Wonderful World of Academia: Academically, Stargate doesn't exist, apparently.
I've recently started going through the millions of books (okay, 21, as my library account tells me) I took home from the library *mumbles weeks ago and the thing that's continually pissing me off is that one of the objects of interest for my thesis - Stargate and its women - seems to be invisible in academia. I know that there is quite a bit of literatur on Star Trek, at least a couple essays on Star Wars fanfiction and fan culture, even an entire book dedicated to Battlestar Galactica (I can't believe I somehow lost my copy. I keep looking all over my place and I just can't find it) but as soon as I start looking for Stargate, I can't find anything.
What pisses me off even more, though, is that apparently Stargate women are invisible to academics, even feminist ones. I'm currently going through Chicks Rule, a book on mid to late 1990s/early 2000s "brave new heroines" and even though the author explicitely lists Stargate as a "chicks rule" show, Sam apparently is only worth one paragraph, and it's not even her paragraph as she has to share it with Daniel (the author juxtaposes Sam and Daniel as being examples of a reversal of roles, as in Sam being "a kind of G. I. Jane"* who is connoted as masculine as "a soldier in the Army [sic] and physicist who is dedicated to her job"** and Daniel taking over a traditionally female part of being a diplomat and civilian. Interestingly, I do agree with her analysis of Daniel but I strongly reject her view of Sam. Honestly, have we seen the same show? Has she seen the show at all?). Even my bible, Yvonne Tasker's Soldiers' Stories dedicates an entire chapter to the women of the Age of G. I. Jane (especially Jordan O'Neil and Sarah MacKenzie)... from which Sam is curiously and notably absent (maybe, one day, when I'm done with this damn thesis, I'll just write Tasker an e-mail and ask her about that. Or maybe I won't even wait until I'm done with the thesis. Maybe I'll do it right after finishing this post). Even Athena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors makes zero mention of Stargate and its women. Zero. Jesus fucking Christ.
In fact, every time the term "warrior women" pops up in connection with mid to late 1990s/early 2000s television, the only two names that will appear are Buffy and Xena, and maybe Sidney Bristow (don't get me wrong, I wholehearted love Buffy and Xena and I know that Alias is an awesome show). Everywhere I look, I only ever find Buffy and Xena and honestly, what the fuck is wrong with academics in pop culture research? Not that Buffy and Xena don't make fascinating research objects but they aren't the only female warriors of the mid to late 1990s/early 2000s? Why is everyone only ever fangirling those two (because let's be honest here, academics writing about pop culture do it because they're part of pop culture and want to write about something they absolutely, wholeheartedly love and no, I'm not an exception to that)?
I can't and don't want to believe that I'm the first to ever develop an academic interest in Stargate women*** so if you know anyone who's ever published anything on Stargate women, please point me to it? I don't care if its an entire book, an article in an academic journal, an essay that's part of a collection, just anything. I just really want to read something else than "Buffy and Xena are the quintessential women warriors", just for once or I might go crazy in the course of writing this damn thesis :S
Also, if anyone remembers any groundbreaking or well researched metas on Stargate women, please link me to them? Metas are probably not strictly admissable for the descriptive and content analysis parts of the thesis but they'll definitely be helpful for the part on fan culture so, if you have any links... please do me a favor and point me in the right direction? I'd be eternally grateful!
* Which is wrong. Seriously wrong, in fact. Sam is a product of what I like to call the Age of G. I. Jane (late 1990s, as that was when "G. I. Jane" came out and female soldiers in popculture all seemed to have certain shared characteristics) but she is not "a kind of G. I. Jane". There are a few very distinct differences between her and Demi Moore's Jordan O'Neil, the most important being that Jordan O'Neill eschews feminism and a feminist agenda and does everything to become "one of the boys" from changing her appearance to using the same language (which, yes, is problematic behavior but not unrealistic. In fact, if one looks at the three female Ranger School graduates' appearance right after finishing Ranger School, it's very apparent that cutting off one's hair and avoid other female attributes is a vital part of blending in - one could almost say survival mechanism - in an overwhelmingly male dominated environment such as Ranger School) while Sam may wear her hair short but actually holds very firm feminist opinions (1990s feminism, granted, but feminism nonetheless) and never once speaks out against feminist agendas.
** Seriously? Being a physicist dedicated to the job connotes a character as male? Seriously?
*** I'm pretty sure I saw at least one Henry Jenkins essay on Stargate a couple years back but I'm almost sure that I have never ever seen anything academic specifically on Stargate women.