time, honey.

A - You're welcome.