(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

OK, now. Anyone who reads spoilers even glancingly will be aware that, in an episode next season, we'll be seeing an all-woman gate team. (Spoilers via Joe Malozzi and Solutions Blog - chiefly through Solutions Blog, since a) I'm not that keen on spoilers and b)I'm not so keen on the atmosphere of Mallozzi's blog and reading him is bad for my blood pressure.) When I heard this, I was absolutely thrilled. Joe M. wrote that he conceived of this team as a way to address the gender imbalance on the show. AMAZING. Fantastic! Self-awareness! Self-criticism! I think this is so great and I really applaud the recognition that, you know, sometimes SGA is a bit sexist.

... but then he rounds it off by saying that whoever of the four women survive(s) the episode will be brought back as a recurring character.

Recurring character? Excellent! "Whoever survives the episode?" ... yeah, not so good. A little investigation, chiefly via Solutions Blog here, reveals that the team is introduced as they survey a planet accompanied by John and Carson. Oh - and it's a horror story.

The layers of things I find offensive in this are just ridiculous. Here, have a girl gate team - but only for one episode, 'cos we're going to kill a bunch of them. Also, when we see them they're going to be supervised by John (even though the team already has a military presence) and Carson (even though the team already has a doctor). Can't send those girls out by themselves. Oh, and to top it off - it's a horror episode! Since we're going to be having an all-woman gate team, we may as well put them to good use *screaming and running*, in the fine horror tradition, right? Oh, and one of them will be a love interest for Carson, because they can't just have a professional relationship, no sir.

I mean, I know I should practice as I preach and wait for the episode to air before I get angry but COME. THE FUCK. ON. What appears to be a moment of real self-criticism then... goes completely uncriticised, and I'm sure we're supposed to be real happy we have an all-girl gate team, too - that'll shut them up! ARGH. I'm so excited about meeting all these women - but I pretty much don't want them all/most of them to *die* in the episode, frankly.

Also, they're all beautiful women, but it would have been so hard to find a good actress who's believably military? They managed it with Amanda Tapping, ffs.

Comments

[ellipsisblack.livejournal.com]

... *face. palm.* Bad writer, go to the naughty corner.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

RIGHT.

I brought this up (with heavy sarcasm, but reasonably polite considering the lowest common denominator of commenters over there) @ Joe Malozzi's blog and her replied thusly:

Labellementeuse writes: “I’ve heard rumblings that the all-woman gate team will first be met on a survey on a planet accompanied by John (even though there’s already military on the team) and Carson (even though there’s already a doctor on the team.) This can’t be right! Surely John and Carson show up after something particularly in Carson’s field was found, and John tagged along because he was bored? I know you wouldn’t want to imply that the all-girl team needs male supervision, as the rumours I’ve heard imply.

Equally, I’m sure you didn’t consider introducing the all-female team in one episode, only to kill a bunch of them (here, have an all girl team - haha, sorry, we killed them!) Or in a horror episode so that you can have lots of screaming women running around to conform to the genre’s worst stereotypes. Right?”

Answer: Right. So I assume if John and Carson show up after something, oh, particular in Carson’s field was found, and John simply tagged along, and we actually offer up an explanation for the atypical all-female team, and don’t have them running around to conform to the genre’s worst stereotype but present them as strong, level-headed individuals - then I’m sure that when the episode finally airs and all of the criticism proves unfounded, the production offices will be inundated with letters of apology from the pre-emptive critics out there.

And, OK. On the one level? It's great that he responds to criticism and I seriously admire his efforts. On the other hand? *damn*, I find it so offensive that he thinks I should apologise for *daring* to criticise the episode. No offense, Joe M., but the spoilers we've been getting out of you sound BAD, and I am not going to apologise for pointing that out.

[allasomething.livejournal.com]

I'd always seen the male/female character imbalance (both in SG1 and Atlantis), not as a reflection on the attitudes of the writers towards women, but simply as a reflection on the proportions of men and women in the US military. This, I guess, is more true for SG1 than for Atlantis, as the Atlantis mission isn't meant to be militarily based.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Excuses, excuses. For one thing, as you already said, Atlantis is civilian run and I'm not talking about SG-1 at all. But for another thing - so the US military isn't in proportion. The US military also doesn't send missions to other planets. Good television and film *finds ways to include 50% of the population.* It's not like everyone involved with the stargate programme is military (see: Teal'c, Janet, Carolyn, all off-planet extras, plenty of on-planet extras). And we do see women on the occasional gate team - in the training episode, for example; and little blonde Sam clone. When they're going to go to lengths to point out that women can be involved in the stargate programme... which is not even what I was talking about in my post, actually, because unfortunately I'm resigned to the fact that my gender will *always* be under-represented in *all* kinds of TV and film other than the chick-flick. (The whole "there are more men because it's military!1!" thing would be easier to buy if the same demographics didn't, broadly, apply to 90% of the shows out there.)

But anyway - I think, pure percentages wise, Atlantis is in some ways really trying to improve itself. It's always had more female regulars than SG-1 did for most of its run and I do think they try hard to include female extras. I don't know that they always succeed, mind you. My real issue with this is the fact that once you have your women onscreen, you have to *do something* with them. There are plenty of women recurring characters on Atlantis (Keller; Larrin; Cadman; Sora) but recurring males are in almost all cases better-developed, more well-rounded, and affect the plots more significantly (Keller and Carson are pretty similar, and Larrin has some potential, but where are the girl Lornes? and Zelenkas? and Kolyas? and Michaels? and Todds?) How come every single woman who affects the plot of even a one-off episode has some kind of sexual liasion with a leading male (and frequently even affects the plot *through* the sexual liasion - Chaya, Norina, etc...) How come when they decide to introduce a female gate team, they also decide to kill a bunch of them, and to do it in a horror episode? These are not empty criticisms, they're valid and actual and saying "oh well, the military isn't 50% women so we should just accept it" holds no water for me at all.