Saving The Women: War And Science Fiction

by lisa, Aug 7, 2009, at 10:35 am

Cynthia Enloe is famous for arguing that war is premised on the protection of “womenandchildren.” In other words, our men must fight their men so as to protect our women (and sometimes, their women, too). The protection of women (and their children) is a justification for war. (Even reference to the “home front” domesticates what is being protected.) War is gendered.

In light of this, it’s interesting to peruse this set of posters and covers for vintage science fiction comics, books, and films (’50s to ’80s). The poster reveal the same theme except, in this case, women must be protected from aliens, monsters, and robots.

forbidden

gg004

green_slime

horrorposter2

horrorposter3

horrorposter9

march-of-the-robots

raygun

robot_monster_poster_01

tobor_the_great_poster_01

ty7
Another example of women as justification or inspiration for war here.

Examples of women as a drag on the war effort (as vectors of sexually transmitted infections) here and here.

Some examples of women’s duty to bear soldiers and families’ duty to support soldiers at war here, here, and here.

Posts on women’s role behind the scenes here and here.

On women in the military, see here.

More associations of masculinity and military service here, here, here, here, and here.

See also this post conflating sexual and military conquest.

Comments

Dmitriy 11:09 am on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

“Another example of women as justification or inspiration for war”- lets not forget that the only reason for the Trojan War was Helen ( “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships”)
Sanguinity 11:37 am on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

I note that it’s only white women that need saving. Women of color must be too effective at kicking robot and alien butt to get cornered into a hostage situation.

I mean, we know that the disparity couldn’t possibly be about target demographics considering only white women to be worth saving. Right?

One other thing I find worth noting in this sample: the preponderance of blondes and redheads. Yet another tip-off that we’ve got racial coding in the women-in-peril trope: there are some purposes that brunettes are just not quite white enough for.
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist 11:49 am on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

Yep, white females need only apply for the “Damsel in Distress” position. Damn! Guess I’m excluded from being saved by a hot, sexy Marine.

*rolls eyes*
Cycles 11:56 am on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

Here’s an irony: in “Forbidden Planet” (the first poster), Robby the Robot is the harmless butler who looks after the woman in the picture. Her father invented Robby to protect her, and the robot is never portrayed as a villain – he’s comic relief. As far as I recall, she never actually faints or is knocked unconscious as depicted in the poster. The villain in the movie is a projection of her father’s id, and I think it only went after the men from the space ship. She was always protected in the fortress-house.

Yet I definitely agree, the poster portrays the robot as the menace and the half-naked woman as the victim to be saved by a human. It seems the art director knew of and leveraged existing themes in sci-fi posters, despite the actual plot of the movie. I remember seeing the film as a child, and even though the robot is supposed to be funny and harmless, I was still a little scared of him.

It’s really interesting, because many of these posters are so very similar to the posters where a big powerful protector is rescuing an imperiled woman. The body positions are basically the same – woman inert, warrior fetching her to safety in this case.

“The Bodyguard” springs to mind.

http://images21.fotosik.pl/247/d6c96c45012a7fe1.jpg

Or depictions of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, which you may not recognize by name but have probably seen (although in this case the inert woman is dead):
- karinova 3:29 am on August 20, 2009 | # | Reply
  
  “The Bodyguard” springs to mind.
  
  …And because I am a child of the 80s (and also painfully lame), for me, “Thundercats” sprang to mind. For some reason, I very much associate this pose with that show (and a few others of the time). Seemed like every other episode featured a scene with Lion-O carrying an unconscious Cheetara in his arms, boobs up. Which bugged me even then.
Cycles 11:58 am on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

Sorry the second link of Popcatapetal and Iztaccihuatl didn’t go through. Here’s the pic:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/entertainment/street/Popocat%C3%A9petl%20and%20Iztacc%C3%ADhuatl.jpg
Dwayne Rand 12:31 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

Just like the immigrants (or other “others”) – “Coming here, taking our jobs and our women and acting like they own the feckin’ place.”
Elena 2:35 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

This is called Touch of the Monster over at the TV Tropes wiki. The other very clichèd pose is the Leg Cling. See also Pietà Plagiarism.
kate s. 5:06 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

SPACE ALIENS ARE TRYING TO STEAL OUR GOOD, WHITE WOMEN!!!!
Kelsey 5:50 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

It seems ethnocentric (or species-centric?) that although the aliens and robots are of another species entirely they are still sexually attracted to human females.
Village Idiot 5:51 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

Why on Earth would aliens want human women? Not that there’s anything wrong with human women in general, but I don’t recall ever having seen a reason why any aliens would come all the way here just to gather specimens of female Homo sapiens or what unspeakable purposes they have in mind once they get them. Alien cosmetics testing, like our lab bunnies maybe? Then again, the overall masculine shape of the aliens/monsters/robots does imply sordid intentions. The green slime is an exception but makes up for it with the tentacles (long before Japanese porn made tentacles popular!).

Then again, seeing as how the imperiled women are so fair skinned, perhaps the monsters who are after them are supposed to symbolize an entirely terrestrial and non-robotic threat to “our women” that was becoming increasingly awkward to portray in a literal fashion.

And Tobor sure is a badass, and he has EVERY human emotion! (but a questionable anatomical ability to act on them, which means he’ll probably get really frustrated and end up going Cuisinart on his captive, which is the robot equivalent of “postal”)

But beyond just portraying women in danger, lots of science fiction involves aliens abducting us from our natural habitat, doing invasive and sometimes hideous experiments on us, mutating us, breeding us, enslaving us, or simply slaughtering us all (though there is always a woman-in-danger subplot). To me, that looks like some weird human mental quirk where we feel compelled to imagine ourselves being subjected to all the things we humans subject other life forms to. I’ve never seen the aliens do anything to us that we don’t do to ourselves or other species, so maybe it’s a kind of softcore S&M thing.
Titanis walleri 6:03 pm on August 7, 2009 | # | Reply

I’d suspect the trope is very, very old. Probably because the tactic of “go after the other guys’ women and children” is even older than that.
Mania 1:57 am on August 8, 2009 | # | Reply

Aww! What an adorable rock iguana!

(Sorry — easily distracted.)
Michelle 3:26 am on August 8, 2009 | # | Reply

The french one = “A virgin among the living dead”? ROFL.
James 5:00 am on August 8, 2009 | # | Reply

A little bit off-topic – but after seeing all of the “women in the arms of beasts” images this morning I happened to see a “man in the arms of beast” poster at my local museum this afternoon. Of course – the beast was a monstrous woman (see link). Women may need saving from “others”, but men need saving from women it seems…

http://www.impawards.com/1960/wasp_woman.html
A Collection of Items on Gender and Science/Tech Topics » Sociological Images 10:20 am on August 13, 2009 | # | Reply

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A.B. 6:03 pm on April 17, 2010 | # | Reply

as an aside — i note that most of the women are passive (showing no ability to resist abduction or else appearing asleep/comatose), their clothes are dishevelled and scanty (like lingerie almost), and almost all red (why? to resemble blood?). these images seem designed to titillate the male viewer with their implication of being either pre- or post- rape (note also all the obvious phallic protrusions from the various robots/monsters).