How Sci-Fi Media Teaches Us About Sexuality

New Relationship | January 11, 2017

Sci-fi media, whether it is television or film, has been credited with expanding our horizons across many fronts, including increasing our awareness regarding sexuality. Although same-sex marriage is legal in Canada, that is not true around most of the world, meaning that we still have a long way to go. Below are a few of the ways Sci-Fi media teaches us about sexuality.

• • It Simply Reflects Society’s Ultimate Desires Back To Us

The sci-fi genre often simply reflects the current times back to us, and also where we hope to go in the future via our television screens. This is a trend that goes all the way back to the civil rights movement in the 60s. There we saw more rights given to minorities, followed by less rigid gender roles, etc. This was followed by films about the LGBT community, which continue to normalize the community even to this day.

• • By Breaking Boundaries

How does sci-fi media teach us about sexuality? It breaks boundaries. Although this can be difficult for television programs due to network restrictions as to what is deemed acceptable to be aired on TV, slowly but surely, it is happening. The sci-fi genre features LGBT characters; it features futuristic intimacy.

Some examples of how the sci-fi genre has paved the way for representations of diverse sexuality include Captain Jack Harkness from both Torchwood and Dr. Who, who was the very first pansexual character on television. The show Lost Girl had a bisexual succubus named Bo who was able to survive on the chi of men and women. Netflix’s Sense8, a series about a group of eight people who are telepathically linked, has a trans woman on the show. These are only a few examples, but you can see the pattern of how sexual diversity becomes more accepted as film and television break boundaries and go where they have not gone before.

• • Sci-Fi Is A Form We Can Accept

Ultimately, people can more readily accept diverse sexuality when it is in a form involving aliens and robots. In a standard movie or television show, these “advanced” characters would be considered controversial and many people would reject them. Sci-fi, however, does not have to conform to current standards of what is deemed socially correct. Slowly, people are becoming more open to other forms of sexuality.

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