Women in space: the Blue Origin mission and 'glossy feminism'

Blue Origin is preparing to launch a historic mission: this spring, the first all-female crew in decades will embark on a suborbital flight. Since the first female spaceflight in 1963, there have been no other such missions.

But behind the festive wrapping - featuring pop star Katy Perry, TV presenter Gayle King, former NASA employee Aisha Bowe, human rights activist Amanda Nguyen and journalist Lauren Sanchez - lies a much more complex and controversial story.

The organisers are banking on spectacular symbolism. Perry, for example, hopes to inspire her daughter to "reach for the stars - literally and figuratively."

But will the flight of this team really send an important feminist message? Or are we once again witnessing a carefully choreographed spectacle where successful women are presented as the exception rather than the norm? These are the questions researcher Yasmin Chana asks in an article for The Conversation.

Research into the memoirs of female astronauts shows: stories of success in science and space are often created from an unrealistic bar. Astronaut Kathryn Coleman writes in her memoir that she had to wear a man's spacesuit and simply "put it on and wore it like it was tailored to her." She emphasises: she always had to be "the exception", constantly fighting systemic barriers - and winning.

The first African-American woman in space was Mae Jemison. Her book, too, is full of a sense of "purpose." "I always knew I would end up here," she says, describing the moment she looked down at Earth from orbit. These stories are inspiring but also alienating. There's little room in them for the average girl who dreams of stardom - without connections, privilege or media fame.

Another example is Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander. In her memoir, she writes candidly about the pressure: "The female pilots who would come after me expected me to do everything perfectly." Any mistake could have been a reason to devalue the efforts of all women in the profession.

And now there's flying with Katy Perry and other celebrities. Of course, they've had their journey too. But it's not a story the average woman will be able to repeat. And the idea of the "inner world" of heroines, which is supposedly revealed through their books, - often just a carefully calibrated PR.

As astronaut Kathryn Sullivan writes, the delay in the launch caused her real "bouts of pain". Such details allow the public to feel the "humanity" of the scientists. And it's exactly the kind of emotions expected from the Blue Origin mission participants.

Yasmin Chana summarises: Society is hungry for revelations, insights and dramas, but all the women on the mission are media tropes - successful, beautiful, public. But there are millions of women who don't fit into this gloss. So if we are to see women's space as a real step forward, it is important not only to applaud these breakthroughs, but also to recognise that the path to the stars should not be the prerogative of the elite.

Scientific, space and social representation is not a show. And if flight is to be used as a symbol of women's progress, it should be recognised not only for the inspirational wrapping, but also for the real complexity of the journey.