Farscape was “Woke” Before Anyone Whined about “Wokeness”

Embedded Video, text transcript underneath.

Farscape Continues has a troll, which is kind of a flattery for a channel and Web site. The troll pops up when I mention that it would be krell to have a return of Farscape. His repeated complaint, and I assume for obvious reasons that he’s a he, is that he loves Farscape as it is and we don’t want a return because the Age of Wokeness will ruin Farscape just like they ruined Star Wars and Star Trek.

After over a cycle of this guy’s whining, I decided to look up what the hezmanna he’s moaning about. Farscape is so good that it ruined other science fiction for me, so I haven’t watched Star Trek since Deep Space 9 and I haven’t wanted Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks. Reading what people wrote online whining about “wokeness,” it seems obvious that the accusation of “wokeness” is mostly a grievance that a show has strong women and men who feel emotions, and a bit thrown in about “oh my god there are non-white people.”

Well, if strong women, emotional men, and a willingness to talk about diversity and inclusion is the sign of “wokeness,” then Farscape was “woke” before anyone whined about “wokeness.”

Exhibit A: John Crichton
He’s an astronaut, but he’s no John Wayne or brooding superhero. If my troll and other whiners don’t like emotional men, why on earth would they like Crichton and Farscape? He is an everyman, deeply caring, shows a lot of emotion, is not ashamed of appearing vulnerable.
< bigger bomb clip >
And he is probably what the whiners mean by a “beta male” because
< afraid of you clip >

Exhibit B: Officer Aeryn Sun
The anti-woke whiners seem to really dislike alpha women, so they should frelling hate Aeryn and Farscape. Aeryn, interestingly, initially fits the traditional male hero stereotype: emotionless and incapable of sympathy

Aeryn grows as a person by learning how to be both strong and caring, willing to fight and willing to be compassionate. And yeah, Aeryn is an alpha if there ever was one.
< you will never order me again clip >

The Relationship
If you look at Crichton and Aeryn’s relationship, it is pretty “woke” too. The show spends several episodes showing how Crichton’s traditional attitudes about marriage are rather silly. Once they finally get over their respective fears and enter into a full relationship, Aeryn and Crichton to is as equal people and the show deliberately smashes the traditional gender roles.
< we protect each other >
A strong man is able to accept a woman as an equal, take that from a man who’s been happily married for 19 years.

Gender Roles
And this dynamic of caring men, strong women, and gender equality is constant throughout Farscape. D’Argo the warrior loses the tough guy act and gets in touch with his feelings. He is willing to cry in front of others.
< D’Argo “why is that not enough” clip >
Rygel is, well, Rygel, but even his Supreme Eminence shows compassion and vulnerability. < forgiveness clip > Heck, Crais, the most stereotypically male character on the show, shows emotion. Even Scorpius is shown to have sentimentality. He cries for the mother he never knew.

If strong women is a “woke” thing, then Farscape is so “woke.” Not just Aeryn. Zhaan is a priest, not a feminized priestess, a mother figure in some respects, but she is a strong leader. < you will obey me in this clip > Chiana is young but no one can doubt her strength and refusal to be pushed around. Jool whines a lot < mud clip > but she too grows into a strong woman character Sikozu, as I argued in an earlier video, was a pre-“woke””woke” critique of the sci-fi tech nerds, probably some of the same nerds now whining about “wokeness” in sci-fi.

Diversity
And if showing ethnic diversity is being “woke” then here too Farscape is so “woke.” We have 12 characters who reside on Moya at some point in the original series and they are of 12 different species. The white human male, Crichton, is the weakest of the lot. < Pilot insulting Crichton clip >

The bastion of racial supremacy, the Peacekeepers, are clearly shown to be the bigoted villains that they are. We see Aeryn and Crais reject that way of racist thinking in which they were raised. Oh my god, they must be “woke.”

Plus, Farscape showed a woman who looks like a man, men pretending to be women. Clearly not Rygel’s best look, but it kinda worked for Crichton. Even hints of gayness. < D’argo clip > and that homosexuality is no big deal < sex clip >

I could go on, because Farscape is chock full of the enlightened attitudes that some people are now condemning as “wokeness.” And yet, Farscape has a well-deserved reputation for being edgy and creative, not to mention the best science fiction TV show of all time. Maybe being “woke” isn’t so bad.