Space Oddities Women and Outer Space in Popular Film and Culture, 1960-2000 [Hardcover]

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.

AcknowledgmentsTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction. Space for Women: A Problem DeferredChapter 1. It's About Time: A Brief History of Women in SpaceI. Arrows of TimeII. No Official RequirementIII. Astronauts on Display

Chapter 2. Bottled Up: Inner and Outer Space in I Dream of JeannieI. Screen MemoriesII. Alienation and the Arab BodyIII. There is Another Kind of Space Here

Chapter 3. Staying Home: Astronaut Wives and Domestic EngineeringI. Angels in the HouseII. The Engineered CenturyIII. Mothers in SpaceChapter 4. Chimpanzees in Space and Gorillas in the MistI. We are the MonkeyII. The Colonialist ImperativeIII. The Old Lady Who Lives in the Forest Without a Man

Chapter 5. The Astronaut's New Clothes: Naked in Space in Nude on the Moon, Barbarella, and AlienI. Dressing for SuccessII. Cosmic Stripteasel“-