Sci-Fi/Fantasy tv and the Strangely Pregnant Woman

[3113]

Greetings, fellow writers. I'd like your analysis on a cliché that has, I think, become more and more common in recent years thanks to the influx of many a sci-fi/fantasy television series. I call it the "Trope of the Strangely Pregnant Woman." Or SPW for short. Rather like in a soap opera, there comes a point where the show decides it's time for someone to get pregnant. This may be a "jumping the shark" moment for the show, but that's a whole other discussion. What is important is that if the show is sci-fi/fantasy, this pregnancy almost always has the following stages:

(1) First time surprise: The pregnancy almost always occurs when the characters have sex for the first time, and it is almost always a surprise. The couple wasn't trying to get pregnant, and in fact, they usually think pregnancy impossible as dad or mom is something weird, like a vampire. The baby is always both a miracle baby and/or something special. But what does it say that pregnancy is never wanted, always a surprise/shock, and usually happens with first-time sex (no birth control?), as well as being desperately important (the fate of the future rests with baby!).

(2) Microwave baby: evidently sci-fi/fantasy writers and viewers have no patience. If the world has weird science/magic, why wait? Some scientist has a rapid growth formula for baby, or being half-vampire, the baby only takes a month or two to cook. One thing is certain, the heroine doesn't go through several episodes of getting bigger, having cravings, morning sickness, etc. She goes pretty much right from slim to giving birth. Why no getting used to the idea that baby is coming?

(3) Giving Birth = Being Tortured: As mom is almost always carrying a "miracle" baby, some evil force wants it. And, strangely, knows about it even before mom/dad do. These evil people will typically kidnap mom before she goes into labor and may be why she has a baby so fast (they inject the growth serum). Now this is important: no matter how powerful mom has been in the past, an ass-kicker, smart, mean, tough, she will always be helpless in the hands of these evil people. They will force her to give birth under the scariest circumstances (labs, straps, cruel doctors or robed Satanists chanting) to the point where giving birth, in sci-fi/fantasy, is a moment out of a horror movie. But why is mom always so helpless, and why imply to viewers that giving birth is like being in Saw V?

(4) Teen Rebellion: the evil kidnappers always take the baby away to some other dimensions (or something) and return him/her a few episodes later as a teen they've trained to hate his parents and kill them. Like you have to train a teen to do that. Why do television writers of sci-fi/fantasy love this one, shallow irony so much? And is that some cynical remark from the writers: "Enjoy your baby now, viewers. He/she will be an evil teen in no time!"

Now I'd like your thoughts on this cliché...just for the hell of it, as I'm curious about it's prevalence and what it says to modern viewers about women, pregnancy, babies, the helplessness of fathers to protect their wives and children, and what kind of results come from having babies (i.e. you just get a killer teen). What is your analysis of the popularity of this trope not among viewers, but among sci-fi/fantasy television writers?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I ascribe it to the fact that most sci-fi writers are (young)men, and in their minds the needs of a sci fi story don't include long pregnancies. Sci Fi is all about the action! Gimme more guns! More aliens with teeth! Sure the pregnancy comes on the first date. Who has time for relationships to develop, we have lasers and Armageddons to play with! But we can get some of that girly emotional stuff in there if we make the baby unwanted. We can do angst for an episode. That will assure those two or three women viewers that we take them seriously, and then we can blow things up some more.

It's incredible to me that this stuff is okay with so many writers, producers, and viewers. Or that the viewers who are offended by it don't bother to complain. It's just one more way in which heteros are creepy. Blech!

That said, giving birth is a moment in which you are about as helpless as anything. You can't do anything else. There really could be witchdoctors chanting around you and your body would do what it has to do. That's why we go to hospital rooms when we can...

 

[Verdad]

Being thin on TV, I can’t say I’ve noticed these, but from what you say, 3, they look to me like tropes that are not about conveying any particular meaning but simply about conveniently satisfying the demands of the plot.

Of course people get pregnant on the first try; can’t well waste story time on hits and misses. Of course the kid is special; if he weren’t, the story wouldn’t need him to be born at all. Of course he grows up presto; you need the new character up and running, moving things along, not playing in the sand. And so on.

It’s just like in soap operas (and these are, basically, soap operas, no?): people keep waking up from a coma after 15 years, or discovering they have an evil twin. It doesn’t ‘say’ anything; it’s just convenient.

 

[sr71plt]

Television isn't real life. If it took the pace--and overall triviality and common outcomes--of real life as a base, its fans would go to sleep and it would be canceled before that baby could gestate.

 

[stephen55]

Teen Rebellion: the evil kidnappers always take the baby away to some other dimensions (or something) and return him/her a few episodes later as a teen they've trained to hate his parents and kill them. Like you have to train a teen to do that.

All parents of teens (and parents of children who WTF?...survived beyond the teens) know there is a human gene called the Teenage Hatred and Rage Gene. It gets expressed the instant a teen asks for a car and is told, "No!".

 

[3113]

Being thin on TV, I can’t say I’ve noticed these, but from what you say, 3, they look to me like tropes that are not about conveying any particular meaning but simply about conveniently satisfying the demands of the plot.

Of course people get pregnant on the first try; can’t well waste story time on hits and misses. Of course the kid is special; if he weren’t, the story wouldn’t need him to be born at all. Of course he grows up presto; you need the new character up and running, moving things along, not playing in the sand. And so on.

Granted, you're right on all counts. However, I do wonder that they take the same short-cuts over and over again. Why, for example, can't mom give birth in some weird if pretty fairyland? Why can't dad and baby go away together and dad be the one to train him into teenhood for next episode? Why don't these couples ever want the baby and are trying to have one and are delighted to get preggers? It still could be a surprise if they thought they couldn't.

If these were common to just one show, I'd certainly buy all you say. Quite rightly things need to move along and such. But over and over again? Those stages almost always the same? Some of these shows aren't bad shows, they even have good writers. Why fall back into these particular clichés rather than trying a new twist to keep things moving?

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but here are my thoughts.

The problem is that sci-fi/fantasy (and I'll lump non-human in there, if we're going by lit's definitions) can have two distinct goals.

The first goal occurs when sci-fi is pure fun and entertainment. It seems to me that you're thinking of sci-fi along these lines, yes? SPW annoys me in this type of fiction, because in general, it reflects laziness and sweeps.

The second goal occurs when sci-fi is used to explore issues or problems that are just too difficult or upsetting in a non-sci-fi setting, or that would require too much time. This type of sci-fi can be good fun, but the writer is aiming for a deeper meaning (dun dun dun!) in the fun. In these cases, if it's done well, I don't always mind the SPW.

I think this gets back to your (?) earlier cliche thread; bad cliches are hella annoying, but cliches done well, or that are done with a new twist, can be spectacular.

Full disclosure: I've been re-watching Buffy and Angel on netflix while riding my trainer.* All four of your SPW's pop up in Angel, I think. Some are terrible, but others worked quite well, if I recall.

What does it say about women, pregnancy, babies, etc? I don't watch much Type I, so I can't comment on that type of SPW. Type II can say quite a bit, but I'm not sure we can generalize. It's episode-specific.

I should point out that sci fi's dealing with pregnancy is far more palatable to me than, say, Knocked Up.


*Sadly, I don't mean some young stud that helps me "work out" everyday. I mean this.

 

[3113]

Television isn't real life.

It's not! OMG!

sr7, once again, granted things have to move at a speedy pace. Yet these are the same shows that have hints of some problem in the universe starting at episode one that don't pay off till the season finale twenty-two episodes later. Yet you say they can't wait for a baby? Or can't think of anything for mom and fetus to do or be going through to keep it interesting?

Again, I totally get and buy that these elements are all short-cuts to keep the show active, speedy and interesting. What I don't buy is that these are the only short-cuts available and sci-fi/fantasy writers can't come up with any others. If it was done in one show, then I'd shrug and say, okay, they need to keep it speedy and interesting. But show after show after show after show? To the point where it's a cliché and the viewers can see it coming a mile away?

At that point, you've turned your short-cut into something detrimental not useful to the plot--because everyone is so familiar with that short-cut that it's become as boring as if you went for a real-life pregnancy and took nine months. I'm mainly curious as to why this particular short-cut seems to be the only one favored by sci-fi/fantasy writers. At the point where they don't even try to find a new one, then I begin to wonder if there is more to it than laziness. Though, granted, maybe that is all there is to it.

 

[Stella_Omega]

G... Why can't dad and baby go away together and dad be the one to train him into teenhood for next episode? ...

Supernatural. Which quickly became a piece of shit in every way, including the weird lack of any women at all.

 

[sr71plt]

Again, I totally get and buy that these elements are all short-cuts to keep the show active, speedy and interesting. What I don't buy is that these are the only short-cuts available and sci-fi/fantasy writers can't come up with any others.

I don't watch the sci/fi shows, but I'll bet they do come up with others and that you're only honed into the ones that give you heartburn.

The Geeks who write the sci/fi shows aren't normally into Chick Lit, nor are the producers buying such shows.

I rather doubt you are the demographic they are going for.

 

[3113]

Supernatural. Which quickly became a piece of shit in every way, including the weird lack of any women at all.

How was the baby even born?

Of course, the show turning to shit after a baby is born moves into "jumping the shark" territory. It on the list of signals that indicate that a show has taken a downward turn: "A baby is added to an otherwise-adult show where ill-suited addition of childish themes and endless babytalk from characters who were once-intelligent speaking adults fatally alters the character dynamic."

I would imagine that in sci-fi the baby intro also includes this signal of downward turn as baby jumps right from child to teen: "A new character is introduced who earns the hatred of the fandom for whatever reason."

 

[3113]

I rather doubt you are the demographic they are going for.

Ah, but it happens in shows where women are the demographic and the writers know it. Like Charmed and Angel. But you might be right that even in with shows with a female demographic there remains the "scared young male" mindset on the topic: fear of getting a girl preggers the first time in bed, fear of pregnancy destroying said girl, and the results of childbirth being a threatening kid rather than an heir.

 

[talismania]

Hmm... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that none of this is new. Most mythologies are rich with all of the above violations. Some of the great old romances, and I mean really old, like the Arthurian legend, have similar themes. So I don't think it's just modern audiences that find these fun to play with, nor do I think it says anything in particular about modern humans. Just . . . humans. We love a good short-cut.

I've written science fiction and fantasy for a long time and both genres give writers a lot of leeway to explore set-ups and situations that would be impossible or cumbersome to navigate in genres where character, setting, physics or biology have to obey all the same rules as the reader must obey.

For example, reproduction with an alien species is probably impossible according to what we currently understand about genetics and physiology . . . but what if it could be done? What would the resulting pregnancy be like? The offspring? These things probably (if they were possible at all) not follow ordinary human reproduction. So there's a lot of wiggle room for fun.

The question becomes why viewers of speculative fiction like to see these same tropes over and over. That's pure psychology. It's an escape from the mundane and an entrance into the fantastic. Raising kids is a pain in the ass and they're pretty boring for the first few years--not to their mothers and fathers, perhaps, but for fictional purposes--so shoot right to the good stuff by aging them quickly! Viola! Instant teens. Because teens are nothing if not loaded with psychological junk and they're acceptably drool-worthy. And because modern audiences love action, let's make them assassins! Yeah! Sure, a big part of it is pure demographic targeting. But the trope has been around forever and continues to flourish because of the human love of escapism, creating parables, telling a rocking story.

So anyway, I'm just going to say that yeah, some of these things are annoying, and lots of it is really cheesy because mass media tends to have little faith its viewers can handle something actually meaningful or complex. But that said, I don't think it's a fair barometer for making sweeping conclusions about gender relations or human attitudes toward reproduction or any of that, other than that apparently everyone agrees childbearing is a bitch and offspring, whether human or not, simply cannot be trusted to live up to the expectations of their parents.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The only reason anyone gets pregnant on TV shows is that the leading actress is inconveniently in the family way (probably much to the disgust of the writers) and that pregnancy has to get written into the plot. So they do, with as little imagination or understanding as they can manage so that after the brat is delivered and safely in the hands of a nanny, the writer geeks can go back to the world devouring aliens and ray guns that they are more familiar with.

 

[sr71plt]

Ah, but it happens in shows where women are the demographic and the writers know it. Like Charmed and Angel. But you might be right that even in with shows with a female demographic there remains the "scared young male" mindset on the topic: fear of getting a girl preggers the first time in bed, fear of pregnancy destroying said girl, and the results of childbirth being a threatening kid rather than an heir.

I think it's more a "don't know/don't care/it's not what I watch this friggin' show to see" issue.

You seem trapped in seeing it from your female perspective rather than that of the formulistic writers and the audience they assumed--who use these forumlas because they are ones that have always worked with them.

Sometimes the formulas get jazzed up and work too. And then they spawn a new set of formulas. Perhaps ones more to your liking.

Yes, this is one of the themes that jumps the shark and gets series closed out. But just one, and the point is that they are going to eventually wind down anyway--after they've run through their whole list of formulas, this just being one of them.

The point on the pregancies is that this theme just doesn't have a nine-month interest span. Nor does the natural jump from toddler to teenager have the necessary interest span.

TV isn't literal. It's like the condom issue running on another board here. Porn is fantasy, not your dermatologist's office. You start expected the literal, and you start moving away from eroticism. Same thing with sci/fi. You start expecting the literal and you close down on the fantasy.

In the sci/fi world, anyone hung up on literalism had no business watching Star Trek in the first place.

 

[PennLady]

When I was pregnant with my son, in Dec 2003, I ended up in the hospital on modified bed rest for four weeks. Luckily, I got along very well with my roommate. One thing that struck both of us was that it seemed no matter what show we watched on TV -- soap, drama, whatever -- it featured:

-- pregnant woman in trouble
-- child in trouble
-- pregnant woman in labor in trouble
-- baby taken from mother
-- some combination of the above, with extra details

We watched a lot of movies.

Anyway, since then I've been extra conscious of those kinds of situations, and as a parent, I kind of loathe reading or watching shows that put children danger, either physical or emotional. I also felt that pregnancy and other baby- and child-related themes were just cheap shots to ratchet up the drama (as others have essentially noted) and presumably ratings.

In my stories, I've stayed away from this. I've had two pregnant characters, both of them minor. I also rarely have kids in my stories, at least as any kind of major character (Zach in Numbers Game being an exception, and Zach was never in any kind of danger).

I would like, at some point, to write a story where the woman is pregnant and keep it more realistic. Not sure how I'd do it, exactly, but I'd like to try. Not a fetish thing, just a guy in love with his woman and finding her sexy (or sexier) while/because she's pregnant.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Anyone who wanted to watch fantasy had no show to watch but Star Trek.

Anyone who wants to watch sci-fi fantasy, has to take what they're given-- and what they're given is the lowest common denominator, as it's judged by those who are spending the money.

When women are considered the lesser-to-invisibly-small demographic, the fantasy elements are proportionate to what men want to see...

With Buffy, Joss Whedon hit all those points of female interest completely by accident IMO. He doesn't seem to know what or why, or care to try again.

 

[3113]

Liking the characters isn't the same as liking the plot

The question becomes why viewers of speculative fiction like to see these same tropes over and over.

But I'm not at all sure they DO like to see this trope, let alone over and over again. From some critiques of these shows I've read when this sort of story shows up, it would seem that most viewers are sick-to-death of it and frankly hate it.

Why then do the writers keep using it? That's the real question. Viewers will watch even a dismal show if they're fond of the main characters, but that doesn't mean they watch those shows to see the character's girlfriend have a baby and the baby become a murderous teen. The liking of a sexy vampire hero doesn't mean that anyone wants to see that sexy vampire hero become a dad.

So in answering this question, don't assume that those who keep watching such shows like this story line. In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth as usually such story lines spell the end of the show. It makes viewers stop watching it. As for it being "classic," that, again, doesn't mean anything. I don't know one person who reads King Arthur stories to get to the part where grown-up Mordred destroys everything, do you? I would argue that it's not the viewers keeping this trope alive. It's the writers.

 

[3113]

You seem trapped in seeing it from your female perspective rather than that of the formulistic writers and the audience they assumed--who use these forumlas because they are ones that have always worked with them.

Now, now, sr7, let's not make assumptions on who's trapped in what perspective. One shouldn't call the kettle black.

I'm not trapped in any such "female" perspective. If I'm trapped at all, it's in a writer's perspective which wonders at such crap writing. As for the formula working...it doesn't. Typically, the minute that baby shows up, grows up and the story line heads that way the show is over. Viewership plummets and it dies. Maybe the writers are suicidal?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I would argue that it's not the viewers keeping this trope alive. It's the writers.

Who are in the main, as I've said before, no-talent hacks.

 

[cfuhrer]

How was the baby even born?

*raises hand*
I must be waaaaaaaaaaay behind on my Supernatural but ummm, what baby are we referring to?

 

[Stella_Omega]

*raises hand*
I must be waaaaaaaaaaay behind on my Supernatural but ummm, what baby are we referring to?

Well there were sons, anyway. With a dad, no mom. And then no dad.

And no women who stayed alive after the what, second season? BUT! if you wanted to watch a show about demon slayers, that's what you watched because Buffy was off the air. And if you wanted to explore the subtext, you wrote wincest fic. because that's the only subtext there was...

 

[sr71plt]

Now, now, sr7, let's not make assumptions on who's trapped in what perspective. One shouldn't call the kettle black.

Can't be a kettle black type of thing. I'm just trying to help you with your "they gotta write for me" problem. I don't really care myself. If I am irritated by programs like this, I just don't watch them--I move on to something else. I don't spin wheels complaining about why I don't like them.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Can't be a kettle black type of thing. I'm just trying to help you with your "they gotta write for me" problem. I don't really care myself. If I am irritated by programs like this, I just don't watch them--I move on to something else. I don't spin wheels complaining about why I don't like them.

What would you move on to? Say, you were a sci-fi fan, for instance.

 

[sr71plt]

What would you move on to? Say, you were a sci-fi fan, for instance.

Reruns of the Twilight Zone.

My interests are so wide based (while probably not too deep) that it could be almost anything--doesn't even need to be a genre to read or watch. It could be Chinese brush painting.

As far as TV shows, I can watch them just for surface, no mental investment enjoyment. I can watch CSI or Law and Order and not huff and puff over theme difficiencies. I can even watch some of these new spy shows without barfing or sending "you got it wrong" letters to the producers. If I want clever twists, I'll watch The Goodwife or Damages.

If I was a sci/fi fan and didn't like what others were doing, I'd write my own. That's one thing that got me into writing for Lit. I didn't mind the sex in porn videos but I was starved for a plotline and a twist ending.

I recently cut two writers dead that I was reading everything of because my wife read them and put them on my nightstand. Got to the point that, first, I couldn't take Lillian Jackson Braun another sentence and then, more recently, Rita Mae Brown. The latter is a tough "give up" because I know her and she might ask if I read this or that.

I've given them both up because I think they are now writing same ole lame dreck (Rita Mae Brown was once a killer essayist, though). I'm not going to complain about them, though. Not even going to tell my wife not to bother to put them on the nightstand anymore. I'll just move them from there to the donation's box.

There's too much out there to explore to spend a lot of time in empty complaints about books or TV shows or movies or anything that other folks seem to like or they wouldn't be continuing.

I gave up Star Trek as soon as it was evident that its plotlines were heavy-handed versions of classic fairytales and the dummies refused to wear seat belts. I somehow don't feel the loss. Star Wars was a good enough substitute for the sci/fi urge, as rarely as I got that itch. (And I could always go off and read Asimov and Heinlein--as far as I know neither one of them worried much about pregnancy gestation periods at all).

I just don't stoop to do a lot of bitching about something I can't do anything about--especially if it's something that has its own audience somewhere.

Everything produced doesn't have to be for me.