The Sci Fi Channel Needs Women!
By Lisa Fary
I thought it was OK for me to be a chick and like space ships and aliens and rayguns without being weighed down by feelings and relationships. However, a recent article in Adweek, “Sci Fi, Feminized“, implies otherwise. It implies that I am as my high school crush, Justin, once said, not a real girl.
Bonnie Hammer, the president of the Sci Fi Channel since 1998, has been actively courting women as viewers since she came on board. Being a chick who likes sci-fi, I’m appreciative of her efforts, but I’m feeling like Ms. Hammer and the gang are stepping over women who genuinely like this stuff to get to women who might kinda like it if there isn’t too much of that science-y, outer space stuff that they don’t get.
“The whole feel of the [Sc iFi] channel was more male and visually darker,” she says. “Its graphics and promos were a little more monster driven. What we’ve done is make it more human, warmer, friendlier.”
People said the same thing about Hillary Clinton’s infamous tears in New Hampshire after being asked how she does it and who did her hair. That moment made her more human, warmer, and friendlier (and possibly less monster-like).
You can’t have a good television show without human drama and character development; it can’t all be about the action and the tech. But, there comes a point when the human drama overshadows the speculative fiction, and that’s when these “girlified” programs lose their way.
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Case in point: Battlestar Galactica in the mid-second season after Admiral Cain was killed. The season two episode that really stands out as a human drama boner was “Black Market”, in which Apollo investigates said black market and has Lostbacks about some girl he broke up with on Caprica. A girl we had never heard of before and have never heard about again.
I suppose the point was that Captain WhinyPants has commitment issues. (You got yourself a real catch there, Dualla. Almost as good as Commander Riker, I’d say). By the time the season finale rolled around, I had nearly lost interest in the ragtag fugitive fleet and their little election. Thank God the Cylons invaded New Caprica.
That episode, and several others in seasons two and three stopped the plot awkwardly as if to say, “OK, ladies! We’re going to have some human drama now! Get your slippers and some cheesecake!”
A program’s channel of residence affects the perception of it - channels have histories that are hard to break. For example, there was one main reason I didn’t watch Blood Ties. That reason was Lifetime: Television for Women, which, for years, I’ve found to be repugnant. Their programming strikes me as overly emotional, stereotypical “female” drivel, all about believing in yourself and finding your true beauty on the inside. I didn’t imagine that a network like Lifetime would do well with vampire mysteries. From what I hear, I may have missed out on something that I would have enjoyed - all because of my perception of what Lifetime is, and is not.
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I was just as unlikely to tune in to Blood Ties as I would be to tune into something like Caddy Spacestation, the Golf Channel’s re-imagining of Caddyshack, complete with Chevy Chase (because he’s not even doing the Aflac commercials anymore) and a space gopher dancing to Kenny Loggins (because Loggins is universal). Caddy Spacestation might well be awesome, but it’s on the Golf Channel, and if there’s anything guaranteed to plunge me into immediate coma, it’s golf.
I’m not against human drama, relationships and complex character development. I’m against focusing on that to the detriment of the overall story to lure in the Gray’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives set. That set isn’t likely to tune to to a channel that’s outside their comfort zone simply because it has human drama. There are already channels doing that much better than the Sci Fi Channel.
David Howe, Sci Fi’s other president, says, “We might say that something seems alienating to women and the writers might need to focus a little more on relationships than space battles.”
I really wonder what the Sci Fi gang considers alienating toward women. Space battles certainly aren’t alienating to women, or they shouldn’t be. Space battles don’t objectify or dehumanize women. You know what is alienating to women? The subtle gender stereotypes that are rampant on Battlestar Galactica.
The virtuous and honorable gals, such as Callie Tyrol and Dualla Adama, get to live; however, if a girl doesn’t follow a few simple rules, she’s toast, such as Cat and the often abused Starbuck.
One has to question how well this strategy is working for the Sci Fi Channel. In courting this female audience as aggressively as they are, they risk hemorrhaging and alienating longtime viewers and fans of science fiction programming, many of whom are also women.
Viewers experienced this with Sci Fi’s Flash Gordon. The premiere pulled in 2.1 million viewers, a number which dropped off significantly after that first week. Many of those early viewers who tuned out will not give the program another look even though it’s now something they may like. Their good faith was spent in those early episodes in which the majority of the story took place in Earthly suburbia and there was little actual science fiction going on.
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On that point in a recent interview, Consulting Producer Gillian Horvath said, “In the spirit of the original Flash Gordon, which was aimed at a broad audience, we spent more time transitioning between the familiar and the foreign, so that a broader spectrum of viewers would get the baseline information in order to come along with the show. That was the plan. Whether is succeeded or not, time will tell.”
Time will also tell whether Bonnie Hammer’s strategy for getting women to watch the Sci Fi Channel will succeed or not. “Sci Fi, Feminized” says it is. But, if that’s true, why am I having such a hard time finding something I want to watch?
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Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:07 am
Oh good grief. I don’t want more “fantasy”. I want more actual science fiction on SciFi. That means less “scary animal of the week” movies, no more Ghost Hunters marathons, and fer gawd’s sake, no wrestling. I like good space opera, I like action, I also like dramas with interesting interpersonal relationships. Maybe Flash would have sucked me in if I had stuck it out, but I decided I was watching enough TV as it was. But that’s OK. Every network produces at least as many misses as hits, and I like that they at least tried a new series. I hope that their plans include new series and made-for-TV movies, with some that are serious and some that are just for fun, but that are definitely science fiction. If they add some classic cheesy sci-fi reruns in the mix - maybe a sci-fi “Nick at Night” or MST3k once a week - I’d be a happy camper.
February 8th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Seems like they’ve more misses than hits recently. Eureka was a big hit for Sci Fi, but Painkiller Jane tanked. Dresden Files tanked. Flash tanked.
I read on a comment thread somewhere that the Sci Fi Channel is to sci fi what MTV is to music.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I read on a comment thread somewhere that the Sci Fi Channel is to sci fi what MTV is to music.
Oooooh what a mock! But alas, a bit true.
Do you think the competition is just more fierce these days? I mean, lots of network channels have got sci-fi/fantasy down (Lost, Pushing Daises, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Bionic Woman, Heroes, Chuck, etc) so people don’t have to turn to the Sci-Fi Channel to get their dose of sci-fi.
I only watch two things on the Sci-Fi Channel myself, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Are you kidding me? BONNIE HAMMER HAS RUINED THE SCI FI CHANNEL FOR WOMEN.
Who wrote this article above? Lisa Fary. Hmm… Are you even in touch with what’s going on, or do you even watch the channel? Or did you just copy/paste some press blurb about Bonnie Hammer, because that is about as blatantly false as you could get up there.
Bonnie Hammer is the one that put ECW fake pro wrestling onto the Sci Fi channel! Where girls are depicted getting beat in the face. With baseball bats, by men. Bonnie Hammer is the one responsible for airing Wrestling, on the channel named for Sci Fi! In whichWomen are portrayed as sluts, and strippers, even one of the premiere episodes of the Wrestling show on Sci Fi channel was entitled STRIP TEASE. Another one was a table of silicone breasted women setting up a strip poker table in the middle of a wrestling ring.
Bonnie Hammer has cut and killed just about every quality science fiction program on that channel. Painkiller Jane, female lead…KILLED! The program is gone. Farscape, which had a strong female audience, and characters…Cancelled.
Stargate SG-1, which portrayed not a man, but a WOMAN, as the smartest and most intelligent and respected member on the entire show, killed under the tenure of Bonnie Hammer. Stargate SG-1 always strived to portray women strongly. Go note that it’s “DOCTOR Fraiser” not “nurse fraiser”. Stargate put women in positions of command. The commander of the entire Atlantis mission, in stargate atlantis is a woman! The character of Samantha Carter is portrayed with Respect. Also in position of Command now. Teyla, a woman, shown as a strong warrior! Yet Stargate does it in such a way that all of these people are never portrayed as a _____ (like in some other shows, it begins with b). And Stargate demonstrates that a woman can be BOTH strong, AND likeable, and be portrayed with honor.
Bonnie Hammer and Mark Stern cancelled it.
Stargate is NOT EVEN OWNED by the Sci Fi channel. Despite Sci fi channel trying to take credit for everything they get their fingers on, and putting that “Sci Fi original production” junk on it. Stargate is owned by MGM. And it has been the producers and writing team at Stargate that has championed the roles of women in science fiction. Sci Fi does not write, film, shoot, script, cast, hire the actors for any of it. Bonnie Hammer did NONE of that, though she likes to take credit for things. Or by omission, when some reporter from a newspaper sees “Sci Fi Original production” and believes that, and thinks oh, sci fi created stargate (or some other show here), not knowing that they did not create any of it, Stargate was on SHOWTIME for half a decade before it came and saved the Sci Fi channel from the cablers. And the reporter who is uninformed will think she or sci fi does it, interview Bonnie Hammer about it and she will fawn over the credit and simply let them go on with the false impression. Bonnie Hammer, at the helm of both USA and Sci Fi, and Mark Stern. These 2 people, and probably 1 or 2 more of their cronies, have been a veritable wrecking crew for science fiction, and for women.
Bonnie Hammer is the one that likewise pulled wrestling onto the USA channel, and so much of it, that no more would fit into USA’s programming schedule, that she started inserting more male dominated wrestling onto the sci fi channel.
Farscape was another brilliant show, loved by women, and had strong and interesting female characters in it. CUT by Mark Stern & Bonnie Hammer.
And instead, Mark Stern, with Bonnie Hammer’s ok stamp, has gone out, and populated the sci fi channel instead, with a veritable conveyor belt of low-quality, cheesy, b-movies, such as FrankenFish, a wooly mammoth that is also an alien that sucks your blood, corny cheap-home-computer-animated-Animal-attacks movies, then there are the snake movies, BOA, BOA versus PYTHON, ANACONDA, Cobra, Cobra versus Komodo, then the fish movies, SnakeHead Terror, FrankenFish, Hammerhead Shark Frenzy, Jaws (yes, she aired Jaws, didn’t you know, the shark in the 1970’s Jaws was from outer space?), PumpkinHead, Man-Thing, ManSquito….
Many of these, are so bad, that they are probably the impetus of a lot of the ridicule, sneers, and scoffs at all of you, thinking oh, jeez, you’re a sci fi fan?? pfffft. *rolls eyes* … because these movies are the impression, that millions upon millions of people in an entire nation, continent, and across the world have got now, due to Bonnie Hammer, and Mark Stern, of the sci fi channel.
It’s due to them airing so much, of that godawful garbage, that probably a lot of people out there in the world may think down upon you, for being a “sci fi” fan. Because that’s what is broadcast on there. And that is now the mental image of what “sci fi” is, to millions of people, who flip through and land on the channel that is the namesake of the genre.
Sci fi used to be cool, at the time of THE MATRIX. JURASSIC PARK. etc. Now, due to Bonnie Hammer and Mark Stern, the whole genre of sci fi is the laughing stock of the internet, and television.
Bonnie Hammer has turned the network into a mockery, and ruined just about every show that WAS enjoyed by women. And to add vinegar to the gash, she is the one that put horrible pro wrestling on there! 86% male demographic. Stargate for example, about 50-50. Stargate cancelled! ECW Wrestling RENEWED! And wrestling has been going on & on with 2 goons bickering being the entire show, for 28+ years! (Just not on a scifi channel! But nevertheless give it a rest. Two and a half times as old already than longest running sci fi show. And wrestling ratings on Sci fi are HORRIBLE. The Nielsen’s for wrestling on sci fi are a flop. 1.1, 1.0, 1.6, 1.2’s) So who on earth wrote that article above, that person seems like they did not even know what is going on in the broadcast television industry. Bonnie Hammer has now even been transferred AWAY from meddling in the sci fi channel, NBC pushed her back toward USA channel (NBC operates Bravo, USA, Sci fi, et al). Go check the “Letters to the editor” on sci fi channel…you will see innumerable complaints about this person, from both females and males.
There have even been petitions launched about Bonnie Hammer, to get her and her cohort Mark Stern off of there because they are ruining the entire genre.
Go view this:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?eulogy&1
You will see so many disappointed comments on there, and a huge number of females as you will see by the names:
Wendy Rosenblum: “This [sci fi] channel is a major disappointment, and I rarely watch it.”
Loraine B.: “Wrestling is not scifi. bring back the vintage SciFi.”
Valerie Mathis: “I miss the real Sci fi channel; what we have now is a sad joke played on us, the viewers!”
Ramona Jackson: “I am notifying Direct TV of my desire to drop the SciFi channel from my subscription. I do not wish to pay for something I no longer watch nor enjoy”
Linda Spooner: “…how can trippingtherift even get on the air? How can you allow that” [Note: TrippingTheRift is a show put on under the watch of Bonnie Hammer & Mark Stern, that shows animated depictions of women getting manhandled and nearly raped in it. This is shown in some places at 4pm just when (your) kids might come home from school.]
Debra Steinman: “Your programming [on Sci fi chanel] has gone down hill…worthy of the PLAYBOYCHANNEL but nothing else! And YOU’VE stopped listening to the fans”
Joanne Murphy: “I hardly watch this [Sci Fi] channel any more. iam sincerely disappointed with your offerings.”
Cheryl Rowland: “My sons are very disappointed”
Akis Katsimenis: “Bonnie Hammer must go NOW!!!”
Christine Ciraolo: “fire her! bring back scifi.”
Joan Kearney: “I see more sci fi on Fox! Changes need to be made.”
Rhonda Keller: “We want Sci fi back, like SG1, not some of the lame things on now!!!”
Julie Hunkar: “Except for Farscape reruns, and Stargate, we don’t watch the Scifi channel anymore! the Horror channel as I like to call it.”
Holly Hine: “…I’M DROPPING THE CHANNEL”
Michele Y Hosack: “I almost never watch this [Sci fi] channel anymore. … the programming and marketing have become so poor that it has driven people away…”
Melda A. Tripp: “Science Fiction is not…”Field of Dreams” [Sci Fi aired that] nor Cape Fear! [horror movie with robert de niro]…You all definitly have a problem. it is called lackof good judgement. Please listen to the fans. We are bright,educated, and intelligent! Please treat us this way!”
Betty Phipps: “It would be nice to have a channel that lived up to its name.”
Kelly Hora: “the current management is destroying the sci fi channel”
Dorothy Crater: “Sci Fi channel used to be more focused-I love Lexx and really was saddened to hear it had gone off the air. Where have all the classical sci fi fantasy gone?”
Robbie Cohen: “As a person who owns a film production business in Australia, I am appalled at the way some of these executives blatantly ignore and disregard the community..”
Roberta a Krencik: “I want my old sci fi channel back”
Lorrie Calvin: “Sci fi means science ficition, not horror shows!”
Kimberly Graesser: “Since the cancellation of Farscape, I have no need to watch the Sci Fi channel, due to the poor programming. I will also be boycotting the sponsors until some change is made.”
Irene Senkoff: “How can the president of the Sci-Fi Channel [Bonnie Hammer] be so bloody dense. The things she is putting on that station make me physically ill. Do NOT allow her to continue as president of a channel with such promise. She is giving science fiction a bad name.”
Ok? Now whoever plopped that blurb up top about Bonnie Hammer, is not in touch with the entire viewing audience. More like a Fary tale. Because Bonnie Hammer, along with cohort Mark Stern, have single handedly been ruining the genre of sci fi, especially for women.
Bonnie Hammer has done for sci fi and women, what Michael Jackson’s nose has done for rhinoplasty.
Made it into a horrible abomination and sickening laughing stock of the entire planet.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Anything there is something new I really want to get into their shows but almost every time I try to watch Scifi I just get frustrated and give up. Sigh. Maybe if they stop trying to direct show at women they will actually get women to watch and keep watching.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Laura M. Kirkebie - reading your lengthy comment, it sounds as if you read the title only and not the article I wrote.
My reason for this assumption is that I’m not patting Hammer and the Sci Fi gang on the back and saying, “Good job!” I’m calling them out on how their marketing strategy is alienating viewers, including women such as myself who enjoy science fiction.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Laura M. Kirkebie - Wow. Your obvious passion for this issue has clouded your ability to process any sort of article about the SciFi Channel that doesn’t begin with RAGE and end with HATE. Go back, re-read, and realize that Lisa is NOT spinning “Fary Tales,” (as you so originally and cleverly surmised) about the SciFi Channel - she’s actually quite in agreement with your Comment Manifesto.
February 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I agree with both Ms. Kirkebie AND Ms. Fary - Sci-Fi under Ms. Hammer has paid lip-service to courting female viewers, but the practice has been the opposite.
Women DO enjoy science fiction of ALL types, and saying that science fiction must be soaped-up or dumbed-down for women to enjoy it is the epitomy of sexism - and exactly what Ms. Hammer & crew were doing to the Sci-Fi Channel.
Examples:
Painkiller Jane. A woman valued for her lack of emotion & the ability to tolerate pain and who was sent out to attack people because they were different from the average human. Sci-Fi thought this was such an excellent series that they bought 22 episodes right off the bat. Viewers ran screaming.
Dresden Files. Connie Murphy - strong female lead with a challenging, dangerous job which she’s great at, has a child and friends, and who is tough yet not a _itch. An acutal well-rounded female character that is easy to like AND respect. The show had ratings comparable with Battlestar Galactica with female viewers having a slight majority over males. Not renewed, despite the increased female viewership, because Sci-Fi said it didn’t ‘expand their audience’ the way they wanted.
We can only hope that new president Mr. Howe will take a different track and realize that quality entertainment is what is needed and what both men AND women enjoy - whether it has spaceships or wizards.
Oh, and women should really speak out more and set the record straight on this perception of Ms. Hammer being the ’saviour’ of the Sci-Fe Channel!
February 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Laura, thank you for showing that irrational Sci-Fi fans aren’t all just a bunch of dudes. I especially like how you blame her for killing strong women off on Stargate, then point out that The Sci-Fi Channel isn’t responsible for it to begin with. And utterly ignore than Painkiller Jane was simply. frakking. awful.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Pretty awful for males, too. Little or no actual scifi, worse-than-childish fantasies, wrestling of all things…Closest thing to realistic scifi might be the abnormally large and ferocious beast of the week silliness.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:01 am
What’s sad is that Adweek and the Sci Fi Channel say the strategy is working - they say viewership is growing overall, not just among female viewers. Which begs the question: if there is so much negative sentiment about the Sci Fi Channel on the internets and elsewhere, who are these people that are watching and silently enjoying it?
February 11th, 2008 at 10:07 am
[...] Fary thinks so: Bonnie Hammer, the president of the Sci Fi Channel since 1998, has been actively courting women as [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 6:48 am
I was talking to my wife about this the other night. The “chickafication” of the action hero. It’s everywhere now. I don’t have problem with a female action hero. I have a problem when producers use a hot girl that is 105 lbs to fight 100 ninjas only to get more men to watch. The producer is then peddling sex not a feminism ideal. I wonder if there has been any market research on this. Think about the last 4 or 3 years so many action/sci fi movies and tv show have women as the main character-action hero.
I’m not saying that these shows/movies are all bad or that the women characters are bad. But are they only cute women to get more men to go see them? If that is the case it’s still the exploitation and not the elevation of women that is happening. Battlestar Galactica was the worse offender of this, the producers replaced all the male characters with women and made the Cylons amazingly hot women as well. What!!!???
The best female action hero IMO is Ripley in the Aliens movies. There was a tough woman that kicked but and wasn’t used as a sex object.
Is there any evidence that more women will watch a show like Battlestar Galactica if there are more women hero in it? Or is it only a marketing ploy to gain more male viewers?