More gendered thoughts on Star Trek, or: An object who fights back is still an object
Firstly: I <3 Nyota Uhura. LOTS. I'm completely predictable, and was sold the moment she said "xenolinguistics". She's confident, ambitious, and somehow manages to wear the Starfleet miniskirt as if she isn't being made a total tart of. She has slightly strange taste in men (you won't catch me dating a half-alien with emotional walls to rival Constantinople, although you will catch me crushing on such persons), but on the other hand I never had the sense for a moment that she would entertain Jim Kirk as an option. She seemed to... enjoy the hold she had over him, perhaps? But I didn't get any sense that we had a Love Triangle going on. She's good at what she does and leaves the things she doesn't to those who *are* good at them. Etc, etc, I could go on for ages.
HOWEVER:
You know what? I would really, really like to think that by the year 2258, human society might have reached the point that it is no longer plausible that when a confident young woman is approached by a cocky young man in a bar, her male friends and/or colleagues should come looming over and demand "is this country hick bothering you?", apparently on the assumption that she cannot deal with it herself, or that other men will not respect her disinterest unless they enforce it (let alone the implicit assumption that said confident young women is naturally not interested).
I'd like to think that, by the year 2258, human society might have reached the point that, if a young woman's friends should ask such a question, and she answer in the negative, both her friends and the cocky young man would consider that the end of the matter.
I'd like to think that, by the year 2258, we'll have reached the point that film-makers and storytellers of all kinds need not set up a situation where a young woman's resistance to such treatment isn't necessary in order to establish her status as a Strong Female Character. I'd like to think we'd reach the point where we don't have to see a young woman fight back in order to establish that she's not being objectified by the film-makers even though she is being objectified by characters within the film.
Don't get me wrong: there's a place for this sort of characterisation. I love a good warrior woman as much as the next person. We do need to see women fighting back: we need to have narratives which say to women "it's ok to fight back", and which say to men "this is what admirable and attractive women will do: fight back, even if they are wearing bright red mini-skirts". We need narratives which position the audience in favour of the woman fighting back, and show up the moronitude of morons.
Please, universe: don't think this is where it ends. Please, sci-fi makers and fantasy authors and fandom creators: this is where we get to talk about how it might be. Now, when we still have to fight back in our own lives, now is when we can start talking and writing and dreaming about what it might look like when we don't have to fight back.
HOWEVER:
You know what? I would really, really like to think that by the year 2258, human society might have reached the point that it is no longer plausible that when a confident young woman is approached by a cocky young man in a bar, her male friends and/or colleagues should come looming over and demand "is this country hick bothering you?", apparently on the assumption that she cannot deal with it herself, or that other men will not respect her disinterest unless they enforce it (let alone the implicit assumption that said confident young women is naturally not interested).
I'd like to think that, by the year 2258, human society might have reached the point that, if a young woman's friends should ask such a question, and she answer in the negative, both her friends and the cocky young man would consider that the end of the matter.
I'd like to think that, by the year 2258, we'll have reached the point that film-makers and storytellers of all kinds need not set up a situation where a young woman's resistance to such treatment isn't necessary in order to establish her status as a Strong Female Character. I'd like to think we'd reach the point where we don't have to see a young woman fight back in order to establish that she's not being objectified by the film-makers even though she is being objectified by characters within the film.
Don't get me wrong: there's a place for this sort of characterisation. I love a good warrior woman as much as the next person. We do need to see women fighting back: we need to have narratives which say to women "it's ok to fight back", and which say to men "this is what admirable and attractive women will do: fight back, even if they are wearing bright red mini-skirts". We need narratives which position the audience in favour of the woman fighting back, and show up the moronitude of morons.
Please, universe: don't think this is where it ends. Please, sci-fi makers and fantasy authors and fandom creators: this is where we get to talk about how it might be. Now, when we still have to fight back in our own lives, now is when we can start talking and writing and dreaming about what it might look like when we don't have to fight back.