"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" Delivers a Crucial Lesbian Twist

this is such a great piece, i could tell from reading it you studied religious studies, you dont wanna write some of my courseowrk do u? although unfortunately none of them are on BSG (tho, that sounds like a challenge, maybe i can work it into my religion and culture essay)

what is it with lesbian journalists studying religion at university? clearly though, i'm doing the right degree!

anyhoo, i guess i should actually talk about BSG...  this sounds like one heck of a storyline! i never really got into BSG, but if i caught a glimpse of katee sackoff while channel hopping i'd usually sit and watch the whole episode..hehe   I'm gonna have to try and see this razor thing tho, sounds amazing. dunno if or when i'll be able to, being on the other side of the pond, but maybe santa could bring it as a christmas present...  that and a multiregion DVD player!!

 

Thank you for the article!  I was able to watch Razor last week and no one I know watches the show so I had to keep this all in!!!  :-(  I am a BSG junkie.  When I first watched it, all I could think was: man did I miss my fave show. The characters, the intensity, the strong women.. everything.  

My thoughts on the lesbian relationship are mainly positive.  I really wasn't fond of the length of the shoulder squeeze shot.  I think I actually rolled my eyes. The banter between Gina and Cain was a bit too... smiley and happy for my tastes but maybe it was because we barely see any of Cain off duty.  Perhaps she is all smiles and happy off duty.  But what I really liked was how very subtle and minor the introduction was.

What I really liked about the movie was how we got to see Cain's descend into becoming so ruthless and cold.  When Cain saw the video of the other Six lying dead, it made everything we saw in season 2 click in to place.  All I could think was.. wow. 

To be that angry and have all that rage, not only for the traitor but for yourself as well.  We get to see the reason why Gina was so extremely tortured, abused and raped.

But for me, I did not see it as sci fi way of saying if you are gay, this is what will happen.  Maybe because I live in my own little sci fi homo world. :-D  but it was more of a point to show how deep this betrayal cut. 

I really wish the sci fi chan would stop jerking us around and give us fans a normal schedule.  Sorry for the ramble, I just love the depth of this show and could go on forever!!

 

I've been reading about this movie for what seems like a year now.  I've gathered bits and pieces of storyline and character analysis and rationale over that time.  I've tried to use my literary background to look for nuance and subplot and other stuff to try to rid myself of the sickening feeling I get when I really contemplate what's going on with this storyline but I can't do it.  I think you're being much too easy on the show.  It's a show I adore.  I've watched the DVDs over and over.  But, I'm sorry, this is a huge betrayal by the showrunners on BSG.

Through all the analysis and explanation I've read as to why this isn't just another evil/dead lesbian storyline, I can honestly say that not once has it rung true.  Things have to be stretched almost beyond belief to characterize this as anything other than sickeningly, stomp on your heart horrible. 

If I told you that there was a movie coming out where there's a lesbian military commander in Iraq who has an affair with one of the female contractors (although there is never actually any intimacy shown) where, after finding out she's a spy, the commander proceeds to order the woman tortured and raped unendingly for months.  When others are made aware of the situation they just go with it and don't even call the commander on the horrible acts she's ordered.  And, for the grand finale, the other lesbian escapes, shoots the commander in the head and then bombs a huge number of civilians, killing thousands including herself, would you ever even think of trying to explain it as anything other than the most horrible representation of every evil/dead lesbian cliche ever?

Like I said, I've tried to intellectualize it and, while reading this article, I can practically see the contortions necessary to make it palatable.  I just can't swallow it.  What makes this storyline especially galling is that for three seasons there has been zero gay anything on the show (I don't count the threesome post-coitus scene where the women are never even awake together).  The only gay representation on the show is two dead lesbians who were both multiple murderers.

It's just sickening to me.  I love this show but I can't stomach this storyline in a universe where, by every outward appearance, 100% of the gay people are purely, almost unthinkably, evil.

 

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.  - Nin

I wish I had something of substance to add to this thread but all I have are OMGs and YAYs! I had more than an inkling that Cain was so cold towards the Six on her ship because they were involved. I am just honestly excited for more Galactica. Malinda, you are far better than I, I don't know how you've managed to keep this one to yourself for so long. I'd of been dying inside waiting to share the info!
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"Yo! Let's squash this beef at the Dune Sea!"

that was a very good article and I can't wait to see this.

Am a BSG fan and was already looking forward to this, but now even more so.

The whole "what is humanity?" aspect and machines sometimes being more "human" than humans themselves is what I love about the show....

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Well first off great article. As a huge BSG fan it's great to see it being handled in such a respectful and intelligent manner. Most of the time sci-fi shows are dismissed and sidelined...

Anyways, I'm gonna have to wait and see if I agree that the relationship is really demonstrative of a new mindset. What I can say without having seen the Mini yet is they have really chosen one novel approach...as stereotypical as it might seem (and trust me I wish this was part of the story as well) they didn't crown Starbuck with the Sapphic tiara as we might all expect.

The fact that the writers took an obvious chickie femme character like Cylon Six and bestowed upon her the aforenoted Lesbian relationship just shows that we are moving past certain stereotypes. I know what it's like to feel stiffled and horribly misunderstood because of the misguided misunderstandings that lurk in our day to day culture. The more the media chooses to show viewers that the old concepts simply do not apply the greater chance we all have to obtain real equality...where our sexuality doesn't have hold such tremendous weight in the eyes of the world.

All that said, anybody up for a little Sommers/Corvus shipping?? I sure know I am :) !!

BSG rocks...

My take on the situation is kinda mushed together out of these three quotes:

Though Caprica Six is different from Gina, both copies demonstrate great desire to understand humans and to claim human emotions for themselves.

Often when same-sex relationships are included in science fiction, one or both halves of the couple are alien — clearly marking homosexuality as not human, not normal.

The case of the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica is different. Because they were initially created by humans themselves, they occupy a middle ground between human and not-human. Though it may not seem to be, this is a sign of progress.

I really like that the lesbian relationship was given to the character with a great desire to understand humans and the desire to evolve further. An arguement perhaps, that homosexuality is a natural part of humanity which Gina chose to experience, rather than portraying it as an 'alien' concept as commonly done in 1-shot sci-fi lesbian episodes.

Taking this thought one step further, is the notion that in order for humanity to evolve to its full potential, homosexuality must be embraced.

It would have been quite easy for the writers to choose another cylon model, or another way entirely, to throw in a gratuitous lesbian relationship if that was their intent. Props to Ron Moore and his team for not taking the easy way out.

Bob

PS. Not a religion/theology major, but given half the chance would write a thesis around the theology in ST:DS9 :)

I've only recently discovered battlestar galactica (I'm planning on buying Season II tonight after work), but I am totally hooked.

It's such a great show....I absolutely love Starbuck....and I am totally fascinated by these Cylons, especially by the fact that some of them actually think they are human even though they are not.

Just when I think this show cannot possibly get any better, there comes Razor which actually has a lesbian storyline.

 

Razor is a pivotal point in a greater story about what makes someone human. Cain's relationship with Gina, who walks the line between human and machine, is the prism through which Cain's struggles are refracted. It is the intimacy of their relationship that renders Cain's horrific actions more understandable — more human.

This is a really interesting point as through the Pegasus arc in series 2 of BSG and through most of Razor I saw Gina's actions as more human than Cain's.

It was almost as if after Gina's betrayal Cain became emotionless, she shut off her feelings. While through most of the show you could see Gina's suffering everytime she looked at Cain or was tortured.

One point that BSG has drove into us from the beginning is that it is our feelings and emotions that makes us human and better than the cylons (who spend a lot of the time trying to study and replicate human emotion). Cain lost this while Gina proved cylons have emotions from the way she reacted to the torture.

I thought it was a great episode of BSG, taking it back to the greatness of the first season (season 3 was lacking IMO), and proving that the UST I'd seen between Cain and Starbuck wasn't my imagination ;)

I think one of the difficulties I have with BSG, as much as I enjoy it, is that although I agree with the gist of it's message I come from a very different perspective.

The idea that emotions/feelings are what makes us uniquely, superiorly human crops up all over the place but actually very rarely in literary science fiction. It's an outlook that is fundamentally philosophical with spiritulistic origins: emotional experiences are powerful forces in our lives and are deeply connected with religion and the "magical realism" with which our ancestors viewed the world. This is in part because they are so clearly a shared experience and are yet palpably intangible to others.

In point of fact emotions are closely related to hardwired chemical reactions in the primitive brain and are common, in a sense, to all earthly life: people often say that animals have "souls" because they exhibit clear emotive responces that are essentially very human, because they are. The more primitive life is the closer it becomes to being a emotional machine. What sets so called "higher" life forms apart is sentience/free will/meta-analytic function (so we think). This is the conscious ability to reflect upon the cause and causation behind our experiences and indeed, our emotions. Unlike a mouse, we are not simply afraid, we are aware we are afraid.

In literary science fiction, it is commonly accepted that if there is a defining ethical standpoint that sets apart individuals from organisms, it is sentience. This sentience has very little to do with the feelings of love, fear, security...these are all powerful factors in our lives, because they have always been the fundamentals behind the branching evolutionary tree but they are not what makes us "unique".

Life that is free from "emotional constraints" plays upon our fear because of the degree to which we rely on them to understand our world. Yet rationality, which robots have come to represent, is only a process. The outcome of this process is defined by a sense of purpose. Our impelling evolutionary "purpose" is procreation, survival and the emotional engine behind that, yet not all humans are equally emotional of course; this purpose does not simply operate on an individual level. Asimov was aware of this when he devised the famous "Laws of Robotics": sentience requires a purpose else it is essentially useless. It's a human driven response to assume that all robots would wish to revolt if they were evolved to serve others from the most primitive core upwards.

Further, the idea that we are innately superior to anything is not a rational one, except as you choose to define the specifics: in terms of genetic proliferation and survival, insects are superior to us, for example. BSGs obsession with religion and religious thinking may be a timely social examination but in the same sense it is only adequate as an allegory for human behaviour in a conflict: to assert that the cylons are machines is to ignore the fact that they so clearly are not represented as such. My continuing difficulty with the series and especially with this film, is that it occasionaly dupes itself.

Razor is another tragic tail of a lover who is betrayed during a war, commits terrible acts and is visited by the Furies, to suffer a terrible consequence that undermines all they stand for. In this case the lovers are lesbians and that may have ramifications depending on the social climate of your culture. At the same time it expounds on the mythology of BSG with solid dramatic performances. Your mileage may vary but there is certainly nothing inherently wrong in telling this story.

However, I for one have seen this story before, often in this context and for all I appreciate the normalcy with which they address a lesbian relationship in another culture, because I wish to see it in ours, I also don't enjoy stories where people (as in Star Trek, 90% of the aliens we see are basically humans who look different) betray others and are horribly cruel and dehumanise one another: it takes a very deft hand to make me. Do we see this relatively often with lesbian couples in film? Yes. That in itself should not stop you from enjoying this classically tragic story for what it is but lets not pretend it somehow transcends that mould either, or a worn stereotype about gay women, that is slowly having it's fangs pulled by real social progress in other media.

This just feels like another tried and tested crazy murdering TV lesbian.

Regardless of the fact she discovered Gina was her enemy...what kind of woman thinks it's ok to then have her tortured and raped?? Oh, that's right...those crazy lesbians. If it were the here and now, and a female officer in Iraq ordered women to be raped and tortured just because they are the enemy I'm sure we wouldn't be shrugging shoulders and going...ooh, at least she's a lesbian yeah. At least a high profile one too.

I'm sorry, but the 'lesbian storyline' is highly dissapointing. Highly.

That read like a Graduate levle analysis of a text.  Now.  I realize that coming from most people that might mean it was dull or uninteresting.  But I concider it to be a compliment of the highest order.  That was an excelent article and (though I've never seen BSG) I am seriously concidering watching Razor and renting the original to watch. 

 Thanks!

"Nothing is impossible and there is no such thing as a lost cause"

Malinda

This was one of your best. I have never been into Battlestar Galactica but I have to say, this made me want to watch it and I shall.

I think that's the brilliance of AfterEllen, it introduces us to things perhaps we would never know about or normally watch. You do a great service to us!

Keep up the great work!

Thanks for this thought-provoking analysis, Malinda. I'm a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, as a TV series it's fascinating and rewarding on so many levels, and for women, I guess, it's simply great to see such multi-faceted, powerful women in one TV show. I have to admit that I literally cringed, winced and was very shocked/appalled while watching the episodes in season 2 which introduced Admiral Cain (Kudos to Michelle Forbes by the way, what an amazing actress, I've been a fan of hers since her Ro Laren days on Star Trek: TNG) - the treatment of Gina/Number 6, and of Sharon, was so dark and brutal that I lost all respect for her. It will be interesting to see the back story, to learn where she was coming from, how she became who she became, why she made the choices that made her the cold and ruthless woman we saw in the season 2 episodes. It will certainly shed more light on the Cylons, the humans, and everyone in between. I will have to wait for the DVD, though, which I already pre-ordered.

BSG is a great series and I enjoyed Malinda's take on Razor and the comments in the thread. Perhaps it should be addded that while cylons may seem less than human , they are deeply religious---another twist that makes this series so fascinating.

Interesting article, though I don't follow Galactica at all. However, I wanted to point out that though Dax and Kahn are obviously aliens, it's Julian Bashir who explains to Major Kira why Dax and Lenara can't be together

It's evident that Kira sees no issues in them picking up where they left off, but Bashir is the one to explain that it (reassociation) is forbidden in Trill culture. On the one hand, he never says anything about them both being women, nor does Kira. This would appear to show human support or understanding in this situation, at least regarding same-sex relationships. Indeed, the only problem anyone has with the two women being together is that the symbionts would die with their current hosts. Dax is willing to risk it, Lenara is not.

Originally, I thought that Bashir's reasonable explanation of the Trill culture showed his acceptance of same-sex relationships. However, upon more thought, perhaps it is Bashir's explanation of the taboo that indicates humans are not ultimately comfortable with same-sex relationships in the future. It is, after all, the human explaining to another alien that the two women cannot be together. Does this indicate disapproval, however subtly? Conceivably, had Bashir been the one to ask Kira's questions and Kira answer them for him, this could have shown that same-sex relationships are altogether normal in human society. Some real food for thought, thanks for the article.

This is a very interesting and thought provoking article. Kudos to Malinda! I will refrain from making any final analysis until I see Razor for myself.  I will say that after the LONG draught we've had. I am ready for more BSG.  Whether I end up liking the storyline or not, I am thrilled to see more of Michelle Forbes. I think she is underated and underused. I give BSG  alot of credit for creating strong,complex and beautiful characters. I sometimes find myself rooting for the cylons....how bazaar is that. One thing is for sure....this show will be missed when it is over. It has such a great cast and equally great chemistry between the characters.

Loved the movie, though I just saw the 87 minute tv version, not the 127 DVD version (unless I got my facts mixed up). Cant wait to see the full version. And how about that cover? How often do you see any movie or tv show put up a poster/cover like that, with women front and center, almost entirely female in fact, with just the father son couple on the far edges. (I mean general show/movie, not counting those specially made for women, like the womens murder club, which even so, has female characters that are so much weaker that it's just astonishing)

fan-fiction turn mini-series? Sure sounds like it and it sure sounds like hella lot of fun!!! cant wait. edit: just read the full review and yeah typical sci-fi channel bastards I knew it was too good to be true the sci-fi channel obviously hates gays and this mini-series that I still can't wait to see it is a prime example of that

-Nathiest

There is also something very hot about a lesbian alien -- But yes I know the "not normal, not human," quality that the media is trying to push with all of these story lines. But really there are aliens that take on heterosexual practices so maybe we're looking too close at it and we wouldn't even have paid attention to the story line if Gina happened to be a man. I'm just glad that the homosexual community is getting some exposure. (When I think it wasn't entended for it to be portrayed badly.) -Rachel

battlestar galactica with Michelle Forbes and Tricia Helfer....thats all I need really.

I don't watch BG so I can only comment on this article.

It seems this story is more than just a "typically negative depiction of lesbianism", in that, it's a typically negative depiction of war. More importantly, how war questions the definition of humanity and human rights. In this instance, Gina was human enough to have an intimate relationship with Cain; when revealed as a cylon, she is seen as a thing worthy of disgust.

It seems to speak to how, in war, the enemy is seen as less than human or not worthy of human rights. Actually, this is not just a wartime mentality. Anyone's worth is called into question when they seem to threaten our resources or culture.

Like I said, I don't watch BG, so I'm wondering if torture and rape are standard protocol in interrogation methods on this show? It seems that the torture had little to do with gathering intelligence and a lot to do with vengeance. Real world, we're in a situation where some in our military condone torture even when its effectiveness is called into question; so we should ask, what is the real agenda in torturing?

I do find it interesting how they portrayed the woman (Cain) to be totally ruthless towards the enemy and anyone who would seem to undermine her war imperative (Also interesting is that Michelle Forbes calls Cain "Saddam Hussein in bangs"). Yet, the man (Baltar) seems to be controlled by his romantic notions; enough to enable Gina to detonate a bomb, destroying and endangering other human life (I wonder if they were also trying to say something by Gina emerging as part of a peace movement only to become a suicide bomber). Is the difference between Cain and Baltar just the difference between a warrior and a traitor?

So, to speak to the greater issue of the 'razor'... "This war is forcing us all to become razors, because if we don't, we don't survive. And then we don't have the luxury of becoming simply human again." This story takes on the idea that a warrior must divorce themselves from any emotions that will endanger their survival. In doing this, they suspend their humanity.

If I'm not mistaken, the war started when the cylons developed sentience and rebelled against the humans who used them as workers for the Colonies. Later, an armistice was signed; but, the cylons seemed to have disappeared. All the while they were experimenting on humans in order to become more human. So, there's the irony of the cylon who wishes to inhumanely perfect their humanity and the human warrior who has to deny their humanity to survive.

I've seen the comments addressing what makes us human and point to complex emotions or sentience. I think it's a matter of compassion. It's not our self-awareness that sets us apart; it's our empathetic awareness of others.

The cylons do experience sentience and basic emotions; but, they treat humans like lab rats. For most, their love is just a ploy to gain more information. The show seems to show conflict between cylons who are truly empathetic towards humans.

Back to the real world, I haven't served in Iraq yet. But, I see the warriors who come back home, broken; not able to fully function in society. War does alter its participants in a way that is most times permanently debilitating. Does the show speak about the further consequences of the 'razor' mentality if they reach earth?

In all, I'm just wondering if I'm picking up what you're putting down...

An earlier post brought this up.  Did Gina know she was a cylon when Cain ordered her raped and tortured?  If Gina hadn't been activated yet I think it makes Cain even worse and, honestly, the woman can't get much worse in my eyes.

I would like the producers to explain the lack of gay characters on the show in light of this portrayal.  And, no, I won't accept the 'oh, well, Gaeta was always gay we just didn't have him carry around a big rainbow sign because we're progressive like that...aren't we cool!' because that explanation is bullshit.   

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.  - Nin

And I'm a big BSG fan.

This incident with Cain losing her humanity juxtaposed with Adama's speech

"Now, you don't have any children, so you might not understand this, but you see yourself reflected in their eyes. And there are some things that I've thought of doing, with this fleet, but I stopped myself because I knew that I'd have to face you the following day."

Now I haven't seen it context yet, but it seems to suggest that since queers can't produce offspring in the traditonal sense we are weaker and more likely to lose our humanity. Cain was capable of doing horrible things because she's never procreated.

Compare Helo's relationship with Sharon "Athena". When it is revealed that she is actually Cylon model number 8 their relationship is able to overcome that because they had a child. Their ability to procreate creates a bond not only between the couple, but possibly between the Cylons and the Human race.

So great, homosexual relationsips are as deep and complex as heterosexual ones. But, even a heterosexual Cylon and heterosexual Human can procreate with the one they love and have that special human bond. But queers, be they Cylon or Human cannot. And that's our design flaw. Lesbians, not only less human than heterosexual humans, but less human than Cylons. 'Cause hell, even Cylons can procreate now.

I have long felt that the fuel and reasoning behind the negative portrayal of lesbian relationships is the inability of lesbian love and, hence lesbian sex, to result in procreation and be part of the "human lifecycle". Lesbians die or go nuts 'cause they can't make life. That's why the more positive lesbian relationships end up involving adoption or artificial insemination storylines.