Just a PSA

[laurenthemself]

Trying to write Lister/Rimmer when Rimmer is still in Trixie LaBouche's body is oddly disconcerting.

Just thought I'd share that little factoid with everyone.

*shakes head* the phrase 'his breasts' is just not right!

Edited to add: I have finished writing the fic in question, so if people want to read it, it's here.

Comments

[laurenthemself]

Maybe that was the female ability to express emotions better than men do showing itself? (Terrible stereotyping, I know, but Red Dwarf always has been a show that stereotypes.)

[8abbott-of-odd0.livejournal.com]

The females of the parallel universe were meant to be pretty much exactly like males of our universe; although their universe wasn't completely parrallel in all aspects, they had a male dog instead of a male cat and Hilly didn't invent a Ho- I mean Hilly-Hop Drive at the same time as Holly did. The two universes would have become even less parrallel after Lister had the twins. (Red Dwarf does tend to stereotype with the female characters, but they tend to play symbolic roles most of the time, I've always thought the male characters were quite unique)

[laurenthemself]

It's always been a bit ambiguous with universes and dimensions and the differences though: I mean, Naylor talked about six universes in Last Human, but that doesn't jibe with the canon of the TV shows, because of all the Aces. I suspect that the female 'universe' wasn't quite totally parallel, although Not-Quite-Parallel Universe would've been a mouthful as an episode title.

It irritates me that Kochanski, a female officer in what's quite clearly 'the boys' club' world of officerhood in the Space Corps, is still portrayed as quite shallow at times. I feel that to get where she has in the clearly sexist hierarchy, she should be quite a bit tougher than she often appears. On the other hand, I suppose being stuck on Starbug with 'our' crew and then being thrown into the Brig would break down anyone's toughness, really.

[8abbott-of-odd0.livejournal.com]

Yes, Red Dwarf canon is quite muddled. Perhaps dimensions and univeres are different, maybe there are 6 universes and each universe has an infinite number of dimensions sprouting from them.

In the Red Dwarf Omnibus Captain Hollister is changed to a woman, so it's difficult to decide exactly how gender equality works in the Red Dwarf universe. Maybe each colony has different standards, I'd imagine Io would of been very traditionalist, which would explain the Rimmer family attitudes.

[laurenthemself]

That's what I thought! I thought maybe there was 'our' universe, and then the backwards one, and then four others, each with infinite dimensions within them. Now, which fic did I espouse that theory in? ... Can't remember. But it's good to know I'm not the only one who's put a lot of thought into that.

I wonder whether that change in the Omnibus was after complaints about the complete gender imbalance in the show? I get the strong feeling that there's still a lot of sexism, probably stronger on some colonies than others. Io seems to be stuck in the past (and by that I mean our past, not just the past of the RD timeline).

Eh. I guess we just deal with it by writing more Mary Sues :-D

[8abbott-of-odd0.livejournal.com]

:D I like to think about those cryptic remarks in Back to Reality best, the part about Lister being God is complimented by Holly's comment in Better Than Life, so perhaps there are other elements of truth in the video game storyline.

I get the feeling that Red Dwarf, in some aspects, is very much a mirror of how Rob Grant and Doug Naylor see the world. They're both English and the show has a distinctly English vibe which goes beyound the fact that most of the characters have English accents, and they're both male so female characters are written as seen through male eyes.