Untethered technology in Gravity

Palmer, Lorrie

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2019.03

Gender and spaceflight from science fact to fiction

Palmer, Lorrie

Science Fiction Film & Television (2019), 12, (1), 29–51.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2019.03
Language: English
Pages: 23

Abstract

At our current cultural and technological moment, both the iconic figure of the astronaut and the history of spaceflight are being expanded. We see this in Hidden Figures (2016) about the African-American women who worked for NASA as human computers during the 1960s space race and in the increasing visibility of female astronauts in sf film and television. Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (2013) features a woman stranded in space alone and it is her repeated act of untethering herself from (and with) technology that enables her to survive. In this way, Gravity defines a relationship between the female astronaut and technology that departs from the defining man-machine symbiosis in films like The Right Stuff (1983) and Apollo 13 (1995) as well as in the masculine environment at NASA. This article uses textual analysis of Gravity in the context of these earlier narratives, the cultural and historical reception of astronaut representation, popular and critical discourse, and the film’s production contexts to argue that Gravity’s Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) character effectively reimagines the mythic figure of the astronaut by uniquely configuring her in a collaborative, professional relationship with the technologies of spaceflight.

Read now (free)

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Works cited

Ackmann, Martha. ‘Losing Their Place in Space and in History’. Los Angeles Times (2 Jul 2000). http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jul/02/news/cl-46931. Accessed 21 May 2018. Google Scholar

American Physiological Society. ‘A Woman in Space’. Science Daily (6 Oct 2009). https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006093347.htm. Accessed 9 May 2018. Google Scholar

Bender, Stuart. ‘“There Is Nothing to Carry Sound”: Defamiliarisation and Reported Realism in Gravity’. Senses of Cinema 71 (Jul 2014). sensesofcinema.com/2014/feature-articles/there-is-nothing-to-carry-sound-defamiliarization-and-reported-realism-in-gravity/. Accessed 29 Apr 2018. Google Scholar

Brandt, Stefan. ‘Astronautic Subjects: Postmodern Identity and the Embodiment of Space in American Science Fiction’. Gender Forum: An Internet Journal for Gender Studies 16, ‘Gender Roomours II: Gender and Space’ (2006): 3-32. http://www.genderforum.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/200616_GenderRoomoursI.pdf. Accessed 26 Aug 2016. Google Scholar

Brody, Dave. ‘Making “Gravity”: How Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón Created ‘Weightlessness’ Without Spaceflight’. Science (3 Oct 2013). https://www.space.com/23073-gravity-movie-weightlessness-alfonso-cuaron.html. Accessed 29 Apr 2018. Google Scholar

Conrad, Dean. ‘Archive: Femme Futures: One Hundred Years of Female Representation in SF Cinema’. Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television 4.1 (2011): 79-100. Google Scholar

Foster, Amy E. Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps: Politics and Logistics at NASA, 1972-2004. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2011. Google Scholar

‘Gladys Ingle of the 13 BLACK CATS changes planes in mid-air’. YouTube, uploaded by Bomberguy (28 Jul 2007). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oAzdbd0J2A. Accessed 4 Jun 2018. Google Scholar

Haslett, Tim. ‘Gravity (or Lack Thereof)’. Review of Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Tim Haslett’s Blog (7 Apr 2014). https://timothyrhaslett.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/film-review-gravity-or-lack-thereof/. Accessed 18 Mar 2017. Google Scholar

Hill, Logan. ‘Stepping into the Void: The Magic of “Gravity”’. Rolling Stone (25 Sep 2013). https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/stepping-into-the-void-the-magic-of-gravity-20130925. Accessed 26 Aug 2016. Google Scholar

Keim, Brandon. ‘Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA’s Lost Female Astronauts’. Wired (6 Oct 2009). https://www.wired.com/2009/10/mercury-13/. Accessed 17 Apr 2018. Google Scholar

Kelly, Kevin. ‘Oscar Effects: Before Alfonso Cuarón could make “Gravity,” he had to overcome it’. Digital Trends (24 Feb 2014). https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/gravity-director-alfonso-cuaron-on-how-to-creatively-fake-zero-gravity/. Accessed 20 May 2018. Google Scholar

King, Andrew. ‘Spinning Out Heroes: The Johnsonville Centrifuge’. Pennsylvania Center for the Book (Fall 2010). https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/spinning-out-heroes-johnsville-centrifuge. Accessed 5 Jun 2018. Google Scholar

Lathers, Marie. ‘“No Official Requirement”: Women, History, Time, and the U.S. Space Program’. Feminist Studies 35.1 (Spring 2009): 14-40. Google Scholar

Lawrenson, Edward. ‘Gravity’. Review of Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The Big Issue (12 Nov 2013). https://www.bigissue.com/reviews/film-reviews/3214/gravity-review. Accessed 18 Mar 2017. Google Scholar

Lee, Dan P. ‘Alfonso Cuarón Answers All Your Questions About Gravity’. Vulture (7 Oct 2013). www.vulture.com/2013/10/alfonso-cuaron-answers-your-gravity-questions.html. Accessed 29 Apr 2018. Google Scholar

Lohan, Maria and Wendy Faulkner. ‘Masculinities and Technologies: Some Introductory Remarks’. Men and Masculinities 6.4 (Apr 2004): 319-29. Google Scholar

Martín, Sara. ‘Rewriting the American Astronaut from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Michael Lopez-Alegria in Manuel Huerga’s Documentary Film Son and Moon (2009)’. Culture, Society and Masculinities 6.2 (2014): 163-82. Google Scholar

NASA. “The Mastery of Space.” Archive (12 Jan 2011). https://archive.org/details/MasteryOfSpace. Accessed 5 Jun 2018. Google Scholar

Nolen, Stephanie. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002. Google Scholar

Opt, Susan K. ‘American Frontier Myth and the Flight of Apollo 13: From News Event to Feature Film’. Film & History 26.1 (1996): 40-51. Google Scholar

Rose, Steve. ‘Sandra Bullock: The Pain of Gravity’. The Guardian (6 Feb 2014). https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/06/sandra-bullock-pain-gravity-oscars-george-clooney-2014. Accessed 12 May 2018. Google Scholar

Sage, Daniel. ‘Giant Leaps and Forgotten Steps: NASA and the Performance of Gender’. The Sociological Review (15 May 2009). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01822.x. Accessed 8 Feb 2017. Google Scholar

Seitz, Matt Zoller. ‘Gravity’. Review of Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Roger Ebert (4 Oct 2013). https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gravity-2013. Accessed 26 Aug 2016. Google Scholar

Wajcman, Judy. Feminism Confronts Technology. University Park: Pennsylvania UP, 1991. Google Scholar

Wajcman, Judy. TechnoFeminism. Malden: Polity Press, 2004. Google Scholar

Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, Vol. 2. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010. Google Scholar

Watercutter, Angela. ‘An Astronaut Taught Sandra Bullock How to Survive in Space’. Wired (13 Oct 2013). http://www.wired.com/2013/10/gravity-movie-nasa/. Accessed 26 Aug 2016. Google Scholar

Weitekamp, Margaret A. Right Stuff Wrong Sex: American First Women in Space Program. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2004. Google Scholar

‘What Does a Real Astronaut Think of “Gravity”?’ Forbes (17 Oct 2013). https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/10/17/what-does-a-real-astronaut-think-of-gravity/#22d b0001e40a. Accessed 26 Aug 2016. Google Scholar

Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979. Google Scholar

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Details

Author details

Palmer, Lorrie

Science Fiction Film & Television