Star Trek...BRING ON THE GAY
I was scrolling though wikipedia and two things caught my interest. The first is kind of funny, but the second actually got me worked up into quite a later.
Here's the first thing: Penley believes pon farr stories' popularity rests in the idea of men being subject to a hormonal cycle, observing that in slash fiction, the symptoms of pon farr are "wickedly and humorously made to parallel those of PMS and menstruation, in a playful and transgressive levelling of the biological playing field".
Okay, I looked up to see if this person was a woman or not, and the first name is Constance, so this baffled and made me lol. Whut? Look, as a woman with a menstrual cycle, you should know that liking pon farr stories has nothing to do with cycles. Come on, periods are not happy fun times for us, and even though on the surface pon farr seems like a hormonal cycle, it's not why we enjoy it. No, pon farr's popularity is just a plain and simple love of the fuck-or-die genre. I admit freely that my bulletproof kink of all time is fuck-or-die. Hell, this was probably half of the reason why I went even crazier with Star Trek after watching my first episode of TOS, Amok Time. I was amazed that my kink was canon. I was like, hot damn, no wonder these motherfuckers are the grandfathers of slash. There is something dreadfully appealing about the fuck-or-die genre. It can be humorous, strangely hot, angsty, or just plain messed up. It's a way to forcefully reveal inner feelings and expose weaknesses, and I freely admit that, as a woman, I enjoy that. I love when two characters have their feelings fucked with and have to resolve them in this manner. I even like fuck-or-die fics that are uber angsty and dark, because all the more juicy emotionalism run rampant. Men as a rule do not express their feelings, so well-written slash includes two guys who either wait forever to tell each other how they feel or they fuck and only say it with a knife to their throat. Fuck-or-die fic is a legitimate way to get guys to expose feelings. And to be completely shallow, it's hot to me, it's a kink. It's dub-con, that land where it's not exactly consensual, but then again it's also not non-con because in my definition of fuck-or-die, the people forced to have sex already have those feelings inside, it's just that they may not know or are able to express them. So yeah, nothing to do with gleefully seeing a guy going through a type of menstrual cycle. I only WISH my cycles were once every seven years.
The second thing I've talked about before, and I admit it was in a kind of cynical way, and that's the SEE Trek Love campaign. I signed the petition and everything, but I signed it with not much hope. Now I'm wondering, why the fuck can't we get a gay character in Star Trek? Hell, we all know that having a gay character, especially a non-lead gay character, is not that big of a fucking deal, really. If Sulu is gay in the next movie, he'll still be a badass space fencing motherfucker on a drill, period. Only homophobic assholes would go back and claim that he's a limp-wristed sissy when there's no evidence whatsoever.
Fucking Nimoy supported this shit. It is entirely fitting that gays and lesbians will appear unobtrusively aboard the Enterprise - neither objects of pity nor melodramatic attention." That's right, imagine that. An actual gay character (and we're not mentioning lesbians, as that doesn't count when it's socially acceptable for two women to kiss and it's even encouraged) who kisses his boyfriend in the background, and it's not a plot point and it's not a, oh look at the gay people, that's so weird. Kirk has sex with a green bitch and that's less weird? Interspecies relations with Vulcans? God, Spock I get, but Amanda/Sarek? Think of a full-blooded Vulcan and a full-blooded human, bonding. Hell, Spock is hard enough to get through. If you think about it long enough, you start to see that yeah, two species are pretty weird, they don't even have that nice saying, 'we still bleed the same.' Nope, not at all. They're heart's not even in the 'right' place. :P
I got so worked up because of things like Roddenberry promising gay characters in the 5th season of TNG, but he dies and those who take over didn't include them. Then DS9 and Voyager's people not going there either. Let me quote Gene Roddenberry on Kirk/Spock slash, that GQMF, emphasis all mine:
Yes, there's certainly some of that -- certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal-- we never suggested in the series-- physical love between the two. But it's the-- we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century."
I can say this with 100% confidence: It's going to be the style of the 23rd century. Though we're having major issues right now with LGBT rights, I fully believe that is just like women's rights and black rights. Think how long it took women and blacks to gain rights in America. It's not going to be an easy road, and we're still facing horrid discrimination for both of those examples but I feel like we're getting somewhere and one day it won't be such a big deal. I mean, to think in the sixties that it was fucking odd to be a divorced woman with a job. You were shunned by society almost, and you certainly couldn't have a good job with the same pay as men. But now women can be almost anything, and every school is integrated. It's not hard for me to believe that in my lifetime, there will be legal gay marriage, and if I live long enough, possibly gay marriage in all 50 states. We have a black president. Let that sink in. We have a black president. Tell me the sixties saw that one. We have gay and bisexual characters on tv. People are flinching less and less when two dudes kiss on tv because it's out there more. In the 23rd century, especially given the fact that in that fictional world, the Vulcans come along and we start space travel, homg, yeah, I can definitely see where not only are there equal rights, but it'll be damn odd for someone to see gender as a big factor. Hell, bisexuality will be common, and in fact what will be the minority are those who are 100% straight or gay.
Star Trek gave us the first interracial kiss on television. It taught us that love isn't limited to traditional things and that an electric cloud can love a man and that's good. So why the fuck can't we, forty years later, have a gay character or two? I have a dream, it's sparkly and wonderful, and it's that scene in Metamorphosis, but instead of an electric cloud, a guy freaking out about another dude loving him, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are like, ??? Dude, he loved you, you're being a jack ass with a parochial attitude. Weird.
Wow, apparently a soapbox grew under my feet. *steps down* Oh wait *climbs back up*
I don't care if you hate Star Trek. If you are a believer in same sex rights, sign the petition so we can have a gay character or two in a major film franchise. Change starts when the people speak up.
SIGN THE PETITION
Here's the first thing: Penley believes pon farr stories' popularity rests in the idea of men being subject to a hormonal cycle, observing that in slash fiction, the symptoms of pon farr are "wickedly and humorously made to parallel those of PMS and menstruation, in a playful and transgressive levelling of the biological playing field".
Okay, I looked up to see if this person was a woman or not, and the first name is Constance, so this baffled and made me lol. Whut? Look, as a woman with a menstrual cycle, you should know that liking pon farr stories has nothing to do with cycles. Come on, periods are not happy fun times for us, and even though on the surface pon farr seems like a hormonal cycle, it's not why we enjoy it. No, pon farr's popularity is just a plain and simple love of the fuck-or-die genre. I admit freely that my bulletproof kink of all time is fuck-or-die. Hell, this was probably half of the reason why I went even crazier with Star Trek after watching my first episode of TOS, Amok Time. I was amazed that my kink was canon. I was like, hot damn, no wonder these motherfuckers are the grandfathers of slash. There is something dreadfully appealing about the fuck-or-die genre. It can be humorous, strangely hot, angsty, or just plain messed up. It's a way to forcefully reveal inner feelings and expose weaknesses, and I freely admit that, as a woman, I enjoy that. I love when two characters have their feelings fucked with and have to resolve them in this manner. I even like fuck-or-die fics that are uber angsty and dark, because all the more juicy emotionalism run rampant. Men as a rule do not express their feelings, so well-written slash includes two guys who either wait forever to tell each other how they feel or they fuck and only say it with a knife to their throat. Fuck-or-die fic is a legitimate way to get guys to expose feelings. And to be completely shallow, it's hot to me, it's a kink. It's dub-con, that land where it's not exactly consensual, but then again it's also not non-con because in my definition of fuck-or-die, the people forced to have sex already have those feelings inside, it's just that they may not know or are able to express them. So yeah, nothing to do with gleefully seeing a guy going through a type of menstrual cycle. I only WISH my cycles were once every seven years.
The second thing I've talked about before, and I admit it was in a kind of cynical way, and that's the SEE Trek Love campaign. I signed the petition and everything, but I signed it with not much hope. Now I'm wondering, why the fuck can't we get a gay character in Star Trek? Hell, we all know that having a gay character, especially a non-lead gay character, is not that big of a fucking deal, really. If Sulu is gay in the next movie, he'll still be a badass space fencing motherfucker on a drill, period. Only homophobic assholes would go back and claim that he's a limp-wristed sissy when there's no evidence whatsoever.
Fucking Nimoy supported this shit. It is entirely fitting that gays and lesbians will appear unobtrusively aboard the Enterprise - neither objects of pity nor melodramatic attention." That's right, imagine that. An actual gay character (and we're not mentioning lesbians, as that doesn't count when it's socially acceptable for two women to kiss and it's even encouraged) who kisses his boyfriend in the background, and it's not a plot point and it's not a, oh look at the gay people, that's so weird. Kirk has sex with a green bitch and that's less weird? Interspecies relations with Vulcans? God, Spock I get, but Amanda/Sarek? Think of a full-blooded Vulcan and a full-blooded human, bonding. Hell, Spock is hard enough to get through. If you think about it long enough, you start to see that yeah, two species are pretty weird, they don't even have that nice saying, 'we still bleed the same.' Nope, not at all. They're heart's not even in the 'right' place. :P
I got so worked up because of things like Roddenberry promising gay characters in the 5th season of TNG, but he dies and those who take over didn't include them. Then DS9 and Voyager's people not going there either. Let me quote Gene Roddenberry on Kirk/Spock slash, that GQMF, emphasis all mine:
Yes, there's certainly some of that -- certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal-- we never suggested in the series-- physical love between the two. But it's the-- we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century."
I can say this with 100% confidence: It's going to be the style of the 23rd century. Though we're having major issues right now with LGBT rights, I fully believe that is just like women's rights and black rights. Think how long it took women and blacks to gain rights in America. It's not going to be an easy road, and we're still facing horrid discrimination for both of those examples but I feel like we're getting somewhere and one day it won't be such a big deal. I mean, to think in the sixties that it was fucking odd to be a divorced woman with a job. You were shunned by society almost, and you certainly couldn't have a good job with the same pay as men. But now women can be almost anything, and every school is integrated. It's not hard for me to believe that in my lifetime, there will be legal gay marriage, and if I live long enough, possibly gay marriage in all 50 states. We have a black president. Let that sink in. We have a black president. Tell me the sixties saw that one. We have gay and bisexual characters on tv. People are flinching less and less when two dudes kiss on tv because it's out there more. In the 23rd century, especially given the fact that in that fictional world, the Vulcans come along and we start space travel, homg, yeah, I can definitely see where not only are there equal rights, but it'll be damn odd for someone to see gender as a big factor. Hell, bisexuality will be common, and in fact what will be the minority are those who are 100% straight or gay.
Star Trek gave us the first interracial kiss on television. It taught us that love isn't limited to traditional things and that an electric cloud can love a man and that's good. So why the fuck can't we, forty years later, have a gay character or two? I have a dream, it's sparkly and wonderful, and it's that scene in Metamorphosis, but instead of an electric cloud, a guy freaking out about another dude loving him, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are like, ??? Dude, he loved you, you're being a jack ass with a parochial attitude. Weird.
Wow, apparently a soapbox grew under my feet. *steps down* Oh wait *climbs back up*
I don't care if you hate Star Trek. If you are a believer in same sex rights, sign the petition so we can have a gay character or two in a major film franchise. Change starts when the people speak up.
SIGN THE PETITION