Battlestar Galactica: Rape Portrayals

I have recently become obsessed with Battlestar Galactica and have watched everything through Season 3 on DVD (I am impatiently awaiting the release of Season 4.0). The show brings up so many issues including race, gender, sexuality, class, and politics.

One episode that I found especially intriguing was "The Farm" in Season 2. Lt. Kara Thrace "Starbuck" is held hostage in a medical facility where her cylon-docotr, suggests that being pregnant would be a better use for her than continuing as a fighter pilot. She is repeatedly drugged and it is implied that the doctor may have harvested her eggs or removed one of here ovaries. Starbuck being the strong woman that she is murders her doctor. In her escape, she finds many women hooked up to machines to impregnate them. She destroys the machines stopping their rape

At this point, I want to celebrate, jump up and down, hoot and holler. But Starbuck’s doctor, the head honcho in this "hospital," is a black man. Here BSG is holding hands with the likes of Birth of a Nation and lynch mobs. BSG is taking part in the American stock story that black men rape white women. This relationship has been used to justify not only casrtration of black men, but also the paternalistic "caring" for white women. Black women are all but erased.

Now this is not the only portrayal of rape on the show. Two cylon detainnees, Gina Six and Athena, were both vitims of rape. Gina Six’s story (in episodes "Pegasus" "Resurrection Ship") is an incredibly sad portrayal of how some victims cannot cope with the aftermath; although it is worth noting that Gina Six is dealing with alot more than just sexual assault. Ultimately, she murders Admiral Cain, the woman who is ultimately responsible for her rape and torture, as she is the commanding officer. And it is later reealed Admiral Cain and Gina Six were lovers (Razor), which is another bag of worms, as they are only lesbian or homosexual couple depicted o nthe show thus far (unless something happens in 4.0). Ultimately, she takes her life with an atomic explosion, really driving home how scarring violence can be.

Athena is Asian, a cylon, and another detainnee. She is raped by a white officer, but he is stopped by two white men who care deeply for Athena ("Pegasus" extended version). These men are almost executed for their actions because they accidently killed the officer-rapist in the process of stopping him. Ultimately, they are freed, but during their arrest and imprisonment, they are beaten by other soldiers and informed that "a cylon can’t be raped."

Cylons are not considered human, even though they seem virtually identical to us. The two majot points of departure I can think of are differences in blood structure and the ability to re-incarnate into the same body. Even acknowledging that cylons are not "human," I find it impossible to argue that they are not sentient. Those from the battlestar would inform me that they are computers, robots, but anything that has the same range of emotion as a human being, as the cylons do, certainly is worthy of my consideration and respect. And definitely should not be raped.

But, I want to get back to the question of race. Why is the only time that a woman stops a rape, she is attacking a black man? Especially given that this cylon-man’s only role in the show has been as this doctor-rapist. Why is a vengeful rape victim murdering a woman? I don’t dispute Cain’s responsibility, but why did the writers decide this should be the revenge scene? Why is the victim of color not shown overtaking her rapist (as Starbuck is) or enacting revenge (as Gina Six does)?

Food for thought. I love that show tackles the issue of rape, but I don’t think it’s always as racially conscious as it could be.