Orphan Black and Radicalizing White Femininity for the Revolution

Abstract

HE TELEVISION SERIES ORPHAN BLACK (2013-17) PREMIERED IN Canada and the United States in March 2013 (airing on Space and BBC America, respectively). Written and developed by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, the series features Tatiana Maslany playing several characters who learn they are clones and wage war against corporate entities that patented their DNA. Focusing on human genetic identicals (or clones), Orphan Black resides soundly in the science fiction genre. However, like most compelling fiction, the familiar pervades the series, as the women find their fight for bodily autonomy complicated by economic disparities, police corruption, and corporate rights superseding human rights. Orphan Black condemns such injustices and provides a model for resistance with everyday people leading the charge. More specifically, by featuring (white) women as revolutionary leaders infiltrating powerful institutions and demanding more ethical scientific and corporate practices, the series' creative team exposes restrictive gender-and class-based politics and calls into question who has access to influential political and cultural spaces. Yet, just as Orphan Black questions structural inequities and seemingly embraces a feminist future, the series also engages in politics of exclusion by minimizing the role of women of color and women of the Global South in feminist movements. While the series does not deliberately consider the effects of exclusionary racial politics, the clones' successful resistance depends upon Aimee Carrillo Rowe and Samantha Lindsey's call for "radicalizing white femininity" and white women reckoning with their role in sustaining patriarchal, capitalistic culture (303). In mirroring social issues and inequalities,