WEBVTT 00:00:00.944 --> 00:00:02.871 Feminist Frequency Conversation with pop culture 00:00:02.871 --> 00:00:06.570 and bitchmedia 00:00:06.570 --> 00:00:09.178 Tropes vs women 00:00:09.178 --> 00:00:13.050 A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in 00:00:13.050 --> 00:00:16.581 a character that conveys information to the audience. 00:00:16.596 --> 00:00:19.389 A trope becomes a cliche when it’s overused. 00:00:19.389 --> 00:00:23.176 Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes. 00:00:23.628 --> 00:00:27.117 #5 Mystical pregnancy 00:00:27.117 --> 00:00:31.356 One thing I love about speculative fiction is its ability to explore difficult topics. 00:00:31.356 --> 00:00:38.656 Because of it's separation from our current timeframe, it can comment on socio-economic and cultural issues in really engaging and interesting ways. 00:00:38.656 --> 00:00:43.003 But one thing that I've learned from watching a lot of science fiction and fantasy television is you 00:00:43.003 --> 00:00:45.285 never, ever want to get pregnant on TV. 00:01:07.208 --> 00:01:07.708 Yup. 00:01:07.708 --> 00:01:13.700 Some of the our most celebrated female characters come out of the sci-fi genre but it's not all sunshine and roses. 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:20.086 It’s common practice for Hollywood writers to have their female characters become pregnant at some point in their TV series. 00:01:20.086 --> 00:01:24.710 These story lines are almost always built around women who have their ovaries harvested by aliens or 00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:31.383 serve as human incubators for demon spawn - basically the characters are reduced to their biological functions. 00:01:31.383 --> 00:01:36.513 I'm sure you've seen this trope many times before. Remember back in the mid 90's on the X-Files 00:01:36.513 --> 00:01:41.355 when FBI Agent Dana Scully found herself abducted and forcibly impregnated 00:01:41.355 --> 00:01:45.702 which, of course, later culminated in a hybrid human-alien child. 00:01:45.702 --> 00:01:50.272 More recently on the second season of BSG, Starbuck had her ovaries harvested 00:01:50.272 --> 00:01:54.302 by the cylons in an attempt to create human-cylon embryos. 00:01:54.302 --> 00:01:59.369 Then we have Gwen Cooper, co-star of the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood, who is bitten by an alien 00:01:59.369 --> 00:02:04.865 one night and the next morning she wakes up to find herself extremely pregnant with the aliens’ spawn. 00:02:04.865 --> 00:02:09.805 This trope was inflicted on Cordelia from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin off show Angel 00:02:09.805 --> 00:02:12.180 not once but twice! 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:17.843 Vala in Stargate SG-1 is forcibly impregnated and she is made to birth a rapidly aging child thing. 00:02:17.843 --> 00:02:19.723 "Hello Mother" 00:02:19.723 --> 00:02:23.086 "I heard that children grow up quickly but this is ridiculous" 00:02:23.086 --> 00:02:28.941 Xena and Gabrielle both have had baby troubles of the mystical variety at different times in Xena: Warrior Princess. 00:02:28.941 --> 00:02:36.154 On the show Fringe, Olivia's alternate reality doppleganger Faux-livia, finds herself at the center of a kidnapping conspiracy 00:02:36.154 --> 00:02:40.403 to accelerate her pregnancy in order to extract the blood of her newborn baby 00:02:40.403 --> 00:02:43.163 which will power a doomsday device. 00:02:43.163 --> 00:02:49.227 Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation is perhaps the quintessential example of the mystical impregnation trope 00:02:49.227 --> 00:02:57.472 as her character’s body and mind are regularly occupied, borrowed, violated and invaded by alien beings. 00:02:57.472 --> 00:03:07.229 During Season 2 in the episode "The Child" Counselor Troi is impregnated with a rapidly aging alien fetus by a flying ball of “space” energy. 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:16.603 Imagine finding out you're pregnant, giving birth 36 hours later, raising the child within a day and then it dies, or in this case vanishes. 00:03:16.603 --> 00:03:21.952 We don’t see Troi dealing with the long term emotional ramifications of such a traumatic event 00:03:21.952 --> 00:03:24.686 and the experience is never mentioned again throughout the series. 00:03:24.686 --> 00:03:31.394 And my apologies in advance to my more religious viewers because we really can't forget the original Mystical Pregnancy narrative... 00:03:31.394 --> 00:03:33.338 The Immaculate Conception. 00:03:33.338 --> 00:03:38.221 As the story goes, an all powerful being descended from the heavens and impregnated a young woman 00:03:38.221 --> 00:03:42.222 with the Chosen One destined to save Earth and the souls of humanity. 00:03:44.714 --> 00:03:45.580 Yup. 00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:49.722 It's almost an unwritten rule that at some point during a sci-fi or fantasy television show, 00:03:49.722 --> 00:03:55.450 the writers will inseminate their female leads with some sort of ghastly pregnancy experience. 00:03:55.450 --> 00:04:00.449 The Mystical Pregnancy is one of the plot devices that I loathe the most because while other tropes 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:04.878 represent women in stereotypical ways, this one hits us on a biological level. 00:04:04.878 --> 00:04:08.128 Yes, some of us are physically capable of having babies 00:04:08.128 --> 00:04:13.336 but no that does not mean you get to take advantage of, and abuse, that for the sake of your story. 00:04:13.336 --> 00:04:18.300 Fanvidder, Laura Shapiro calls the Mystical Pregnancy a type of reproductive terrorism because it 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.432 makes becoming pregnant seem disgusting, frightening and nightmarish. 00:04:22.432 --> 00:04:28.330 Laura goes on to say, "The problem from my point of view is that pregnancy and birth are natural processes that are 00:04:28.330 --> 00:04:34.108 being distorted into torture porn, ways of punishing women and exploiting their terror to up the dramatic stakes." 00:04:34.108 --> 00:04:38.862 This trope can’t be brushed off as “just entertainment.” Human beings since the 00:04:38.862 --> 00:04:43.748 beginnings of the verbal storytelling, used narratives to understand ourselves and the world around us. 00:04:43.748 --> 00:04:48.122 When we hear a story repeated enough times it can affect the way we think about reality. 00:04:48.122 --> 00:04:53.544 The Mystical Pregnancy is just another sexist narrative that exploits women for being female. 00:04:53.544 --> 00:04:58.413 These stories are especially striking at this point in American history because women's reproductive rights, 00:04:58.413 --> 00:05:03.929 which have always been threatened are currently under vicious attack by conservative and religious groups. 00:05:03.929 --> 00:05:09.011 Some states are trying to pass legislation that will criminalize miscarriages or make abortion procedures 00:05:09.011 --> 00:05:12.646 so strict and complicated that it renders them nearly impossible. 00:05:12.646 --> 00:05:16.900 Planned Parenthood is even in danger of being defunded through direct ideological attacks 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:20.696 on women's ability to control what happens to their own bodies. 00:05:20.696 --> 00:05:25.277 So, all you Hollywood writers, you should all feel real guilty right about now for continually 00:05:25.277 --> 00:05:30.997 using the tired old Mystical Pregnancy trope to violate and degrade women's bodies on television. 00:05:30.997 --> 00:05:35.835 I sincerely hope that after this lesson you will stop terrorizing your female characters with the 00:05:35.835 --> 00:05:39.809 magical-demon-impregnation-from-space-story-lines. 00:05:39.809 --> 00:05:41.240 You know, 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:44.593 maybe you should just stop writing pregnancy altogether until you can do it with some 00:05:44.593 --> 00:05:49.433 respect and dignity and with the appropriate amount of emotional impact. 00:05:49.433 --> 00:05:55.272 I’d love to see a show set in some dystopian future that deals with issues surrounding women’s reproductive rights 00:05:55.272 --> 00:06:00.319 as the core plot line, not just as some throwaway episode or for dramatic effect. 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:03.903 Pregnancy is not a “here one week, gone the next” kind of a thing, 00:06:03.903 --> 00:06:07.456 and it seems as though Hollywood might need to be reminded of that fact. 00:06:09.025 --> 00:06:13.632 Now check out a clip of Laura Shapiro's fanvid "Stay Awake" about the Mystical Pregnancy 00:06:13.632 --> 00:06:16.255 and be sure to click on the link so you can watch the whole thing. 00:06:17.487 --> 00:06:25.093 "Though the world is fast asleep 00:06:25.093 --> 00:06:34.513 Though your pillow's soft and deep 00:06:34.513 --> 00:06:45.802 You're not sleepy as you seem 00:06:45.802 --> 00:06:51.558 Stay awake 00:06:51.558 --> 00:06:59.295 don't nod and dream"