Single Mothers in Science Fiction

Hello, all.

As I write this I’m eyeballing Wisconsin primary election returns, and it’s an exciting night!  My choice for Attorney General, Susan Happ is leading comfortably- she’s also backed by Emily’s List and Doug La Follette, and her main opponent was the choice of Conservadem Mayor Barrett, and it’s unusual for him not to get his way in a primary.  This is pretty fun to watch, as is the Treasurer’s election- Dave Leeper is only 2 points behind, and he made support for a publicly run bank a centerpiece of his campaign!  Mary Jo Walters is also running competitively (within 8 points) for Lt. Governor, which is pretty impressive for a candidate only a couple of cycles removed from the Green Party.  Janis Ringhand- the pro-choice movement’s choice (and therefore mine as well) for state senate appears to be winning easily.  Truth be told, if any one of the three statewide candidates alone pulls this off it’s been a damn good night, but the local legislature seats going the Left way would be nice too.  Not enough to make up for last week's defeat, or the attendant reminder of how strong racism remains in my city with the murder of an innocent teenager by police in North County.  I know I’ve got at least one friend at the protests, and I’m hoping to join them myself given enough courage.

Update-all those elections went the way they were trending last night.  Yaaaaay Happ!

I’ve continued writing this into Wednesday night and soon Thursday morning.  The heroes at the protests keep at it.  I may be brave enough to join them but I doubt it. 

     Now on to the piece itself.  I’m hoping eventually to turn this into a presentation to give at school this fall, so be sure to let me know what you think.  My contention: that the portrayal of single mothers in contemporary science fiction must work to transcend social prejudices and oppression based on race, sex and class, and it often fails to achieve this, with disturbing implications following.

     Full disclosure- I’m a Trekkie.  I’m a Whedonite.  Genossin Sophie is teaching me to be a Whovian.  In a word, I’m nerdy.  And in continuing my enjoyment of some of the big nerd franchises, I’ve really been struck by the messages used to reinforce or question perceptions of single mothers. 

                Our society places a premium on the nuclear family model with patriarchal gender roles as the proper habitat for good citizens.  Much of our public policy and economy is structured around the idealized image of competent, assertive male breadwinners and loyal, chaste housewives who remain appendages to others and attain neither economic independence nor fulfillment outside the role of caregiver to their families.  Social shaming results no matter the course chosen, with women who stay at home being shamed for not performing economically rewarded work, and those who work shamed for abandoning traditional femininity, accused of warping their children’s development.  Anything which could make it easier for women to determine the course of their own sexuality, or pursue career paths outside caregiver, is viewed as highly suspect.  Beyond this, our government spends hundreds of millions encouraging marriage, to say nothing of its subsidy to churches which reinforce the necessity of women’s occupation in the home.  

                These problems are compounded for the single mother- in the case of childbearing out of wedlock, her morality is considered forfeit, and she is to be reminded by culture and policy that she has (willingly or not) violated the rules society has placed on the use of her body.  She will be criticized for fostering delinquency if she works outside the home, and criticized for laziness if she doesn’t.  Race is obviously a factor here, as these arguments are rhetorically used particularly against Women of Color.  Their result is to restrict funding for social programs which help everyone, and reinforce the myth of personal effort as the main determinant of people’s prosperity.  Shaming of single mothers is a dangerous weapon used to reinforce conservative notions of women’s proper place, undermine cross racial solidarity, and damage the welfare state.

                With this in mind, we should examine how our media reinforces or questions this trend.  To that end, I am evaluating three episodes, one each from Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dr. Who, that prominently feature single mothers (Dr. Beverly Crusher, widowed mother of Wesley, morality is not questioned but is still put in the bind of work vs. domesticity, white; Nikki Wood, teen mother of Robin, very work focused, morality is questioned-also happens to be her generation’s Vampire Slayer, black; Nancy, teen mother of Jamie, who is community focused, but has lost her own child, and is generally marginalized-albeit presented in a nigh exclusively favorable light, white.)

     Star Trek, The Next Generation- episode: “Evolution”- this is the simplest to analyze, as the mother in question (Dr. Beverly Crusher) is a widow, and therefore not morally suspect for having a child.  She is questioned, however, by her son Wesley who resents her absence throughout the previous year, while she worries she’s missed irreplaceable time of his adolescence.  While Crusher has an incredibly successful career, saving countless lives (and being one of three doctors in Trek history ever to successfully de-assimilate someone from the Borg, she is still implicitly condemned for leaving her son (where she knew he would thrive, mind you) for a year, and what is used to reassure her is that Wesley is doing well because she has already been a good mother, rather than that she is entitled to decide her own life.  This doesn’t sit all that well with me.

     

     Buffy the Vampire Slayer- In the seventh season episode “Lies My Parents Told Me” features Sunnydale Principal Robin Wood, the son of Slayer Nikki Wood, hunting down the vampire, Spike, who killed her.  We see through flashbacks and recollections from both Wood and Giles that Nikki was called to battle evil in the early 1970s, and shortly into her Slaying career, gave birth to a son.  This is described as a singular occurrence in the history of Slayers- young women chose to protect the world from demons, vampires, and forces of darkness who usually live nasty, cruel, brutish lives despite their superhuman strength and toughness.  The one Slayer mother happened to be a Black Woman operating in New York.  The Watchers’ Council- the Committee of Wise Men who created slayers, was at a loss and shunned Nikki- her personal Watcher, however, helped raise her son, and enabled her to take “maternity leave” from her battle with the forces of evil.  She returned- voluntarily- to answer the calling that structures the lives of the chosen in the Buffyverse.  This is explicitly stated to be a choice of work over family, and set up as morally questionable, but the choice that the show decides is necessary.  Our perception is shaped by the fact that we see the memories of Robin, but his mother cannot speak for herself except in flashbacks.  We see much more the impact of her decisions on her son than we do of the decisions themselves or her personality, which limits the potential of the episode to transcend previously denoted trends, simply because we can get no answers to the questions of the decision-making process.  What is clear is that Nikki’s son was able to get on with his life materially, supported by her father-figure watcher, and his underlying resentment of his mother’s choice is at least implied to be petty and misplaced.  This episode does not engage with the patriarchal standard of sexual behavior, which is probably a wise choice.  It does do a good job of humanizing the Black single mother in her brief time on the screen, and a better job of humanizing her son, but the backstory in which a white patriarch must care for the neglected Child of Color really seems problematic.  Most troublingly, the episode does reinforce the outside work-family binary, saying women must make a choice.  While this does depict economic realities of a patriarchal society very well, it doesn’t consider how things could be different, even with a strong support network, and it doesn’t make the racism in the system central to its discussion.

     Dr. Who (reboot) “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”.  In this early episode, the Doctor and Rose have travelled to London during the Battle of Britain, and encounter what’s left of Jamie after he’s been rebuilt by nanite-like creatures which found him injured by a German bomb.  His mother, Nancy- who has been posing as his sister to alleviate the shame- keeps a pack of Cockney orphans safe from his contagious touch and also uses guile, guts and stealth to keep them fed.  The circumstances of Jamie’s birth are not touched upon, but Nancy clearly lacks the support of a wealthy benefactor that helped Nikki.  This is much more a class-based example, and it does engage with the sexual shaming, if only wackily.  It turns out that Nancy denying the truth of her motherhood is what fuels not-Jamie’s rampage, and she of course wouldn’t be lying if there wasn’t a stigma against which to protect herself and her son.  On the outside work-family issue, they are pretty much the same to Nancy, as her work consists of stealing and negotiating to feed her child and her other young charges.  The episode implicitly calls for economic redistribution and social acceptance of both children out of wedlock and their mothers, though it’s easy to see Nancy being judged as worthy based on how thoroughly she subordinates her own needs to those of others, which is a good message for class solidarity but shockingly regressive from a perspective of concern for women’s equality.

     To conclude, discussion of single mothers, even in science fiction shows thought to be the cutting edge of cultural progressivism, often ends up leaving oppressive trends and tropes unchallenged or even reinforced.  That said, all of these examples show strong female characters juggling economic and socio-emotional pressures to do the impossible, and all serve to create empathy among an often scornful public.  I’m not sure I can feel great about any of these, but they’re all useful starting points for any number of discussions.

     Ok that was a lot.  I might flesh this out a bit more later- and add in a section about Shmi Skywalker- but I hope you enjoy this (now belated) update for now.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen