Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy
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0:01 - 0:03Feminist Frequency
Conversation with pop culture -
0:03 - 0:07and bitchmedia
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0:07 - 0:09Tropes vs women
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0:09 - 0:13A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in
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0:13 - 0:17a character that conveys information to the audience.
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0:17 - 0:19A trope becomes a cliche when it’s overused.
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0:19 - 0:23Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
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0:24 - 0:27#5 Mystical pregnancy
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0:27 - 0:31One thing I love about speculative fiction is its ability to explore difficult topics.
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0:31 - 0:39Because of it's separation from our current timeframe, it can comment on socio-economic and cultural issues in really engaging and interesting ways.
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0:39 - 0:43But one thing that I've learned from watching a lot of science fiction and fantasy television is you
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0:43 - 0:45never, ever want to get pregnant on TV.
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1:07 - 1:08Yup.
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1:08 - 1:14Some of the our most celebrated female characters come out of the sci-fi genre but it's not all sunshine and roses.
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1:14 - 1:20It’s common practice for Hollywood writers to have their female characters become pregnant at some point in their TV series.
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1:20 - 1:25These story lines are almost always built around women who have their ovaries harvested by aliens or
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1:25 - 1:31serve as human incubators for demon spawn - basically the characters are reduced to their biological functions.
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1:31 - 1:37I'm sure you've seen this trope many times before.
Remember back in the mid 90's on the X-Files -
1:37 - 1:41when FBI Agent Dana Scully found herself abducted and forcibly impregnated
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1:41 - 1:46which, of course, later culminated in a hybrid human-alien child.
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1:46 - 1:50More recently on the second season of BSG, Starbuck had her ovaries harvested
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1:50 - 1:54by the cylons in an attempt to create human-cylon embryos.
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1:54 - 1:59Then we have Gwen Cooper, co-star of the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood, who is bitten by an alien
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1:59 - 2:05one night and the next morning she wakes up to find herself extremely pregnant with the aliens’ spawn.
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2:05 - 2:10This trope was inflicted on Cordelia from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin off show Angel
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2:10 - 2:12not once but twice!
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2:12 - 2:18Vala in Stargate SG-1 is forcibly impregnated and she is made to birth a rapidly aging child thing.
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2:18 - 2:20"Hello Mother"
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2:20 - 2:23"I heard that children grow up quickly but this is ridiculous"
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2:23 - 2:29Xena and Gabrielle both have had baby troubles of the mystical variety at different times in Xena: Warrior Princess.
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2:29 - 2:36On the show Fringe, Olivia's alternate reality doppleganger Faux-livia, finds herself at the center of a kidnapping conspiracy
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2:36 - 2:40to accelerate her pregnancy in order to extract the blood of her newborn baby
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2:40 - 2:43which will power a doomsday device.
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2:43 - 2:49Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation is perhaps the quintessential example of the mystical impregnation trope
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2:49 - 2:57as her character’s body and mind are regularly occupied, borrowed, violated and invaded by alien beings.
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2:57 - 3:07During Season 2 in the episode "The Child" Counselor Troi is impregnated with a rapidly aging alien fetus by a flying ball of “space” energy.
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3:07 - 3:17Imagine finding out you're pregnant, giving birth 36 hours later, raising the child within a day and then it dies, or in this case vanishes.
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3:17 - 3:22We don’t see Troi dealing with the long term emotional ramifications of such a traumatic event
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3:22 - 3:25and the experience is never mentioned again throughout the series.
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3:25 - 3:31And my apologies in advance to my more religious viewers because we really can't forget the original Mystical Pregnancy narrative...
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3:31 - 3:33The Immaculate Conception.
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3:33 - 3:38As the story goes, an all powerful being descended from the heavens and impregnated a young woman
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3:38 - 3:42with the Chosen One destined to save Earth and the souls of humanity.
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3:45 - 3:46Yup.
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3:46 - 3:50It's almost an unwritten rule that at some point during a sci-fi or fantasy television show,
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3:50 - 3:55the writers will inseminate their female leads with some sort of ghastly pregnancy experience.
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3:55 - 4:00The Mystical Pregnancy is one of the plot devices that I loathe the most because while other tropes
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4:00 - 4:05represent women in stereotypical ways, this one hits us on a biological level.
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4:05 - 4:08Yes, some of us are physically capable of having babies
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4:08 - 4:13but no that does not mean you get to take advantage of, and abuse, that for the sake of your story.
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4:13 - 4:18Fanvidder, Laura Shapiro calls the Mystical Pregnancy a type of reproductive terrorism because it
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4:18 - 4:22makes becoming pregnant seem disgusting, frightening and nightmarish.
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4:22 - 4:28Laura goes on to say, "The problem from my point of view is that pregnancy and birth are natural processes that are
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4:28 - 4:34being distorted into torture porn, ways of punishing women and exploiting their terror to up the dramatic stakes."
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4:34 - 4:39This trope can’t be brushed off as “just entertainment.” Human beings since the
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4:39 - 4:44beginnings of the verbal storytelling, used narratives to understand ourselves and the world around us.
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4:44 - 4:48When we hear a story repeated enough times it can affect the way we think about reality.
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4:48 - 4:54The Mystical Pregnancy is just another sexist narrative that exploits women for being female.
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4:54 - 4:58These stories are especially striking at this point in American history because women's reproductive rights,
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4:58 - 5:04which have always been threatened are currently under vicious attack by conservative and religious groups.
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5:04 - 5:09Some states are trying to pass legislation that will criminalize miscarriages or make abortion procedures
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5:09 - 5:13so strict and complicated that it renders them nearly impossible.
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5:13 - 5:17Planned Parenthood is even in danger of being defunded through direct ideological attacks
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5:17 - 5:21on women's ability to control what happens to their own bodies.
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5:21 - 5:25So, all you Hollywood writers, you should all feel real guilty right about now for continually
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5:25 - 5:31using the tired old Mystical Pregnancy trope to violate and degrade women's bodies on television.
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5:31 - 5:36I sincerely hope that after this lesson you will stop terrorizing your female characters with the
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5:36 - 5:40magical-demon-impregnation-from-space-story-lines.
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5:40 - 5:41You know,
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5:41 - 5:45maybe you should just stop writing pregnancy altogether until you can do it with some
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5:45 - 5:49respect and dignity and with the appropriate amount of emotional impact.
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5:49 - 5:55I’d love to see a show set in some dystopian future that deals with issues surrounding women’s reproductive rights
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5:55 - 6:00as the core plot line, not just as some throwaway episode or for dramatic effect.
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6:00 - 6:04Pregnancy is not a “here one week, gone the next” kind of a thing,
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6:04 - 6:07and it seems as though Hollywood might need to be reminded of that fact.
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6:09 - 6:14Now check out a clip of Laura Shapiro's fanvid "Stay Awake" about the Mystical Pregnancy
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6:14 - 6:16and be sure to click on the link so you can watch the whole thing.
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6:17 - 6:25"Though the world is fast asleep
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6:25 - 6:35Though your pillow's soft and deep
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6:35 - 6:46You're not sleepy as you seem
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6:46 - 6:52Stay awake
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6:52 - 6:59don't nod and dream"
- Title:
- Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy
- Description:
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The Mystical Pregnancy is a trope writers use to create drama and terror by invading, violating and exploiting women’s reproductive capabilities. Often these female characters have their ovaries harvested by aliens or serve as human incubators for demon spawn. Sometimes they are carrying the Messiah and other times Satan himself.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Feminist Frequency
- Duration:
- 07:04
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Catherine Riedo edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy | ||
Catherine Riedo edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy | ||
Catherine Riedo edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy | ||
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femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Tropes vs. Women: #5 The Mystical Pregnancy |