Post-Apocalyptic Patriarchy

<p> Twenty-first century American television series such as <I>Revolution</I> <I>Falling Skies</I> <I>The Last Ship</I> and <I>The Walking Dead</I> have depicted a variety of doomsday scenarios--nuclear cataclysm rogue artificial intelligence pandemic alien invasion or zombie uprising. These scenarios speak to longstanding societal anxieties and contemporary calamities like 9/11 or the avian flu epidemic.</p><p> Questions about post-apocalyptic television abound: whose voices are represented? What tomorrows are they most afraid of? What does this tell us about the world we live in today? The author analyzes these speculative futures in terms of gender race and sexuality revealing the fears and ambitions of a patriarchy in flux as exemplified by the return to a mythical American frontier where the white male hero fights for survival protects his family and crafts a new world order based on the old.</p>