Star Trek: the skeeve

[aquaeri]

I still have too many posts and emails to write and the mammothfail thread to keep up with (I think I've given up on the latter). But I went to see Star Trek last night, and I've finally figured out in full proper words what I personally found skeevy about it, so I'm going to share it

Comments

[trulybloom]

I, too, had a problem with this new Uhura, but different from what you pointed out. I felt that the original Uhura was a confident, intelligent woman - a member of an elite crew, the best of the best were aboard the Enterprise, weren't they? The Enterprise was THE ship - the main flag ship of the Federation, at least that's how I remember it - so for her to be on the crew meant that she was worthy of being there.

Anyway, no matter what she had to do or didn't have to do, she still came across as intelligent and confident and good at her job. I think that's a pretty good role model for any young woman.

I felt this new Uhura was also intelligent and confident and good at her job - but that she had to be a bitch in order to be those things. She wasn't given assignment to The Enterprise, even though she was the best - she had to complain about it, had to bitch to her boyfriend and twist his balls to get him to assign her there, despite the fact that her test scores indicated she was better than anyone else for the job. It made me

[aquaeri]

That's a very good point. There seems to be a lot of social resistance to strong, assertive women and they do have to be "bitches" to get heard. But no-one* has to really take them seriously because they're being bitches, after all.

* no-one = no man

[zeborahnz]

I didn't see her as bitchy at all in that scene - assertive, yes; and no, she shouldn't have had to be: if Spock was so worried about the appearance of favouritism then not having a relationship with a student would be a far more logical solution than having a relationship and then shafting her like that. But when he was called on it he had the sense and grace to admit he'd been a jerk. --Y'know, implicitly

[lilairen]

Yeah, if Uhura was bitchy in someone's eyes, I so am not sticking around for their opinion of me. I'm probably a fucking sociopath.

[aquaeri]

I know I am. I've been told so on numerous occasions. By people like JAD and DDF, which: I don't respect their opinions, true, but lookkit who's still on rasfc. I mean, given what it is, they're welcome to it. But I'm a bit tired of women (and GLBT, and PoC, and ...) having to scrape their culture quietly around the edges of the "visible" loci of SF/F culture.

[aquaeri]

I understand and accept the fangirl projection, and I'm totally cool with Uhura going after Spock. It's just that I have a problem with either her behaviour after they get together or the fraction of her (and I think, his) behaviour they chose to put up on the screen. Again, I guess this is where fanfiction comes from. But it's pretty obvious to me why a lot more women than men write fanfiction. And I don't think it ought to be that way.

[zeborahnz]

Oh yes, definitely agreed on the reasons for the fanfic gender divide.

[sbw]

My understanding is that they WEREN'T dating - she was just known as his favourite student. It was in the turbolift that she made her true feelings known, and they acted on them. Until that point there was no reason for Nero's actions to have affected *Spock's* past, except in minor ways (perhaps the older Kirk interacted with people and changed things - maybe without him Number One got assigned elsewhere - she might be the captain of the Farragut for example). Perhaps Uhura always had the hots for Spock, but got over it. And vice versa

[zeborahnz]

It's true that the point of departure makes little sense for Spock and Uhura to have been dating in this universe and not in the original universe; yet I just can't possibly see that turbolift scene as her first declaration of feelings for him - she was way too comfortable both with approaching him and with being rejected by him, and he was way too accepting of her attentions.

They could have *made* Spock be more emotionally impacted by the loss of Sarek. If the bullies hadn't done the cliche "Yo mamma" thing but instead questioned whether his father, who'd made the choice to marry a human, was in full possession of his mental faculties -- that could have been really interesting. And it would have made almost more sense for Amanda to say "He loved me (and no that doesn't make him insane)" than for Sarek to say "I loved her

[aquaeri]

I think I'm a bit mad at the idea that updating a 40-year-old show that was revolutionary in showing racial diversity and even women's roles, and had a philosophy of peace and trying to understand differences, means turning it into a show that's all about action scenes, and not bothering to introduce more strong women. It doesn't seem like an update that is really true to the original show in its time.

[sbw]

That's a good point. I'll certainly agree that the 'monsters on the ice planet' sequence added nothing to the movie except some mindless action, and that's NOT Star Trek.

The sequel is being written now (the actors signed on for 3 movies) so maybe we should get a 'more strong female roles' petition going.

[lilairen]

I thought the question of whether they had a pre-existing romantic relationship was ambiguous, but my first assumption was that they did not; that she had possibly expressed interest, and he had not rejected it; that he was attracted, in significant part because of her brilliance, but was completely conflicted about whether or not it was acceptable for him to act on it - whether just because of the Vulcan emotional control or that and protocol; that he finally decided that he could react to her as he wanted because his Daddy said something that gave him permission.

Which last is something that I really haven't seen people comment on much. I find it hilarious. (And, well, blatantly obvious, but a friend of mine suspected that that's the sort of thing I tend to notice and other people less so, so maybe that's just a quirk of how I observe social dynamics.)