The Women of Orphan Black: Faces of the Feminist Spectrum

Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany plays a host of the show's main characters, all clones of an illegal experiment. The mighty heroines save one another & destroy the patriarchy while subverting gender expectations. The feminist clones are Sarah, who clashes with her radical feminist foster-mother; Alison, the quintessential post-feminist housewife; Cosima, a 2nd-wave feminist lesbian; Beth, a 3rd-wave feminist bogged down by addiction; & M.K., a fourth-wave feminist who tackles the hardships of disability through the Internet. The book explores the women's war against corporate power & how it relates to the science & ethics surrounding cloning.

Introduction

Orphan Black premiered on March 30, 2013, & its first showing had a decent turnout for the BBC with 927,000 viewers. The breakout quality came from those early watchers, who discussed the show constantly. Social media swelled with offerings from #CloneClub, memes, art, & endless discussions as the heroines broke all of television’s boundaries. “As a result, Black’s season finale had more tweets than bigger shows such as Homeland, Nashville, & The Good Wife had in any week in 2013” (Ross, “Attack of the Clones” 27).

While all this pushes the boundaries of filmmaking, the show is also striking for its gender roles. Sarah & her clone sisters are the heroines, saving each other but almost never rescued singly by a man. In fact, the men are bumblers (Donnie), objectified eye candy (Paul), gentle supporters (Felix), laughably impotent bullies (Vic), oblivious nerds (Scott), terminally glitching constructs (the Castors) or even babysitters to be used or dropped as needed (Cal). Matriarchs & patriarchs alike are villains, which the clone team take down one by one.

With all this going on, the series’ gender roles deserve close examination. The clones not only offer a spectrum of female archetypes but also correspond with historic types of feminism.