Gender and Race issues in Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049

Occasionally, I am reminded of how many friends I’ve lost because I criticized the media they love. Then again, we weren’t all that close anyway. If you’re part of the Blade Runner cult, you might want to stop.

Or not, keep reading and leave me an insult, so I can block you and save us both some headaches.

Let me start with women in the Blade Runner universe.

Well, most of them are replicants. Between Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, we have exactly ONE female character with dialogue who is an actual human being. The problem with making almost ALL female characters replicants is that the theme of the movie is about the humanity of replicants. And the movie never really gives you an answer about it. It is kind of the point of the movie, I got it. But when you make nearly every female character a “robot” with questionable humanity, the movie is basically treating females as “sub human.” Granted, there aren’t a lot of “humans” in Blade Runner especially if you agree with the theory that Deckard is a replicant. Still, Male characters have diversity, female characters do not (we see the same thing in the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels).

Let’s start with the original Blade Runner.

We have 3 female characters:

• Rachael: Replicant, damsel in distress. She was manipulated into believing she’s human for some sick experiment. She was set up to be discovered by the replicant killer and basically faces a death sentence. Her male human master then abandoned her to fend for herself. She visited her potential executioner’s home to prove to him that she’s actually indeed human. She was sexually assaulted by her potential executioner, but because the scene comes with some slow Jazz we all know it’s supposed to be romantic and she secretly wanted it. She was then presented to the male protagonist as the “trophy” at the end of the story.
• Pris: Replicant, sex toy. She followed her lover on a dangerous trip, and died. Her boyfriend had the vision, she came along for the ride. We know next to nothing about her other than her relationship with the male antagonist (being his girlfriend).
• Zhora: Replicant, sex toy. She was brutally assaulted and killed. We know absolutely nothing about her. She’s put there to be killed.

And…… that’s it! (unless you count Geisha on the big screen as a female character).

All of these women are there as props to push the plot for male characters: Deckard and Roy.

Blade Runner did not pass the Bechdel test, the 3 female characters never met each other on screen let alone had conversations.

And… 35 years later (OMG is it really that long?) we have Blade Runner 2049.

We have slightly more female characters this time, a whopping 6 of them:

• Luv: Replicant, femme fatale, obeys her male master’s orders without any hesitation. She makes no personal decisions, she has no agency. She cries a lot, telling us she has emotion. But she never really does anything because of it.
• Joi: Holographic VR AI, sex toy. She exists exclusively for the happiness of her male master. She was designed for the male character. Everything she does, she does it because she’s programmed to love K. She has no agency.
• Lieutenant Joshi: Human female. Police officer. Run of the mill boss lady. I’m glad to see a female character in a position of authority. Although her role in the entire plot is pretty minor.
• Dr. Ana Stelline: Replicant/Human (depending how you define human, and/or if you believe Deckard is a replicant) Innocent prisoner. She’s the MacGuffin of the plot. The hidden treasure, the target or pursue, the center of the struggle and the final prize for the male characters.
• Mariette: Replicant, she is a flash “stand-in” for Male protagonists’ VR love interests. This quite literally makes her an “exchangeable, objectified” female body for pleasure. She could very well be a fucking blow-up doll, and I’m sure K and Joi would make it work somehow! You really can’t get more misogynist than this. She then saved the male protagonist at the crucial moment so the male protagonist can push the plot, without her any further involvement.
• Freysa: Replicant, she reveals the big secret to the male protagonist not knowing she had revealed the big secret.

So 6 female characters, only ONE minor character has some agency and is not objectified in some way. Everyone else is either a toy (VR and real), a prize or a killing machine.

Blade Runner 2046 passed the Bechdel test with Luv and Joshi having a conversation about the replicant child (which we later know is a woman).

At the end of the day, both movies are about their male protagonist and antagonist. Blade Runner was about the struggle between Deckard and Roy; Blade Runner 2049 is about K’s journey of self-discovery.

Now let’s talk about Race.

The real Los Angeles is extremely diverse. The Blade Runner Los Angeles seems more exotic. Of course, by exotic I mean exotic Japanese/Chinese characters, the street vendor selling “exotic” Asian food, and the exotic Geisha images the movie loves to parade around every 5 minutes. It seems you should have slightly more minorities considering how “exotic” the place looks.

Nope.

The original Blade Runner has two minority characters (out of 18 named casts): Gaff (Latino) and Hannibal Chew (Chinese). Everybody else is white. There’s not a single black dude in this movie that is set in Los Angeles.

Blade Runner 2049 has five minority characters (out of 20 named casts): Sapper Morton (Filipino/white), Joi (Latina), Mister Cotton (Black), Detective Nandez (Black), Dr. Badger (Black), and Gaff (Latino).

minority roles has increased from 11% to 25%! Improvement indeed!!! Except Los Angeles 2010 census results find Latinos to be about half (47–49%) of city’s population, plus about 10% Black people, 10% Asian people, if we are talking about actually representing Los Angeles, we should have more minorities in this movie than white characters.

Unless future United States had went through some kind of racial cleansing the movie failed to mention which reduced the minority population.

But, who cares about population demographics! LOL, Hollywood doesn’t see color. Besides, you only need to cite population demographics when you argue for white characters, not against it! That would be absurd. (Do you know how many times people cited British population demographics to argue there shouldn’t be that many minorities in Harry Potter movies? 1 Asian girl, 1 black kid and two Indian girls are more than enough!)

And let’s take a look at these minority characters:

• Gaff: in Blade Runner, he was Deckard’s driver and origami enthusiast. Has zero impact on the plot (unless you count the symbolism of origami unicorn as an “impact” of this character to the plot). In Blade Runner 2049, he was a senior home resident who talks to K about nothing, still loves origami. Again, zero impact to the plot.
• Hannibal Chew: eye manufacturer, being bullied and threatened by the white antagonist for information
• Sapper Morton: protein farmer, replicant in hiding, killed by the white protagonist in the first 20 minutes of the movie.
• Joi: VR girlfriend, exists for the pleasure of white protagonist.
• Mister Cotton: Shady and evil orphanage owner who exploits child labor, beat up by the white protagonist for information.
• Detective Nandez: inconsequential minor character with two lines and is mean to the white protagonist and we never see him again.
• Dr. Badger: street vendor, minor criminal.

See the pattern here? with the sole exception of Gaff, none of the minority characters are in the position of power. They’re either completely irrelevant to the plot, or exist to give a certain piece of information and never to be seen again, or exist exclusively for the white protagonist.

Of course, you could say, Luv (white female) exists exclusively for antagonist Wallace. But white characters have diversity and agency, minority characters do not, they’re pigeonholed into their racial stereotype (black criminal, Latina sexy doll) and serve the purpose (give information, devoted to protagonist) for the white protagonist to advance the plot, and either died or never to be seen again. White characters have history, have emotion, have a story arc. most minority characters are one off characters with zero growth. They either don’t have a past (Joi) or we don’t know about their past. Their character, their PERSON, does not matter to the plot.

At the end of the day, Blade Runner is a white men’s universe. It’s written by white men for white men. Contemplating white men problems nobody really matters except white men.

I surely wish if there’s a Blade Runner 2080 or something in 30 years, things would be different.