Space oddities
Subtitle: women and outer space in popular film and culture, 1960-2000
By: Marie Lathers
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781441190499; 9781441172051
Subjects: Women scientists in motion pictures; Outer space in motion pictures; History and criticism; Women in motion pictures; Science fiction films
Description: Space Oddities examines the representation of women in outer space films from 1960 to 2000, with an emphasis on films in which women are either denied or given the role of astronaut.  Marie Lathers traces an evolution in this representation from women as aliens and/or "assistant" astronauts, to women as astronaut wives, to women as astronauts themselves. Many popular films from the era are considered, as are earlier films (from Aelita Queen of Mars to Devil Girl From Mars) and historical records, literary fiction, and television shows (especially I Dream of Jeannie).  Early 1960s attempts by women pilots to enter the Space Race are considered as is the media drama surrounding the death of Christa McAuliffe.  In addition to its insightful film scholarship, this is an important addition to current reassessments of the Space Race. By applying insights from contemporary gender, race, and species theories to popular imaginings of women in space, the status of the Space Race as a cultural construct that reproduces and/or warps terrestrial gender structures is revealed.
Notes: Introduction : Space for women : a problem deferred. It's about time : a brief history of women in space. Bottled up : inner and outer space in I dream of Jeannie. Staying home : astronaut wives and domestic engineering. Chimpanzees in space and Gorillas in the mist. The astronaut's new clothes : naked in space in Nude on the moon, Barbarella, and Alien. Making contact. First contact. Conclusion : Black holes and the body of the astrophysicist.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [222]-232) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : Space for women : a problem deferred. It's about time : a brief history of women in space. Bottled up : inner and outer space in I dream of Jeannie. Staying home : astronaut wives and domestic engineering. Chimpanzees in space and Gorillas in the mist. The astronaut's new clothes : naked in space in Nude on the moon, Barbarella, and Alien. Making contact. First contact. Conclusion : Black holes and the body of the astrophysicist.