Fiona wrote:
Well, there are a fair few female persons in positions of power in UK society, too, and that doesn't make it any less patriarchal-- just as
having
some African-Americans in positions of power does not make the US any less racially stratified. IMO, anyway...
That's entirely different. There's good evidence that UK society was overtly patriarchal less than 100 years ago, and so one needs a reasonable mass of evidence to counter the idea of it being so today. (Leaving open the question of whether it is or not.)
In B7 times, we don't know much about the history between their present day and ours, so the question is a good deal more open and smaller amounts of evidence might be assumed to settle it against patriarchy.
Tavia
----- Original Message ----- From: Tavia Chalcraft tavia@btinternet.com
In B7 times, we don't know much about the history between their present
day
and ours, so the question is a good deal more open and smaller amounts of evidence might be assumed to settle it against patriarchy.
Yes, but B7 was written in the 1970s and was a product of the society of the time. So although it was unusually forward-thinking (which is one reason why, IMO, it makes for better viewing today than many of its contemporaries), the fact remains that it's still rather influenced by its time of origin. Consequently, there are relatively few black/Asian characters (although those that are there are unusually well-written, even by modern standards-- and remember, at the time the only other show with well-written non-white characters was the highly controversial "Gangsters") and, although Servalan may be President, all of her rivals, staff and subordinates (with a single exception) do appear to be male.
Neil, do you have the stats on this?
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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Fiona Moore -
Tavia Chalcraft