Maybe This Is Why God Created Comix

HA!

Great proposal - that would really bring it home I think to a good proportion of the audience. But did you wonder why that entire discourse occurred exclusively between male characters? Perhaps it had to to give the argument any credibility?

The comic is pretty amusing, but one of the reasons why I like Battlestar Galactica is that is has a lot of strong female characters who AREN'T just walking vaginas. Yes, there are pregnancies and rapes, and there are some sexy ladies in skimpy outfits. But the show also features a female President, bad-ass female soldiers, female supervillains, and generally a whole spectrum of complex characters of both genders. There are also male characters who are totally devoted to their children and partners. BSG has its flaws, but in my opinion it does a much better job in its portrayal of women than most popular scifi (like the newest Star Trek remake, which turned the once progressive-for-her-time character of Uhura into a useless love interest).

End geekery.

aa: Don't you know that if women bring up those issues, it's because we're oversensitive and man-hating (it's just fiction, can't you take a joke?). But if a man notices then it must be true!

But I do agree with Laura: Battlestar Galactica had a wide range of different women characters, some walking vaginas, others not so much. And even the stereotyped characters got to do interesting non-stereotypical things now and again. While far from perfect, BG isn't nearly as bad as most other TV and movie SF.

And the comic left out one of the other major female character stereotypes: once a woman reaches a certain age she turns into a wise mother type. BG's President Roslin seemed to often be put in that role.

(and thanks for the link Zuska! )

The third function of women is, obviously, to listen to men adoringly.

I've got to agree - lots of strong women "of a certain age" on BG. I can't think of any other show, SF or not, that has as many strong women.

The real irony is that the guy who wrote that comic was himself guilty of some appalling sexism at various points in his life, including a tit-grabbing exercise at an SF con which put off an awful lot of people.

thanx for pointing us to that comic.

it was funny and did hit on a very true issue. though the fact that women are either raped or pregnant trope isn't only done in sci-fi and fantasy.

take action movies for example. It common to see the motivator for the hero in an action move to be that someone they care about is harmed. Put if the movie has a heroine the motivation for that character is that they where once raped or beating.

SMtCF at #6: I've stopped playing games where the motivation for the (usually male) hero is that their mother got killed or their girlfriend/a princess got stolen (I don't say kidnapped, because they are invariably 1-dimensional). I usually express my disgust by saying it is boring and stereotypical, rather than sexist, because I hope that then my comment isn't just written off as "lol crazy feminazi". Even games where you have to rescue random women in your usually plotless travels get scorn from me. Which reminds me of another game I should object to.