Fandom history
I like following fanthropology because wneleh often posts interesting links about fandom's influence in the mainstream. In the most recent post, there's a link to The Independent Florida Alligator's (only in Florida would this be the perfect name for a newspaper) editorial, "Diversity in sci-fi: To move forward, look back".
It's a quick read, but to boil it down, it asks the question why the world of fans as depicted in media looks a lot the central cast of The Big Bang Theory. Fans are depicted as male, and mostly white ones, despite so much of sci-fi culture -- conventions, fan fiction, online forums -- were sparked by women. That's not to say men didn't participate, but women were the driving force behind fandom culture.
I think the quick answer is simply that men are more likely to be writers, producers, and directors, so their vision of the world is reflected on the screen. I've seen a lot of commentary about how it's often depicted that women don't "get" sci-fi, therefore they didn't "get" TPTB back in the day, so we get the poor geek who can't get the popular girl trope. There's also the "fake fangirl" meme, in which women only pretend to like sci-fi to snag a boyfriend. I've met more than one guy who has been shocked that I was into sci-fi before he was born, and there was no one in my family who was into it, so it came from me alone, not any male influence. Online there's a lot of outright hatred directed towards women who are openly into anything sci-fi, because they're creeping into "male territory".
I've always been interested in fandom history, and listened intently to a lot of the "first generation" of fans when I first got online in the early 90s. I chatted with a lot of women who started what we now think of as fandom, including once chatting on the phone with Bjo Trimble, who's often referred to as the "woman who saved Star Trek" regarding a letter I had written to a zine she was editing at the time. And let's not forget that Lucille Ball overrode the vote at Desilu to keep Star Trek on the air.
I've also had the pleasure of seeing Lois McMaster Bujold, author of the Vorkosigan series, at a convention with her childhood friend and fellow author, Lillian Stewart Carl. It was kind of like watching my BFF and I in 20 years. They talked about their early days as Star Trek fans, and how they began writing zines that we would recognize as media zines, despite male fans shrugging them off because Star Trek wasn't real SF.
I also got a laugh hearing about how they had to go to an event on the night of a new Star Trek episode, despite trying to wheedle out of it. This was in the days before a VCR, and catching a repeat would take months and was not always guaranteed, so their only option was to beg a friend to record the audio by setting cassette recorder in front of the TV speaker. When they played the audio, their friend who'd been able to watch would add in details from what she'd seen. I used to record some shows the same way before I was 10, hijacking the only TV in the house and shushing my parents so they wouldn't disturb the recording. I would listen to them over and over like it was a radio drama, often picking up nuances I missed the first time around.
I've seen male TPTB who were actually distressed that their highly rated sci-fi show was performing well with a female audience, because it was supposed to bring in the much more valuable to advertisers young male viewers. There was one memorable time when a showrunner was boasting about their popularity with young male viewers while onstage at a convention where the majority of the audience was female skewing toward the upper edge of the age demo they wanted. He literally did not see the audience in front of him, because it wasn't the audience he wanted.
Things are improving, both on the big and small screens as well as the pages of books and comics. There's still a lot of assumptions that sci-fi is aimed at men, and any women who watch are just extra eyeballs, but there has been progress. Just look at the recent Star Wars films with a focus on female characters and POC. Disney is still focused on the idea of "Disney pricesses are for girls, the Marvel and Star Wars franchises are for boys", yet they're still making an effort to have diversity in the cast. It's hit or miss, but I appreciate the effort.
It's a quick read, but to boil it down, it asks the question why the world of fans as depicted in media looks a lot the central cast of The Big Bang Theory. Fans are depicted as male, and mostly white ones, despite so much of sci-fi culture -- conventions, fan fiction, online forums -- were sparked by women. That's not to say men didn't participate, but women were the driving force behind fandom culture.
I think the quick answer is simply that men are more likely to be writers, producers, and directors, so their vision of the world is reflected on the screen. I've seen a lot of commentary about how it's often depicted that women don't "get" sci-fi, therefore they didn't "get" TPTB back in the day, so we get the poor geek who can't get the popular girl trope. There's also the "fake fangirl" meme, in which women only pretend to like sci-fi to snag a boyfriend. I've met more than one guy who has been shocked that I was into sci-fi before he was born, and there was no one in my family who was into it, so it came from me alone, not any male influence. Online there's a lot of outright hatred directed towards women who are openly into anything sci-fi, because they're creeping into "male territory".
I've always been interested in fandom history, and listened intently to a lot of the "first generation" of fans when I first got online in the early 90s. I chatted with a lot of women who started what we now think of as fandom, including once chatting on the phone with Bjo Trimble, who's often referred to as the "woman who saved Star Trek" regarding a letter I had written to a zine she was editing at the time. And let's not forget that Lucille Ball overrode the vote at Desilu to keep Star Trek on the air.
I've also had the pleasure of seeing Lois McMaster Bujold, author of the Vorkosigan series, at a convention with her childhood friend and fellow author, Lillian Stewart Carl. It was kind of like watching my BFF and I in 20 years. They talked about their early days as Star Trek fans, and how they began writing zines that we would recognize as media zines, despite male fans shrugging them off because Star Trek wasn't real SF.
I also got a laugh hearing about how they had to go to an event on the night of a new Star Trek episode, despite trying to wheedle out of it. This was in the days before a VCR, and catching a repeat would take months and was not always guaranteed, so their only option was to beg a friend to record the audio by setting cassette recorder in front of the TV speaker. When they played the audio, their friend who'd been able to watch would add in details from what she'd seen. I used to record some shows the same way before I was 10, hijacking the only TV in the house and shushing my parents so they wouldn't disturb the recording. I would listen to them over and over like it was a radio drama, often picking up nuances I missed the first time around.
I've seen male TPTB who were actually distressed that their highly rated sci-fi show was performing well with a female audience, because it was supposed to bring in the much more valuable to advertisers young male viewers. There was one memorable time when a showrunner was boasting about their popularity with young male viewers while onstage at a convention where the majority of the audience was female skewing toward the upper edge of the age demo they wanted. He literally did not see the audience in front of him, because it wasn't the audience he wanted.
Things are improving, both on the big and small screens as well as the pages of books and comics. There's still a lot of assumptions that sci-fi is aimed at men, and any women who watch are just extra eyeballs, but there has been progress. Just look at the recent Star Wars films with a focus on female characters and POC. Disney is still focused on the idea of "Disney pricesses are for girls, the Marvel and Star Wars franchises are for boys", yet they're still making an effort to have diversity in the cast. It's hit or miss, but I appreciate the effort.