By Teresa Jusino
I’m normally not one to freak out about “exploitative” images of women in print or on-screen. I am firmly in the camp that says that sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, that it’s a woman’s right to dress any way she sees fit without having to deal with people making assumptions about her, and that visual representations of men in things like comics or film are just as unrealistic and sexualized as those of women, albeit in different ways. However, when I saw the ad artwork promoting the premiere of Caprica, it bothered me in a way that kind of thing usually doesn’t.
The problem with the image isn’t the suggestion of nudity. It certainly isn’t the raciest photo ever taken. The problem isn’t the age of the subject. While the character on the show is a teenager, the actress playing her is 22. Yet I can’t help but think the image cheap. Having seen the Caprica pilot, this image is insulting because of who the character is, what she could represent in science-fiction storytelling, and how it undermines that.
**SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T YET WATCHED THE CAPRICA PILOT. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.**
Zoe Graystone is a genius. Her father is the owner of a large computer corporation that is spearheading the development of artificial intelligence. Her mother is a brilliant surgeon. They’ve given their daughter the gift of a keen intellect, but the one thing they have trouble giving her is their attention away from their scientific pursuits. So, Zoe applies her genius to a cause she discovers while her parents’ attention is elsewhere. In the polytheistic society in which Caprica is set, Zoe acquires a monotheist worldview. With her best friend, Lacy, and her boyfriend, Ben, Zoe puts together a plan wherein they can leave home for Gemenon in pursuit of what they believe would be a better world. Part of that plan involves a special project she’s been working on. Zoe has improved upon her father’s holoband technology a million times over by creating a perfect copy of herself in virtual reality. No mere avatar, this. Zoe creates another Zoe Graystone; one who has all of her memories, looks like her, sounds like her, and feels everything she feels. If her father’s work with artificial intelligence is responsible for what will become the cylon “centurions”, it is Zoe’s work that is the beginning of what will help them evolve into the “skin jobs.” When Ben shockingly blows up the train to Gemenon, killing Zoe (isn’t that a movie starring Eric Stoltz who also stars in Caprica??), Lacy survives and discovers that Virtual Zoe has also survived. Eventually, Zoe’s father discovers the existence of Virtual Zoe, which prompts a desire to bring his daughter “back to life” by attempting to marry his technology to Zoe’s.
In the Caprica pilot, Zoe is brilliant, strong, idealistic, and true to her convictions. She is someone who doesn’t back down. She is a scientifically minded person who also passionately believes in one God. Even though she’s a teenage girl, and they share the same interests, her life does not revolve around her boyfriend. And yes, she is gorgeous.
And yet, that last one is all you’d ever know about her from the marketing Syfy has done for this show.
Syfy has done so many things, including changing the spelling of their network’s name, to become more “woman-friendly.” And yet, here they have a show with an honest-to-goodness Strong Female Lead, and they’re hiding her light under a bushel. Any story synopsis of the show mentions her father, Daniel’s, grief, and that of Joseph Adama, father to future Admiral of the Colonial Fleet, William Adama. They mention that Daniel is a scientist and that he uses this technology to bring his daughter back…but no one mentions that the technology was hers to begin with. No one mentions that Zoe is the catalyst for everything that occurs in the Battlestar universe, and that she will remain there, in some form or other, to continue her work. Her father is the scientist, despite the fact that she’s more brilliant than he is, and comes up with a technology he couldn’t manage on his own.
He gets to be the scientist, and Zoe gets to look pretty.
The “Fall of Man” imagery in this ad artwork isn’t lost on me. Yes, I know that she’s supposed to be Eve With the Apple in that photo. But in the context of Caprica that metaphor is completely wrong. Zoe is neither the temptress coaxing a man into sin, nor is she the one tempted. She is the architect of the Tree of Knowledge. In this metaphor, she’d be God. But I suppose dressing her in a long robe and giving her a long, white beard wouldn’t have been as hot.
How difficult would it have been for their marketing team to come up with a visually interesting, more accurate image? Perhaps taking inspiration from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel? Zoe on the right, with the angels, because she’s gone from this world. Dark hair flowing in the wind. She could even be wearing a cute, short, white dress. Her father, wearing pants and in an unbuttoned, slightly disheveled button-down shirt on the Earth below, reaching up toward her. And she’s passing him a holoband. Iconic religious image? Check. Accurate portrayal of the story of Caprica? Check. And it could have been done without throwing the best character on the show under the bus, and without pandering to male viewers while continuing to ignore female viewers.
Once again, SyFy sells women short. They say they want to draw in female viewers, and yet they hide the fact that their arsenal now contains an amazing female character while they resort to the same old hottie shots of their female lead, and have Alessandra Torresani do cutesy video blogs about putting on make-up and doing photo shoots. I’m already planning to watch Caprica, because I loved the pilot, and I was already a fan of Battlestar Galactica. I’m writing this article, because I’m hoping to reach women who aren’t. It seems female BSG fans will have to take it upon themselves to let other women know that this incarnation of the Battlestar universe is, in fact, “woman-friendly.” SyFy sure as hell doesn’t seem to want to do it.
TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. She is the NY Geek Culture Examiner at Examiner.com, and a contributor to the sci-fi/fantasy site, Tor.com. She is currently writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut Summer 2010! As a geek, Teresa loves all Star Trek, Lost, Fringe, Doctor Who, comics, and anything Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Neil Gaiman ever touched. David Tennant will always be her Doctor. Get Twitterpated with Teresa, Follow The Pack or visit The Teresa Jusino Experience.
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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn't think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is a founding member and editor of The Revolving Door Commune Blog, is currently at work on a collection of short stories, and is writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut this fall! As a geek, Teresa loves all Star Trek, Lost, Fringe, comics, and anything Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Neil Gaiman ever touched. She is also an aspiring fangbanger. 
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First, when I saw this promo, all I could think about is this dopey musical number from The Apple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33yCvNe14Sg
Second, don't ask me why I've seen that movie.
Wow. I think you've just introduced me to my new favorite movie!
Or alternately, to quote Steve Carrell from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin": HOW MANY POTS HAVE YOU SMOKENED?!
What’s all this with the fruit? I would like to ask if I am perceptive in my assumption that a few posters might be vegans and would like to eat her apple?
I… uh, what? I mean, the dancing was good, but… what?!
Also, since I work in a place with religious origins, I feel the need to point out that the forbidden fruit in Genesis is never specifically called an apple. Because, well, they aren't native to the Middle East. The person/people who wrote it were probably referring to a fig or date or something else that actually grows there. It's pedantic of me, I know, but there it is.
Is the apple scene even in the series? I have watched 4 episodes and I dont
think it is. I would be interested to see how they relate this scene to a metal robot that even her dad sees as nuts and bolts. Its not a strong series like mad men but it does make you think of computer possibilities. I still havent read my laptop manual after 10 years so who knows what computers can do.
Hear hear, Teresa! The brilliant young woman I saw in the pilot is not the temptress she's being portrayed as in that ad. If anything, she was kind of conservative and idealistic. More like an Eight than a Six, if you will. This Poison Ivy-esque promo is a pretty inaccurate depiction of her role in the pilot and (I hope) the rest of the series.
As much as I love SciFi (ever shall I spell it thus), they've made some really strange marketing decisions in the past few years. Especially in light of the fact that a large percentage — possibly more than half depending on which statistics-gathering method you use — of Stargate, Eureka, and BSG fans are women of all ages. They don't have to try to appeal to us. The shows do that all by themselves by being good stories.
Hmm. Now, I've thought about this a lot but first I'd like to say that when I initially saw the artwork I thought it was striking, simple and effective. The focus is Zoe and there is something about the way she is holding the apple that is knowing without being lascivious.
Having said that, I can completely see where you are coming from, Teresa. Yes, it gets very boring to keep hearing about how it's the men of Caprica who the important ones but I have tuned it out because they are highlighting the named starts. Another obvious ploy to get interest: named, established male stars + young female flesh = viewer recognition.
It is a bit disappointing, but this is the publicity department. They are using tried and trusted ways to lure the audience into watching. Yes, I would love them to even mention the fact that Zoe is even more of a genius than her dad, but they have obviously decided that that doesn't get bums on seats.
This does come after a few weeks of becoming increasingly angered by a series of ridiculous PR happenings culminating in the Vanity Fair/ Twitter debacle last week. Maybe I'm too jaded to worry as much as I should about this latest offering. If it was a choice between the publicity being the same old crap and the writing breaking the mould, I'd prefer great writing every time. I have faith that the series is not going to let Zoe down even if the publicity department has.
Higlet….Higgy (may I call you Higgy?), you make an excellent point about the writing being more important. If given the choice, I too would prefer that the writing not let her down, and I don't think it will! I have a lot of faith in this show, actually. I'm just sorry that it has to be a choice at all, you know? That what it takes to "get butts in seats", as it were, is a hot girl. Not a smart girl, or a strong girl, or even a smart, strong, hot girl. It would be one thing if hot were just a part of the package. I mean, Torresani is a gorgeous girl, they could get the hot across WITHOUT her being naked and holding an apple. And maybe, while she's standing there clothed and gorgeous, they could manage to figure out how the image could also show off how strong and smart she is.
Yes, I really wish they could use her image with more panache and thought, but I'm not holding my breath on that one!
And yes, you may call me Higgy if you wish
[...] Surely, I was overreacting. I mean, they’re not trying to market this new series of Doctor Who the way SyFy is marketing Caprica, right? Then I started seeing the tribute videos on YouTube with the hot photos and all the *drools* and [...]
you can't spell caprica without crap
I think the imagery of the apple and the tempting woman may have been misintepreted in this case; in Catholic orthodoxy it is Eve who is tempted through the serpent by Satan which leads to the expulsion from paradise. However this metaphor is completely turned on its head when considered from a Gnostic Christian perspective; in gnosticism the apple from the tree of knowledge is actually a liberator of mankind from the corrupt material world. In gnosticism there is a the higher God or Monad, the true God (or God of the New Testament), and below him is the Demiurge (the false god of the Old Testament that created the flawed world in which we are prisoners in mortal bodies). From this perspective the Garden of Eden is a prison for humanity; the higher god sends the serpent to talk to the woman, in order to get her to pursude Adam to gain knowledge about his true state ('gnosis' is Ancient Greek for knowledge, however this is best translated as Enlightenment). Therefore it is Eve, or Zoe in this series, that brings the knowledge to mankind that liberates us from the hell that is this flawed material world to live everlasting in the Pleroma (or higher realm of the true God).
I think this would be a common misunderstanding if one were not versed in early Christian mythology; the imagery is a stroke of genius on the part of Ronald D. Moore.
First of all, Ronald D. Moore would've had very little to do with it, as it's the marketing department's job to come up with the advertising. However, even taking gnosticism into account, considering that most people who would get the imagery at all would come at it from a traditional Christian context, I'd hardly call it a "stroke of genius." It's hardly a stroke of genius in advertising to use an image in a way that only a handful of people will "understand."