"Big Damn Heroes": Zoe Washburn and the Evolution of the Warrior Women in Firefly

Abstract

This thesis explores the evolution of science fiction television in the United States alongside the disruption of the third wave of feminism as a result of the turn to patriotism and nationalism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Specifically, I look at the subgenre of space opera, examining how presentations of women characters have changed throughout the subgenre’s history. Where women once occupied juvenile roles such as a damsel in distress, as is the case in Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949-1955) and Tom Corbet, Space Cadet (1950-1955), they now embody more complex and multifaceted characters. I specifically examine the series Firefly (2002-2003), which emerged in the television landscape following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I focus on the character of Zoë Washburne, a war veteran and smuggler, who represents an evolution of the now-clichéd warrior woman trope in narrative media. Prior to Zoë, television in the 1990s experienced a surge in warrior women, highlighted by characters such as Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001) and Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). These characters strongly reflect values of the third wave of feminism, such as individuality and personal liberation. In discussing these heroines, I heavily draw upon Dawn Heinecken’s book The Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the New Female Body in Popular Media, where she attempts to create a conversation among herself and other scholars to define and interpret characteristics of warrior women on television. Using Heinecken’s conversation as a blueprint for the warrior woman, I then explore Prudence Chamberlain’s interpretations of fourth wave feminism in her book, The Feminist Fourth Wave. The combination of the warrior woman definition and new interpretations of feminism facilitate the analysis of Zoë as a new type of warrior woman, which I describe as the Volunteer Woman.