Blog
Battlestar Galactica–bodies
How could anyone watching Battlestar Galactica, the TV series that ran from 2003 through 2009, not eye the bodies of the actors? Many of the men and women looking similar to one another with very toned, not-too-large muscles? An androgynously styled body, especially in the unisex military gear.
The androgyny appealed to me, but the bodies looked ridiculous in their generic redundancy. From my early 30s until a couple years ago I worked out in the gym–other kinds of movement for strength and aesthetics have replaced my weight training–and I’ve written about female bodybuilders with great respect, discussing their beauty and courage. (See the pertinent essays in Monster/Beauty and my contributions to Picturing the Modern Amazon, which I co-edited with 2 other women, an art historian and a bodybuilder.) Considering my past scholarly and somatic interests, my response to the Battlestar bodies surprised me, because I like the look (and the feel) of muscle that is simultaneously light and strong. Those Battlestar bodies–too much of a good thing? Or fascinatingly (or boringly) absurd? Because the similarity to one another of bodies in Battlestar, created to fit an overtly fashionable type, displaces the human corporeal panoply, so that I’m looking at bodies that, rather than dazzling me with their sensuality, render that sensuality comical.
- November 9, 2009
- Filed under: Body and mind, Bookshelf, art, and media
- Comments 0
