Episode Review: “The Weaker Sex”
Original Airdate: 5/3/95
Review Rating: 9/10

The Sliders arrive on a world where men are treated as second class citizens while women rule.

After a rough landing the Sliders come to a pretzel stand and do a little “taste testing” to see if they’re really home. The salesman asks them to hold it down because President Clinton is about to address the nation on TV. Remember time is the same in all parallel worlds and the year is 1995. Since Clinton is president it increases the odds they’ve made it home. However the Sliders soon discover the president is not Bill Clinton, but his wife Hillary Clinton.

Occasionally science fiction can come true, yet this Sliders episode is almost uncanny. In 2007 nearly 12 years after this episode aired Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President. I’ll point out some more parallel scenarios from what has happened on our own earth, but let’s get back to the matter at hand.

The Catholic Pope is a woman, while men are the swimsuit models on fashion magazines. The Sliders are low on money so they need to find a job desperately. Wade soon lands a job with Anita Ross’s campaign as mayor and Quinn is hired as well. Rembrandt picks up some money from his singing while Professor Arturo finds himself out of a job. However Arturo soon gets together with the men of this world and before he knows it he’s talked into a corner. He’s been chosen by the men to be a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. Quinn soon quits the Ross campaign because of the political mudslinging against his buddy Arturo. Rembrandt is soon taken in by a so called “record promoter” who is none other than a complete phony.

I feel this is a groundwork episode for Sliders. On our world men have dominated the scene for years, yet in this one women have the upper hand and dominate over men. Wade explains that women took over hundreds of years ago because they were sick of men starting wars and killing themselves. Strangely enough during the time our own Hillary Clinton announced her presidency in 2007, a series of wars were raging in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were sparked by the current male President.

In 1972 Senator Edmund Muskie wept after a difficult question and it cost him the candidacy. Arturo’s consciousness has driven him to do the same during a debate to throw his campaign, deliberately. Oddly enough, our Hillary wept because of a rigorous campaign during her 2008 run for the democrat nomination. Sure enough the “Muskie” incident was brought to the public’s attention by political analysts across the board. Strangely enough it helped Arturo and even our own Hillary to a certain degree.

This episode is by far one of the most interesting and powerful Sliders episodes from the first season. Years later after this episode aired, science fiction met with current events and history was made. It is yet to be seen whether or not women will become first class citizens over men. Nevertheless, it’s apparent women have greater control in political and social life than they did in the early 20th century.

Although Professor Arturo pulled a damning stunt he waits in anticipation for the election results. The slide to the next world soon awaits the Sliders and Arturo has to decide, to stay or slide. He ponders whether or not he has won an election against the greater sex … the woman.

Memorable Quotes:

Arturo: “How can I put it? I feel exhilarated. I feel like Martin Luther King must have felt on the march of Selma.”
Quinn: “You cannot be serious about continuing the campaign. You made you’re point, but come on!”
Arturo: “We have 23% of the electorate. Tracking says we can only go up. Look, there are young boys on this world, young men who can never dream of heading a company or being an astronaut, or even playing major league baseball. How could I let them down?”
Quinn: “If you win this election, you’re gonna stay here, aren’t you?”

Science fiction can occasionally become reality, and in the first season of Sliders worlds vary from a Soviet Union ruling America to a ‘last days’ scenario. Of the season one “what if’s”, I believe that a men’s rights movement may have one of the best opportunities to become reality.

Women’s rights have progressed rapidly since the early 20th century. Only until 1920, were women given the right to vote under the 19th Amendment. Today, single women are becoming the head of the household, and they are climbing to the top of the political and social ladder. The world has seen women transform from housemaid to head business employee. Never before have women been given so much power and position in the United States. Recent studies show that women are attending college more than men, and girls are even ‘smarter’ than boys in grade school. What would stop a transfer of power from men to women? Sliders even portrays Hillary Clinton as president in “The Weaker Sex”. The writers apparently found it strange enough to become sci-fi material, but to our amazement we now see the real Hillary Clinton campaigning for president in 2008. Such things would have been unheard of a century ago. Could the tide be turning before our very eyes? Is it possible for women to have supreme power over men, contrary to the times before the 21th century?

Of the season one storylines listed below, what situations do you feel have the greatest potential to become science fiction reality?:

- The Soviet Union will rule over America
- A U.S. hippie generation will fight Australia
- A British States of America will be developed
- A ‘last days’ asteroid scenario will frighten the world
- A men’s rights movement will occur
- Being smart will be the equivalent of a being a sports superstar
- The lottery will become a form of population control