I get another one! In this morning's e-mail:
Ok, thanks to you and A--- and S--- I am now a convert to the Firefly series. I have watched the 13 episode series (sob) and the trailer for the movie and I am so excited I am tempted to dig up my old Traveller books.
I have a lot of thougts and ideas I want to share about Firefly but I will just share some initial research I did after I was halfway through the series and thinking "where in the hell have I seen the captain and Book before?"... and no it wasn't Buffy.
So I get 1/3 of a toaster.
I can't think of any SF fandom that skews female overall. The online fandoms tend to, for some reason (women are chattier?), but other than the Jossverse the fandoms are mainly male.
Wait...most of the fans of the Vorkosigan books I know are women. But I'm not sure those count as sci-fi.
I think the sea-change towards more female involvment is partially because the content of the SF has changed, and partly because women are changing. I know the women around me when I was growing up thought both SF and fanship were big old wastes of time, not important stuff like getting married, having babies, cooking, and shoes.
Wait...most of the fans of the Vorkosigan books I know are women. But I'm not sure those count as sci-fi.
If those aren't sci-fi, I will eat my hat. As I was introduced to them by a woman, I'm willing to believe the possibility.
If those aren't sci-fi, I will eat my hat.
I waver, but there's a strong argument that they are romances in space. At least the later ones; the first one's definitely sci-fi.
Fair enough. I've only read through The Vor Game so I'll take your word on that.
It depends how you define 'fan': regular viewers of a family sci-fi show like Doctor Who are probably about balanced in gender terms. With a wide spread of ages.
I know the women around me when I was growing up thought both SF and fanship were big old wastes of time, not important stuff like getting married, having babies, cooking, and shoes.
shoes are still important, right?
Yeah, but there must be some other SF fandom that has an equal or greater percentage of women to men.
If Xena is counted under the SF/Fantasy umbrella, the passionate fandom skews way female.
Stargate skews female too, doesn't it?
Well, if we include Fantasy as well as SF, then yeah, you get a lot more female fans.
And shoes are The Most Important Thing.
I think there's a big difference between the most visible portion of a fandom and the overall fandom. Online Stargate fandom skews female, for sure. But in terms of Nielsens and DVD sales? I'd be a lot less sure.
