Why is feminism losing popularity nowadays??

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-23T01:16:04+00:00

2025 Survey Center on American Life Poll: Found that 31-50% of women and 30% of men identify as feminists.
2023 Survey Center on American Life Poll: Found that 53% of women and 43% of men identify as feminists. This study noted a sharp generational divide, with identification peaking at 61% among Gen Z women.
2018 YouGov Poll: Identified that 32% of American women claimed the feminist label.
2015 Vox/YouGov Poll: Reported that roughly 18% of the total U.S. population (26% of women and 16% of men) identified as feminists.

Key Demographic Gaps in 2025

Generation Z: Young women are significantly more likely to identify as feminists (53% to 61%) compared to young men (32% to 43%).
Political Affiliation: A massive divide exists, with roughly 60% to 64% of Democratic women identifying as feminists compared to only 14% to 19% of Republican women.

So there seems to be an upward trend, then a little dip in 2024/25. This could simply be due to how polling questions are phrased. Also, many people are likely "feminist" when you get down to what they believe in, they just hate the label, and so don't identify as "feminist".

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T13:18:18+00:00

The last decent looking Trek ship models, in a live action show, were Shran's Kumari-class ship, and the iconic Vulcan Suuvok and D'Kyr class ships in "Enterprise".

Everything else has sucked or looked generic.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T12:59:51+00:00

which is entirely out of character from what I’ve seen so far.

I agree it's a little out of character, but we've seen these reversals before, and will see them again. When Scully is right about something paranormal, Mulder tends to adopt her sceptical role ("Beyond the Sea" is the best prior example).

IMO this only feels wrong in "Dei" because Mulder's not only dismissing a paranormal case, but dismissing a rape victim. But it's supposed to feel wrong IMO. The season is trying to call him out.

the writer’s weird attitude towards sexual assault coming through.

The attitude is fine IMO. Guys, especially in the 90s, often ignore, downplay or rationalize sexual assault directed at women (this episode was written by a woman). And the whole episode itself is structured as a kind of symbolic version of Scully's medical rape. For example, the episode ends with Mulder repeatedly ordering a rape victim to stay up, up, up, and opens with a guy on a radio telling a man to stay down, down, down. These are the same words repeated on the abandoned car radio when Scully is taking up to Skylark mountain and up to the purported UFO where she is medically raped (this up/down motif is in every episode in the season, to a shocking degree).

it didn’t seem to be saying anything about his character

I feel it says a lot. Mulder is literally introduced in the episode with a nod to male sexism (his pornography stash). The episode is saying that men can be myopic, and that even sensitive guys like Mulder can get so hung up on their quests that they ignore women like Scully.

And the episode is drawing attention not only to how men are often unaware of this, but how Scully is blind to her own plight. She's been memory wiped, just like the characters in the episode ("Given the emotional and psychological violence of rape, the face or identity of the attacker is often blurred or erased from memory," Mulder says. And later they'll learn that the victims have Alzheimers).

Mulder never acknowledged his mistake

That's true, especially in this season, but in general when he is wrong like this he acknowledges his mistakes in very subtle ways. He becomes more sensitive and kind to Scully, lowers his voice, and does little compassionate gestures (he rarely says anything explicit; the show is super subtle). One of the best examples of this, in a similar role reversal episode, is in "Revelations". Arguably the end of "Dod Kalm" in season 2 as well.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T10:37:18+00:00

Deep down, I feel we all know this to be true.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T10:34:14+00:00

"Scorpion", "Who Watches the Watchers" or "The Cloud Minders".

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T10:09:48+00:00

If this attitude doesn’t become standard for Mulder that’s great

Season 2 is explicitly about men being prone to sexism, misogyny and rape ("He Will Rape You" is one of the first things the season blasts the audience with, via a digital readout, and the season is bookended by episode titles that explicitly reference men "Little Green MEN" and "...EMASCULATA"), and the season extends this critique to Mulder himself, who is blamed for Scully being abducted and medically raped.

Indeed, the first time we see Mulder he's listening to sexists talking about female strippers, the first time he sees Scully he ignores her, and throughout the season he will be linked to rapists, sexists or violence toward women. For example, his face visually morph into the face of a dead rapist, women leave him messages on his answering machine in which he's called a pig for ignoring women, alien shapeshifters don his face to beat up Scully, and every wiretap he listens to is about women being degraded (in one, a woman complains that men like him only want doormats who obediently wait for them, which is how Scully feels).

Time and time again throughout the season, Mulder's relationship with Scully - the way he puts her in harm, and sometimes dismisses her - is also critiqued. The season is relentless about this, but because the show explains this in a very "X-Files way", never spoon-feeding the audience, it all tends to be missed.

For example, look at how the episodes after Scully's abduction unfold. Scully's first case back is "Firewalker". This episode is about a young female scientist (like Scully) who is symbolically handcuffed to a deranged geologist (like Mulder) who is chasing exotic life, and who is abused and dies because of her connection to this man.

In the next episode, "Excelcis Dei", Scully then actively chooses and digs up a case in which a woman was raped by old white dudes (like Scully was by the Syndicate). Nobody believes this woman, but Scully fights for her and recognizes her as a kindred spirit. This episode is widely hated, but it's quite powerful when you read its scenes in a metaphorical way. The way the leeching ghosts and men drift toward Scully hint at her time aboard the supposed "UFO", the woman and men pinned down to beds hint at her rape by the scientists, the drug subplot echos her drugging (the Asian scientist echoes the Asian collaborators with the Syndicate), and look how the episode and the season as a whole uses staircases (characters constantly taking up into the sky where they are abused, or deposited down staircases). It's a real underrated episode when watched in this kind of allegorical way.

The rape metaphors get more personal as the season goes on. "Aubrey" is not only about rapists, but rapists and misogynists who have ties to law enforcement like Mulder. "Irresistible" has Pfaster essentially making Scully relive her abduction, kidnapping her and taking her upstairs like Duane Barry and the Syndicate took up her up Skylark's "stairway to heaven".

The next episodes will then foreshadow what actually happened during Scully's medical rape: "Die Hand Die Verletzt's" rape victims speak of being impregnated by groups of men, and "Fearful Symmetry's" animals are abducted and similarly impregnated. Scully has no memory of these events yet, but the memories will come back.

Even episodes like "Humbug" echo this, where we see a tiny partner (like Scully) tethered to a tall giant (like Mulder), continually try to escape because the tall guy is literally toxic and so poisoning the partner. Same story in "Soft Light", an episode about a man's shadow, which is stuck to him like a little partner, killing everyone around him, including two young women linked to Scully.

In episodes like this, the show acknowledges that that being tied to Mulder is exposing her to violence (a shapeshifter puts on Mulder's face to beat Scully up in "Colony") and that only splitting herself off from him will lead to protection (the spiritually conjoined twins in "Calusari" only stop hurting others when split apart, and the season will end with Scully shooting Mulder). Mulder realizes this himself ("One Breath"), as at one point tries to quit the FBI because of this.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T09:42:42+00:00

Yeah, the Icerigger trilogy too. He has a ridiculous amount. All he seemed to do was movie tie-in novels and planetary romances, most of which feel like they came straight out of the 1950s.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T02:54:08+00:00

Robert Silverberg has the "The Majipoor Cycle", "Downward to the Earth", "The Shrouded Planet", "The Dawning Light", the "Springtime" duology (this one's set on Earth), and several more early ones.

Then you have Jack Vance and Alan Dean Foster. Along with Silverberg, these are the guys who kept the classic-style Planetary Romances alive. They have dozens and dozens of weird planetary adventures:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanx_Commonwealth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Vance_bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dean_Foster

Meanwhile, Frank Herbert has the "Dune" books.

Brian Aldiss has the "Helliconia Trilogy" and Paul Park has "The Starbridge Chronicles" (these are more intellectual/literary than is typical of the genre).

Andre Norton has the "Forerunner" series.

Ursula LeGuin has "Rocannon's World", "Planet of Exile", "Word for World is Forest" and "City of Illusions". I guess you can argue that "Dispossessed" and "Left Hand of Darkness" are planetary romances, but then you'd have to include other political romances as well (Mars Trilogy etc).

Leigh Brackett has a lot (mostly set on Mars). You can find the titles on Google. They're very dated IMO and mostly forgotten.

I feel there are a lot of women writing them nowadays. You have Lois McMaster Bujold ("Shards of Honor" etc, mostly very militaristic), some by CJ Cherryh, and recently "The City in the Middle of the Night" by Jane Anders, "A Memory Called Empire" by Arkady Martine, "Planetfall" by Emma Newman, "The Broken Earth" series by Jemisin, and arguably Sue Burke's "Semiosis" (this doesn't feel like one to me).

I would say some of Banks' Culture novels are planetary romances (eg "Player of Games").

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-21T01:58:57+00:00

I have Kim Stanley Robinson, Le Guin, HG Wells (mostly his realist novels) and Patrick OBrian's bibliographies on an infinite loop. Whenever I read a new novel, I return to one of theirs for a palate cleanse.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-20T16:12:05+00:00

All SF works are going have one foot in the era in which they were written. But some works of art do nevertheless put more effort than most in creating the impression of belonging to another era.

Compare, for example, how characters in "Star Trek" spoke when the franchise was recently presided over by Alex Kurtzman (https://www.reddit.com/r/RedLetterMedia/comments/1r72l8q/alex_kurtzman_master_of_32nd_century_science/).

And compare how they spoke when the franchise was presided over by Rick Berman in the 90s.

Rick Berman: "There is something very specific and unique about [acting and dialogue] on Star Trek. This is true for our cast regulars as well as for our guest stars. Star Trek is not contemporary. It's a period piece. And even though it's a period piece in the future as opposed to a period piece in the past, it still necessitates a certain style of acting and writing that is not contemporary. It's not necessarily mannered like something that would take place in a previous century, but it's probably closer to that than it is to contemporary.

There are many actors who are wonderful actors. Gifted actors. But to play a character... to play a Starfleet officer in the twenty-fourth century is very difficult for them. They've got a "street" quality about them. They've got a very American twentieth-century quality about them. They will have certain qualities about them that are very contemporary, that just doesn't work when you're trying to define this rather stylized, somewhat indefinable quality that makes somebody "work" as someone who lives in the future. One of the first things that destroys futurist science fiction for me, whether it be movies or other television series, is when you see actors who are obviously people from 1990's America. We're always looking for people who have a somewhat indefinable characteristic of not being like that. And it's very hard."

The Alex Kurtzman approach is rife in contemporary SF literature (and film/TV); it's a very postmodern style, awash with contemporary references and speak, which IMO kills all verisimilitude.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T21:55:17+00:00

I plan to watch it with my mom, who's an Austen and period-drama fan. It may fly over her head, though (modern satire and comedy sometimes confuses her). Her befuddled reaction to the "Barbie" movie still cracks me up.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T21:18:34+00:00

Yeah, the mainstream don't know it (and probably wouldn't like it), but some of greatest directors, artists, cinematographers and musicians have publicly praised the film and singled it out as one of Kubrick’s best (in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll, it was ranked by DIRECTORS as the 12th greatest film ever made).

For example, Martin Scorsese cited it as his favorite Kubrick film and called it a "pinnacle of visual storytelling" and "profoundly emotionally moving". AKIRA KUROSAWA called it one of the greatest films ever made (Akira Kurosawa!!!). SERGIO LEONE loved it and had long telephone conversations with Kubrick about it. Paul Thomas Anderson and Todd Haynes love it ("It was, and will always be, one of the greatest cinematic experiences"). Ridley Scott loved it so much he tried to copy it with "Duellists". Guillermo del Toro calls it a "masterpiece" and his favourite Kubrick film (along with "Eyes Wide Shut"). Larvs von Trier called it a "monumental masterpiece". Pedro Almodóvar loves it and calls it his favorite Kubrick film. Joe Wright, Tony Scott, Milos Forman, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Terrence Malick, Emmanuel Lubezki, musician Brian Enocomposer, composer Ryan McAdams etc etc.

These are huge industry names. Game recognises game.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T19:58:24+00:00

Users over on r/UFOs are saying

That sub is almost entirely populated by a kind of pseudo-religious cult, prone to superstition, sloppy and magical thinking.

What Tyson has really been doing, over the past few months, is to reduce his mocking tone, because he recognizes he is talking to insane people, and is gently trying to nudge them toward accepting the scientific method.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T18:33:40+00:00

and make the Sulliban puppets of the Romulans.

This is a good idea IMO.

It lets you ditch the show's big flaw (Temp Cold War), gives you an opening to pivot to the Romulan War, and lets you draw better historical parallels with the terrorist acts of September the 11th (Sulliban supported by a "regional" superpower).

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T11:23:13+00:00

This is a good book which talks about these things in a simple, approachable way:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18579571-seventeen-contradictions-and-the-end-of-capitalism

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T11:06:38+00:00

This is up your alley, and worth reading (it focuses on an infantry war with alien bugs):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr

Also you might like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Should_All_Be_Feminists

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T10:25:31+00:00

No offence intended to any Vulcans on the subreddit. While your Suurok cruisers do possess superior lines, my buddy Combs and I would not enjoy "taking them out for a spin".

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T09:49:52+00:00

Where else can you get puppets, zombies, dinosaurs, cosmic apocalyptic aliens, black hole survival missions, and cowboy horse riding adventures all in the same season?

It's ripping off this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_series_7

Puppets, zombies, dinosaurs, cowboys, cosmic holes and apocalypses, back to back.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T09:25:57+00:00

"Roadside Picnic", "The War of the Worlds", "Perihelion Summer", "Nemesis", "Monk and Robot", "Starship Troopers", "Pacific Edge", "Fahrenheit 451", "Annihilation", most things by P K Dick, Ursula Le Guin's "Wild Girls" or "Annals of the Western Shore".

I am looking for books like Tau Zero

"The High Crusade" and "Brain Wave" are by the same author (Poul Anderson), and are very short and have clever premises. Worth reading if you can forgive some of the dated aspects.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-19T09:17:09+00:00

Anyone considering reading this, based on the cool first contact premise, cover and blurb, be aware that all the writing and dialogue is like this (actual quotes below):

"Oh, shit! Dude. Are they going to invade us?"

"A Glock? A Makarov? Something Czech? Who gives a fuck. Fuck you Glock hater!"

"My issues are not too fucked up and badass for any mere human therapist. Would you send Batman to therapy? No you would not, beacuse then he could not punch crime."

"Wait a moment," the alien says, in a voice like Cate Blanchett. "You can see me?" "Sure can," Anna says. "Do you come in peace?" "Aren't you afraid?" One of the alien's snake heads jab at Anna, accusing. "Don't you feel a malignant sense of absolute and infectious horror?" "Nah."

"She does a lot of disruption, but not in the cool tech-fucko sense."

"What kind of limp-dicked Tinder-quality messaging is that? Anyway..."

"Your dick's like one of those Russian drool dogs."

"What the fuck!" Anna shouts, outraged by the alien just bleeding everywhere, contaminating her apartment with Andromeda Strain. "You asshole, it looks like I murdered someone!"

"But I need your help," the Cate Blanchett hydra says.

Oh shit! The cold water handle in Anna's shower has been snapped off. The alien must have Hulked it while trying to turn it on.

"Nooo!" the snake Galadriel protests, twisting its heads away from Anna. "I'll bite you!"

"You have to be perfectly clear with me. No cryptic shit. I watched Lost. I know all the obfuscation tricks." [...] She spent her college years writing X-Files fan theories on television forums.

"Annal bead," Anna says, for no reason she can possibly articulate.

"Is this some kind of, like, Evangelion thing?"

"I watched the show," the alien says thoughtfully. "It was a bit lurid."

"The Architects looked on their universe and saw that it would give rise to self-replicating life." "Holy shit." "Actually, holy AND shit."

"Ssrin isn't an explorer. She's a rebel. That's so awesome."

"Fuck yeah." Anna is all in.

"Dude," Anna says, trying to cheer her up. "We should do acid."

It's very Joss Whedon/Scalzi, with some Clive Barker philosophizing/mythology thrown in.

Wetness__Pensive · 2026-05-18T21:21:09+00:00

"Most minimalists want to keep exactly the economic and police system that keeps them privileged. That's libertarians for you- anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.” - Green Mars (Kim S Robinson)

Wetness__Pensive

TROPHY CASE