Gender Performance, Transgression and the Cyborg in Battlestar Galactica

Abstract

Feminist scholarship has had a contentious relationship with science fiction. As a genre sometimes marked by the hyper-sexualized scantily clad female other, or sometimes the site of female erasure and censure, science fiction seemingly has little positive portrayals of women. Operating within a larger context of popular culture, the genre of SF undoubtedly plays out oppression; it, however, can provide spaces for resistance. In this paper, I will argue that science fiction as a genre has seemingly limitless possibilities for social commentary and gender re-identification. By using Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” as well as feminist visual scholarship as a lens, I set out to demonstrate how Battestar Galactica is able to navigate between gender transgression and technology’s impact on gender, highlighting the possibility for a new female spectator.