According to the Daily telegraph.Quote:From today's (London) Daily Telegraph:
Adventures of Buffy and Lara see female sci-fi viewers outnumber males
By Elizabeth Day
(Filed: 29/10/2005)
Female science fiction fans now outnumber men for the first time.
The digital television channel Sci Fi UK has seen a 10 per cent rise in
the number of female viewers over the past eight years and 1.4 million
women now tune in - 51 per cent of the audience. The channel, which is
celebrating its 10th anniversary, links the rise in "girl geeks" to the
proliferation of heroines such as Buffy, Lara Croft and Xena.
Adam Roberts, a science-fiction author and a professor in English at Royal
Holloway, London University, said fantasy television programmes and films
were becoming more character-led. "Programmes are moving away from the
emphasis on machines and zombies in the 1960s," he said. "More women are
tuning in to see the relationships develop between wittily-written,
complex central characters they can identify with. A film like The Matrix
attracted female viewers partly because it was about complicated concepts
of life and death. It also had Keanu Reeves running around in leather,
which helped."
Ann McMeekin, a 29-year-old web accessibility officer from north London,
said: "People have an impression of sci-fi fans being small men who sit in
the dark watching Star Trek but it's not like that now.
"There has been an increase in positive female role models, whereas in
Star Trek, all the women were either aliens or wore short skirts. I have
been watching sci-fi since I was two or three and the shows are better
written and more mainstream." The new wave of shows has also encouraged
scholarship. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, has
inspired several books and essays, and an online journal, Slayage,
dedicated to critical studies of the programme. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C -
http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 10/30/05 4:37 pm
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