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While we may wish we only appreciated science fiction, fantasy, or horror that presented ideas of gender equality, we’d be lying if we tried to make that claim. There are plenty of books, films, tv shows out there that would make our favourites list that – if we were being honest with ourselves – do not uphold our equality ideals. They may be stories that don’t feature women at all or only have women with no purpose other than to be saved and/or be chased after by men, but we like them anyway.
In this episode, Lucy, Charlotte, and Megan discuss the stories they love despite an awareness of their more problematic features, from Buttercup the surly princess to all the dudes of Middle Earth. For the most part, we keep the conversation light, with plenty of embarrassing confessions, but the discussion does take a serious turn when we ask whether we can ‘excuse’ a narrative for what we would now see as bad form for being ‘a product of its time’. But fear not, whimsy returns before the end of the episode as we discuss some of our favourite satirical moments to come out of these poor tropes we continue to see in SFFH.
Here is a full list of everything mentioned within the episode:
Books/authors
- The Terror by Dan Simmons
- The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
- The Belgariad and The Mallorean by David Eddings
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
- King of the Vagabonds by Dick King-Smith
- Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson
- The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- H. P. Lovecraft
- Terry Pratchett
Film/TV
- The Princess Bride
- Willow
- Tombstone
- The Fifth Element
- Lady Lovely Locks and the Pixietails
- Tom and Jerry
- The Little Princess
- Frozen
- Brave
- Galaxy Quest
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- Austin Powers
- James Bond
- Scary Movie
- Scream
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
