Sci-Fi Characters Set Phasers to "Gay," Straight Male Heads Explode

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this recent post over on The Spearhead (an online magazine by and for straight men).

At first, I was convinced it was parody, but people tell me the author, and the site, are dead serious in their argument that straight men are now the ultimate victims.

The point of the post? The inclusion of women and gay characters in science fiction is destroying the genre, which is "a very male form of fiction."

The former Sci-Fi channel, now “Syfy,” is a good example of what has been happening to science fiction on television .... The Sci-Fi channel became increasingly feminized, losing many of its traditional male viewers in an attempt to go after female viewers .... The re-imagined re-delusioned Battlestar Galactica is a good example .... While the original series had its problems, it was standard science fiction with men doing and accomplishing things. The new series instead had a lot of relationship drama and whiny men who were generally unable to find their way out of a wet paper bag. The new Battlestar Galactica was so feminized that one of the main characters from the original series, Starbuck (who was originally a man), was turned into a woman. 

The author (who goes by the handle Pro-Male) is just as angry about the inclusion of gay characters in sci-fi:

This season three gay characters will be added to various shows on “Syfy” .... This will mean less programming where men actually get things done and more relationship drama, which will inevitably drive even more men away from the channel. Things are worse in Britain. A few years ago Doctor Who was resurrected. The man who brought back Doctor Who was Russell T. Davies, a gay man who proceeded to add a recurring character named “Captain Jack,” who comes from the 51st century and is bisexual omnisexual. Yes, omnisexual… Not only is this character bisexual, but he has enjoys having sex with non-human species as well.

What a buffoon. For the record, Pro-Male, Russell T Davies revitalized Doctor Who and made it an international sensation, and Torchwood was wildly popular with British and U.S. audiences — discounting cavemen still scribbling on walls. 

I know, I know: waaaaay too much has already been written about the dead-enders who can't quite accept that while women, racial minorities, and gays have always existed, they weren’t allowed to fully participate in society until very, very recently. White men controlled everything — not because they were doing it better: it’s because they wrote the rules and refused to play fair!

Affirmative action, indeed.

Still, I find it fascinating that we have — what? Three? Maybe four gay characters in TV science fiction (compared to about 50,000 straight male ones), and you already have a straight guy complaining that it's "destroying" the genre.

I get it: some old white men can't quite accept that the world is changing — that it's now at least possible to see some point-of-view other than that of a straight white male. (I'll even allow that, yeah, there's been some joking and stereotyping at the expense of straight white men — though not nearly the amount that is still directed at women and gays.)

But the thing is, full participation by minorities isn’t just good for minorities; isn't it good for everyone? At the very, very least, doesn't it make for better, more interesting, more realistic, much more sophisticated science fiction?

Honestly, anyone who thinks that the horrible, hackneyed, simple-minded Star Wars knock-off that was the original Battlestar Galactica is better than the rich, complicated, sublime remake … well, that person is either (a) completely blinded by irrational prejudice, or (b) experiencing a different reality than the one I’m living in!

I hasten to add: I hate to pit “white men” against “everyone else,” even rhetorically, because I absolutely believe that most straight white men can see that all these social advances are far and away a good thing. It’s only idiots like Glenn Beck and this writer who are intellectually unequipped to see that.

And they sense that their old, tired way of looking at the world is quickly ebbing away, which is why they’re so angry.