Postfeminist Gothic pp 154-169 | Cite as
She: Gothic Reverberations in Star Trek: First Contact
Abstract
In Gothic, fantasy and horror the representation of women tends to focus on female sexuality, the female as object of the male gaze, and the female as victim, usually in a sexual or erotic manner. Hence much of the imagery and iconography of women in science fiction and related genres is highly sexualized, featuring scantily clad female bodies. Even when the female is an alien, her body is frequently the object of male desire. Thus in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) the villain is a cyborg female, with a recognizably human body, provocatively dressed, who uses seduction to subjugate men. Perpetuating the stereotype of women in science fiction as objects of the male gaze, this Borg Queen is a sexual threat to the fraternity of male officers who seek her destruction and that of her race. Furthermore, First Contact reverts to some of the tropes and conventions of Gothic fiction, demonstrating the close relationship between the two genres and their representations of women.
Keywords
Science Fiction Female Character Father Figure Star Trek Male OfficerPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Works cited
- Barrett, Michèle, and Duncan Barrett. Star Trek: The Human Frontier. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.Google Scholar
- Botting, Fred. “ ‘Resistance is Futile.’ ” Anglophonia: French Journal of English Studies 15 (2004).Google Scholar
- Dryden, Linda. Joseph Conrad and the Imperial Romance. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000.Google Scholar
- Haggard, H. Rider. She. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1957.Google Scholar
- Haraway, Donna, J. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991.Google Scholar
- Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Hurley, Kelly. The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Russ, Joanna. To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995.Google Scholar