my input: I strongly disagree with including River from "Firefly," which I regard as one of the all-time BEST shows ever on TV, right up there with Freaks and Geeks and Battlestar Galactica 9new series, not original). The essay swipes at her frequent "uselessness" to the crew, but the point of River's character was to help the show flesh out a new type of psychiatric disorder, sort of a PTSD-cum-schizophrenia. The Alliance for the Mentally Ill and other advocacy groups swooned over River's character, showing the intrinsic value in this oft-misunderstood woman.

Firefly is the greatest! I bought the seasons and Serenity! I sooo wish that show would come back! Sorry, I know it had nothing to do with the thread, but I've had a great day and felt like voicing my love of the show!

Another Firefly fan?! That show ROCKED! I have all the DVDs, too.

I liked that article...very interesting. It brought up stuff that I have never thought of, like the charr in Piartes of the Caribbean. Oh Hollywood...

I'm watching "Bones" right now, and I think Temperence Brennan (Bones) would be a good example of a feminist on TV. Any thoughts? There very well may be things I haven't picked up on yet, but she made a comment on tonight's episode about how she never wanted to be a princess, that she derived happiness and satisfaction from her intellect and accomplishments. Seems like a good role model to me.

I've never seen Bones, but I found it interesting on the website that comments blasted Joss Whedon for being harsh on his female characters. This is paradoxical because Joss Whedon presented this amazing six-minute address at Equality Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaczoJMRhs (start at 2.00 minutes)

I love that address! Have you posted it before? I think I saw it for the first time from a link on here.

I am seeing gender stereotyping all OVER TV now! I can't believe how I never used to pick up on me, and now I can't get through an episode of Friends or look at a Domino's pizza box without being bombarded with gender stereotyping.

Some of the comments at the bottom of that article were just disturbing, are there men out there who are really that intellectually challenged?

I've never had a problem with Joss Whedon as such, but he seems to have inadvertently spawned a new male fantasy of the action babe who never splits her leather jeans while she's doing karate kicks - if I could fit that stereotype properly I'm sure I'd get a lot more dates!
I suppose a lot of it's down to personal taste, but I'd like to see some more cynical female role models out there who prefer cats to babies, know how to handle a power drill and can tell one whisky apart from another - not that I've got a personal bias or anything :)

That would be awesome, actually. I agree!

Phoenix, you're looking for Starbuck (Kara Thrace) from the new Battlestar Galactica series (perhaps the best show on TV, if you get into it).

http://hubpages.com/hub/battlestargalacticafeminist

Well I don't have a TV set at the moment but I'll check it out some time. I just have to admit I went off sci-fi after being married to an obsessive - every episode of 'Buffy' became the subject of a detailed lit-crit style discourse *groan*
At the moment it seems that if you don't fit 'domestic goddess' or 'action babe' then you're a bit stuck - but then again, the choices for men probably aren't much better.

I think a good role-model from what I've seen lately might be Tamsin Grieg (UK actress) - she seems to get some good comedy roles playing strong-minded characters who don't stand for any nonsense, but who also have their geeky embarrassing moments like we all do in real life :)

I like Buffy, too, but BSG is nothing like it BSG is a heady, philosophical show with lots o action, but lots of serious contemplation of existential issues. And I'm not saying that from the perspective f a sci-fi geek trying to tout their favorite show as "deep"; it's a show that writers of *other* shows on TV say is their all-time favorite, and they wish they could write that well.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of good sci-fi out there, I used to like the way the genre could explore those issues that don't often get discussed over a beer :) I just got put off by the obsessiveness of some people.

And I've also got to admit, it used to get extremely irritating seeing that crowd admire some 'strong', 'feisty' female character on the screen, but then be so thoroughly selfish and chauvinistic in their real lives. It was all a bit "yeah, we like strong women, just as long as we never have to do any housework!"

Wow... you are geeks like me! I made by brother a "very cunning hat" for Christmas this year.

Seriously, though, I've been away from all this feminist analysis of media stuff for a while because it's been so intertwined in the trauma.

I'm looking forward to being able to verbally joust with the best of 'em again and les avoidance of "things that are related, however vaguely, to the trauma" (or "big ball of stuff").

I like Battlestar and Firefly - but mostly, I love Dana Scully from the X-files. (My very favorite show of all time). She is super smart, struggles with religous beliefs and keeps all her clothes on (in layers even). She found her voice in later seasons - when fans wanted more from her.

For me the worst character of all time was Ally McBeal (and the at Grey's woman isn't far behind). The infant woman - who spends all day worrying about men and really needs to eat something. Lawyer, Doctor? Please - these women were depicted as stupid, rediculous and unable to function because of the pursuit of love. Gross.