Gender, Science Fiction Television, and the American Security State 1958-Present

by Wildermuth, Mark E.

• ISBN13: 9781137408884
• ISBN10: 113740888X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-05-01
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The medium of television both reflects and comments upon the gendered logic of the security regime in America. Gender, Science Fiction Television, and the American Security State uses science fiction shows from WWII through the present as a lens to explore the most essential aspects of the security regime, as the genre consistently focuses on technologies of mediation, communication, and war. As American security became increasingly dependent on technology to help shape the consciousness of its populace and to defend them from the technological threats posed by other countries, shows like The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and The X-Files both promoted the regime's gendered logic and raised significant questions about that logic and the gendered roles it supported to maintain the security of the state. By charting the interaction between political developments in the security state and the evolution of feminist ideology in the culture from the end of WWII to the present, Wildermuth shows how these shows reflected and helped catalyze an evolving feminist consciousness in American culture and explores where they may yet take us in the future.

Author Biography

Mark E. Wildermuth is Professor of English at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, USA. He is the author of Blood in the Moonlight: Michael Mann and Information Age Cinema (2005) and Print Chaos and Complexity: Samuel Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Media Culture (2008).

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Evolution of Gendered Security State Logic
2. Before and After the Missile Crisis: Sci Fi TV and Gender, 1958-1968
3. In the Wake of Vietnam: The Paradoxes of the 70s and the Conflicts of the 80s
4. The 1990s: The Complexity of Gender in the Clinton Era
5. Trials and Triumphs in the 9/11 Milieu
Conclusion