Although this post is a general response to the thread on gender and sci fi,
its immediate impulse is a rather disturbing new ad, by Levi's jeans. In an
elevator, an attractive man and woman flirt with each other. There is a
fast-forward in both their minds to the logical culmination of a potential
relationship--not sex and romance, but the woman screaming in childbirth.
The elevator doors open and each go their separate ways. I don't know where
the subject of Levi's jeans is supposed to fit.
While a discussion of the X-Files would be more appropriate to Horror-L,
enough people consider this series science fiction for me to ask if
list members find Mulder and Scully's celibate relationship attractive.
Fashionable might be a better word. Another list member has talked about
Emma Peel and John Steed (whose relationship was also celibate). There
seems, however, to be a difference between these two relationships not
entirely explained by the difference in their respective series' genres.
There seems to be some sort of superiority or arrogance attached to the
new celibacy, whereas in the case of Peel and Steed (like Della and Perry, in
yet another genre), the matter was either enveloped in mystery or not
regarded as something of great importance.
My interest in this is decidedly based in science fiction--or Skiffy, as one
list member suggested as a synonym for space opera. Data/Brent Spiner
appears to have been the first character in the popular media to make something
of an unspoken boast about asexuality. From the amount of attention devoted
to this character both by Paramount and by Next Generation fans (attention
verging on the abnormal), it seems that this above-it-all attitude toward
human sexuality is all the rage.
Why? I would sincerely appreciate hearing from other list members about this.
Private e-mail would be good. Personally, I find something ludicrous in
Hollywood's pretentions to chastity. Maybe my sense of humor is irreverent.
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