Gigi Edgley Fansite

Joel Shepherd an Australian science fiction writer and contributor to Borders Blog recently wrote an interesting article about female sexuality in literature and media.

Here is an excerpt where he mentions Chiana (Gigi's character on Farscape):

I was thinking about this watching DVDs of Farscape, and reflecting that the character of Chiana (played by Gigi Edgley) was unlike almost anything you'll see on TV - a "loose woman" prone to seducing anything male just for fun, but who is also tough, smart, likable and is given some of the show's best one liners.

And the fact that it's so rare that this type of character should be likable and even heroic is pretty sad, because it shows that popular culture still has a problem with female sexuality, with women who are overtly sexual in any way still insulted and disrespected, or otherwise treated as though they are no more than the sum of their sexual parts, while male characters are held to an entirely different standard.

That's not to say that good female characters HAVE to be very overtly sexual, Sasha in "A Trial of Blood and Steel" is fairly restrained in that regard thanks to her honour code (which regulates who she sleeps with as well as who she kills).

But I think there's a lot of confusion on the portrayal of female sexuality in all popular culture, and if characters aren't allowed full access to all of their human dimensions, they'll be dull.

Read the rest here.