Best. Starship Captain. Ever.

[note: a much shorter version of this essay is in this issue of Bitch Magazine]
She’s tough. She’s sexy. She even uses power tools. She’s Futurama’s Turanga Leela (aka “Leela”), and despite being a one-eyed cartoon mutant, she’s one of the most positive representations of women anywhere on television.
Unlike Wonder Woman, the feminist icon of the ‘70s, Leela has no super powers. As a mutant, she grew up in an orphanarium, bullied and rejected because of having only one eye. As an adult, she’s frustrated and dissatisfied with her love life: her standards are just “too high.” But far from making her seem less sympathetic, her weaknesses and mistakes make her character all the more, well, three-dimensional.
Still, Leela is a force to be reckoned with. As captain of the Planet Express Ship, she’s by far the most competent character on the show – and she knows it. Usually, Leela ends up saving Fry’s (ostensibly the main character’s) ass, instead of the other way around. She’s a master of Arcturan Kung Fu, despite having trained under the sexist Master Phnog (to quote Phnog: “You don’t have the will of the warrior. You have the will of the housewife, or at best, the schoolmarm”). When all of Earth’s men were drafted into Capt. Zapp Brannigan’s army, she dressed in drag and physically surpassed all the other, male, recruits.
But don’t get the wrong idea – Leela isn’t just a heartless fighting machine. As an animal rights activist, she’s protested her own employer’s irresponsible tanker route past an endangered penguin preserve on Pluto and flown dangerous missions to save innocent animals.
Leela isn’t the only female character on Futurama. Amy Wong, an uber-wealthy Asian-Martian, stands in for traditional notions of femininity. And as such, Amy is nearly always criticizing Leela: “you don’t really have the thighs for a miniskirt,” or “ooooh, cute boots; do those come in girls’ sizes?” Little wonder that in every what-if episode, Leela kills Amy.
But what’s really important about Leela is that in a media culture where “feminist” equals “unattractive” and confidence, at least in a woman, equals bitchiness, Leela is portrayed as strong, self-confident and desirable: the show’s main character, Fry, is desperately in love with her, and Zapp Brannigan (whom Leela once pity-fucked, to her everlasting regret) is obsessed with her.
It’s no wonder the feminist press hasn’t taken notice of Leela. The show’s target audience is 18- to 34-year-old men, and nerdy men at that – scripts regularly incorporate quantum mechanics, string theory and old Star Trek episodes. Though honestly, Groening’s female characters in “The Simpsons” are also strong, capable and intellegent, so he’s got some feminist cred already. But by portraying such an overtly feminist character in a show aimed at men, Simpsons creator Matt Groening has boldly gone where noone has gone before. Futurama airs on Comedy Central at 9:00 p.m. CST. Go check it out, seriously.