Buffy and Lara See Female Sci-fi Viewers Outnumber Males

(scifi image from Dooffy World)

Female science fiction fans in UK now outnumber men for the first time - at 51 per cent.
The rise in "girl geeks" could be attributed to the proliferation of heroines such as Buffy, Lara Croft and Xena.
Adam Roberts, a science-fiction author and a professor in English at Royal Holloway, London University, said fantasy television programmes and films were becoming more character-led. "Programmes are moving away from the emphasis on machines and zombies in the 1960s," he said. "More women are tuning in to see the relationships develop between wittily-written, complex central characters they can identify with. A film like The Matrix attracted female viewers partly because it was about complicated concepts of life and death. It also had Keanu Reeves running around in leather, which helped."
There has also been an increase in positive female role models, whereas in Star Trek, all the women were either aliens or wore short skirts.