Starship Troopers vs. The Brain Sucking Vagina

Starship Troopers[i] a film by Paul Verhoeven was released in 1997 and was loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel of the same title. There are many similarities and dissimilarities between the film and novel, and while many people criticize the modern film adaptation,[ii] the subject of this blog lies in an examination of the film, not the novel.

The film is a political satire on our country’s growing militarism and the loss of individual rights, which occur during times of war. Although filmed almost a decade ago many of the issues underlying the film resonate today. The initial criticism of this film did not grasp that it was parodying the fascist philosophy and utopian society depicted in the film, not condoning it. Starship Troopers is a film made in reaction against such a possible world. For this reason, the film depicts its characters as beautiful, yet almost mindless, obsessed with following orders. While early criticism often overlooked these details, later criticism also ignores some other interesting moments that allow for further discussion and analysis of this satiric film. There are moments in the film that create a commentary about the human race and specifically, women.

The following clip depicts the moment in the film when humans decide to launch a war against the alien bugs.

It is interesting to note a few things about this clip. To begin, the main characters discover that an alien meteor destroyed their home city of Buenos Aires. This ‘news’ appears on a large screen controlled by the Federal Network. In this clip the Fed Net is depicted numerous times and is not only the government, the source of information, or entertainment, but it also functions as a teaching tool where viewers can choose to learn more, but it is only what the Fed Net wishes to show them. The Fed Net provides these people with all of their knowledge and feeds them whatever point of view they feel is necessary to sustain their agenda.

Patriarchal history/science/theology/philosophy has worked in much the same way. Each field tells whatever is necessary in order to perpetuate the common held belief that man is superior to all other races: women, blacks, and other ‘primitive’ societies. Gerda Lerner observes, “[u]ntil the recent past, [...] historians have been men, and what they have recorded is what men have done and experienced and found significant” (4).[iii] In Nancy Tuana’s The Less Noble Sex[iv] she explains various ‘scientific’ studies which sought to associate the size and weight of a brain to the amount of intelligence possessed by the specific individual. Craniology’s popularity was due to the fact that its results could “be easily manipulated [.... Thus, craniology] was a popular method of justifying slavery. It was also used to combat the growing women’s rights movement” (68) of the nineteenth century. Tuana provides numerous examples that show how because these male scientists had preconceived notions about the results they ‘should’ obtain from these experiments, they were not at all hesitant to alter the facts or their explanations of the results in order to mold them to fit their ideas. While craniology is one example that shows how science is not always as objective as it is supposed to be, many feminist writers have begun to uncover much of the ‘history’ that has been altered or erased.

The second important quality of this clip lies after a propagandistic spread of the destruction in Buenos Aires, when the Fed Net depicts the Federal Council meeting in Geneva led by Sky Marshall Dienes. His romantic speech is indicative of the recruitment efforts of past militaristic movements aimed at falsely persuading people to join up and do their duty for the country. However, what is most telling is when Dienes states that this war effort is to “ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always.” He does not discuss the need for defense against further meteor attacks, or even explains how, if at all, the arachnids sent this meteor. The only thing that is important is domination, even of a race on the other side of the galaxy. The reason why these people loathe these aliens and label them as enemies is because they are different, and their difference is threatening. This creates the urge to destroy and obliterate this ‘other.’ In the film, unexplainable differences, as well as unexpected similarities,[v] led to hatred, misunderstanding, and loathing of the aliens.

The situation with women throughout history is similar. Women often are seen as ‘different’ from men biologically and mentally mainly because of their ability to give birth and to menstruate. Before patriarchy women were associated with everything earthly, with Nature, and later patriarchy vilified women because of fear, as suggested by Nancy Tuana who examines the writings of Otto Weininger. She writes that “Weininger is [...] able to account for what he believed to be the deepest fear of man—the fear of women, who represents ‘unconsciousness, the alluring abyss of annihilation’” (65-6). This fear lies in women’s power to create life. Similarly, in the film the arachnid alien race represent a powerful force which if left unchecked seemingly has the power to annihilate the human race if they so chose. However, the film never establishes that these arachnids ever consciously try to harm humans; however, humans do consciously enter the arachnid environment and seek out the destruction of this alien race.

The beginning of the following clip shows “scientists” studying the bugs, because in order to defeat your enemy you must know them. This clip shows the final moments of the film when the brain bug is captured and later experimented upon. Interestingly, the brain bug looks very similar to a vagina. In addition, while its sides are pierced it is only when the phallic scientific torture device penetrates its mouth/vagina is a large “censored” banner erected before the scene.

Obviously, this scene is significant on many levels. It represents the patriarchal invasion of women’s bodies carried out for centuries by scientists, the government, men under the guise of research/science that is nothing more than torture and a controlling mechanism. In order to understand the mysteries of the female body scientists carried out experiments of torture. For the most part, “the purpose and intent of gynecology was/is not healing in a deep sense but violent enforcement of the sexual caste system” (Daly 227).[vi] “Dr. Charles Meigs [who] was advising his pupils that their study of female organs would enable them to understand and control the very heart, mind, and soul of woman (Daly 227) exemplifies the controlling nature of gynecological studies and a social concept understood since before written history—that the mutilation of female genetalia works as a controlling force. Daly notes that “the recent hysterectomy epidemic in the United States [...] which is a major surgery, [has been described] as ‘a simple solution for everything from backaches to contraception” (238). The list continues with birth control, which takes away control from women and places it in the hands of pharmaceutical companies. There exist issues with birth control that other women writers have criticized. To begin there are major side effects associated with birth control and part of the mystification lies not only in popular culture (commercials and other advertisements), but also with gynecology which Daly argues does not completely inform women of the benefits/risks associated with taking the pills. Inga Muscio writes in her book Cunt that she has “never heard of condoms that make men’s dicks shrivel off their bodies. [She] assert[s] that this is a calibrated reflection of who produces what for whom” (67). Women do not create birth control pills and therefore their side effects are the result of uncaring men hoping to make a profit. The health of women is not foremost in their minds. In addition, advertisements for birth control pills use language to suggest that having a period is cumbersome and annoying, a problem that can be solved, that is, removed and obliterated, just like women’s uteruses in hysterectomies. Now lighter/fewer periods is the message transmitted through the airwaves, just as radioactive as some of the procedures used on women in the past decades.

Mary Daly quotes Barker-Benfield’s study of nineteenth-century gynecologists’ writing: “There is. . . ample evidence that gynecologists saw their knives cutting into women’s generative tract as a form of sexual intercourse” (246). Similarly, the scene in the preceding clip depicts the Brain Bug mouth/vagina violently penetrated by a scientific instrument, a metaphor for the history of female gynecology.

It is a fact that women’s bodies are othered in order to lessen any guilt felt by the patriarchal society who have raped and tortured them. Similarly, in a scene not depicted in these clips, the moment the Brain Bug is captured and pulled out of her cave/womb[vii] a scientist stands erect before the bug and lays his hands on her. Someone from the crowd asks him what the bug is thinking (he has extrasensory perception[viii]) and he replies, “It’s afraid!” In response, the crowed erupts in an uncontrollable roar. These soldiers are unremorseful that they have invaded, killed, captured, tortured, and experimented on these aliens. Instead, they are proud, triumphant, righteous. Their goal is to instill fear, and in this film, they succeed.

In this clip the Brain Bug sucks the brains out of one of the main characters, Zander Barcalow, who previously sneaked a knife to the female character, Carmen Ibanez. She uses the knife to cut off the sucking appendage that comes out of the mouth/vagina of the Brain Bug.

The significance of this clip illustrates the misogyny and fear towards women and their sexuality that literally renders men brainless and sucked dry. History depicts women as unable to possess a mind of their own, or have a mind as superior to that of men. Therefore, sucking a man’s brains out would be fitting. The sucking action of the Brain Bug is similar to the female stereotype of the vamp, a woman bloodthirsty and willing to suck the life out of any man. In addition, a money hungry woman who eventually leaves men high and dry also depicts another similarity between the Brain Bug and female metaphors, in this case, the gold digger.

Right before the Brain Bug sucks out Zander’s brain he tells the bug, “One day someone like me is going to kill you, and your whole fucking race.” He then spits on the bug. The relationship between this giant vagina sucking out a man’s brains and the man swearing to obliterate the race is very similar to the “misogynistic violence” (12)[ix] identified by Jane Caputi. She writes that all women are at risk “by virtue of our femaleness, [...to be] variously beaten, brainwashed, disrespected, objectified, incested, harassed, mutilated, battered, raped, tongue-tied, defamed, enslaved, or systematically murdered by men” (12).

After Zander is dead Carmen is next to have her brains sucked out, but she has a knife and uses it to slice off the bug’s appendage, debilitating her. It is significant that a female cuts and harms the bug because through the centuries women have often been the perpetuators of female genital mutilation as well as other cultural practices aimed at suppressing women while men have remained in the background, inactive, blameless. Mary Daly writes that “among the Bambaras [...] a man who sleeps with a nonexcised woman risks death from her ‘sting’ (clitoris)” (160). The film suggests that the alien’s appendage which sucks the life out of the soldiers is a clitoris, which when erect/sexually aroused will penetrate/pierce the victim. Similar language can describe the action of the penis, which is one of the reasons why women’s clitorises have been excised throughout history. The clitoris made them more masculine, while males undergo circumcision to remove the foreskin, which resembles the female labia. Only in this case, the clitoris sucks in, rather than comes out. Still, it is a threat and only a female character can mutilate it. Nawal El Saadawi writes of female genital mutilation noting with vivid imagery the role of the daya in circumcising young girls as well as being in charge of the process of defloration where a thick and steady stream of blood was expected to flow on the wedding night. She writes about the “[n]umerous [...] nights which [she] spent by the side of a young girl [...] treating a haemorrhage that had resulted from the long dirty finger nail of a daya cutting through the soft tissues during the process of defloration” (29).[x] She criticizes the role women play in perpetuating this tradition of pain passing it down to their daughters. In a previous clip a female teacher cheers as her young pupils stomp on defenseless bugs, a metaphorical representation of the daya in today’s educational system, perpetuating stereotypes, violence, and militarism.

This final clip is one of the featurettes included in the special edition of the DVD. Those involved behind the scenes provide commentary about the Brain Bug and the reasoning for its resemblance to female genetalia.

When these male producers discuss the Brain Bug they refer to it as a “he.” One calls the alien, “The evil emperor of the bug world” while another refers to it as the “king.” The fact that this male alien has female genetalia for a mouth is interesting and explained at the beginning of this clip by Phil Tippett who says that the director was “insistent that it be offensive to everybody. Its mouth, or whatever it was, was supposed to look like something... Paul would say, ‘Perhaps it should look like a vagina; perhaps it should look like an anus, but I don’t know.’” The director wanted to make the alien look disgusting and offensive, and what came to mind was a vagina or an anus. These are interesting binaries, especially when the vagina is chosen over the anus. Therefore, while the anus excretes shit from the body, the vagina is where life begins, and the most disgusting and offensive of the two is the vagina! The implications of this are extremely interesting, but they are not new. Current society sees female bodies, vaginas, menstruation as dirty and unclean phenomena. Gone is the time when women and their bodies were sacred.

The crew working on this film also immediately associates the Brain Bug as a male because it can think and it is the ruler of the aliens. However, the need to make the bug more disgusting called for the use of a vagina. It is virtually impossible for me to imagine the Brain Bug being considered disgusting if a giant, leaking penis had been used instead. On the contrary, throughout the film the soldiers stand at attention (giant penises) and use their huge guns (giant penises) to kill, and their medical instruments (giant penises) to poke, prod, and rape the Brain Bug in one of the final scenes. At the end of the film it is suggested that the troopers will defeat the alien race, because they are recruiting more soldiers (more potential giant penises).

Part of feminism’s goal is to reinstate the importance of nature and all things organic, which in this film is another disgusting aspect of the Brain Bug. The designers thought that making the Brain Bug seem organic, by adding a rippling movement to its soft body in order to simulate the thought process, would create a more disgusting creature. Why exactly this would be disgusting is not immediately clear to me. Yet, women’s bodies are often discussed in terms of softness while men’s bodies optimally should be hard and muscular. However, the turn away from organic life towards a more mechanized one is clear in the film, but it is also clearly present in the philosophy of those working on the film. This film is supposed to be parodying today’s society, but it seems that those involved are not aware of the many levels of societal thought that have found its way into the film and buried itself there.

These filmmakers are portraying deeply embedded societal concepts about women and their bodies. Towards the end of this clip, the actor playing Zander remarks, “In a word—disgusting” and then the camera shifts to the Brain Bug’s mouth/vagina oozing with slime. Will such an image ever be beautiful/powerful/sacred/mysterious ever again?

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[i] Starship Troopers. Dir. Paul Verhoeven. Perf. Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, and Neil Patrick Harris. DVD. Tristar and Touchstone Pictures. 1997.

[ii] I make these generalizations based on my visits to numerous sites where people are posting comments about this film. The links and forums at the following sites will provide further information on this film.

“Starship Troopers.” Wikipedia. 11 Nov. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_troopers>.

“Starship Troopers.” Internet Movie Database. 11 Nov. 2006 <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/>.

[iii] Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford U P, 1986.

[iv] Tuana, Nancy. The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman’s Nature. Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1993.

[v] The characters learn that the alien bugs have a super bug, a Brain Bug that thinks. The ability to think is often what marks us as humans. It is also a linear marker used by society to place humans high up on the hierarchy of living beings, the Great Chain of Being. As mentioned previously, craniology tried to affirm the notion that white men’s brains are the largest, therefore securing the top place in the hierarchy, justifying their control and exploitation of all other living things that do not think. The Brain Bug thinks just like a human does, and one character exclaims, “Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!” Indeed, a thinking bug, a ‘primitive’ human, or a woman could never have the same mental capacities as a man. History reveals numerous attempts to perpetuate that myth/stereotype.

[vi] Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston, Beacon P, 1990.

[vii] Right before this scene the main character arrives to save Carmen from the bugs. The soldiers have penetrated the cave and have brought with them a bomb. He threatens the Brain Bug with it who shrinks back in fear. The introduction of the bomb/atomic power into the caves/feminine power is another metaphor for our present society.

[viii] The fact that this dildo-like character could have extrasensory perception, sensitivity to feeling/thought/emotion/other living beings, seems quite comical. Usually, women experience sensitivity to their surrounding and their own bodies during menstruation, something that the ingestion of hormone pills will eventually obliterate.

[ix] Caputi, Jane. Gossips, Gorgons & Crones: The Fates of the Earth. Santa Fe: Bear, 1993.

[x] El Saadawi, Nawal. The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. Trans. Dr. Sherif Hetata. London: Zed, 2001.