Thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness...

[ravenya03]

Oh who am I kidding, this is a rant. As I did with Interview with the Vampire I’m going to friend-lock this one, firstly because this reads as a lot more angry than I actually intended it to, and secondly because these issues rile people up quickly and I don’t particularly feel like any on-line arguments at this point

Comments

[issy5209]

Thanks for the great review/rant, I've been told I should see this movie and get into fandom, and have been resisting, primarily because of all the online discussions I've seen are just too exhausting. (I'll use the word discussions here loosely). But also I don't want to get involved in these fandom discussions about the female characters, where, you have hit the nail on the head, where fandom are shitting all over the girls because they are in the way of bromance, exactly the way it happened in Merlin with Guinevere. I so don't want to go there again.
There is also the excuse I've seen which is that Star Trek invented slash pairings, its canon, so the women should just be move out of the way (so we can watch Kirk/Spock Merlin/Arthur make eyes at each other and let us fantasise what happens next). Christine and Uhura are smart kick-arse characters, even in the 1960's standards! Its sort of sad to see them getting reduced to just love interests.

Also, I confess, I am still to see the attraction of Cumberbatch,

[ravenya03]

Yeah, it's really sad. I have nothing against slash itself, I even think that in many ways it has a positive effect in normalizing and mainstreaming gay couples when before they were marginalized.

Also, it's always fun to see homophobic dudebros and fundamentalists flip their lids when they see their favourite superheroes get the slash treatment.

But I hate the side-effects of slash and how it always seems to go hand in hand with girl-hate and a complete lack of diversity and fetishization of (pretty white) men. The fact that in these two cases the targets of slash ire are two WOC who should be celebrated for their roles just makes it even more icky.

I suppose it's one of life's ironies that fandom is predominantly a woman's space yet most of that space is used to talk about dudes.

Also, I confess, I am still to see the attraction of CumberbatchLike Tom Hiddleston (sp?) I have nothing against the guy, but I find the fandom reaction to both of them rather baffling. They have talent, I guess, but not more or less than any other

[issy5209]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-slash, personally it doesn't do anything for me, but if that's your thing then by all means. It certainly has its place (and yes, its fun to see some go nuts over the treatment their mucho guys get

[ravenya03]

And I do wonder if that is in any way hindering what we see on screen, after all, why should writers create a strong female character if what they see online is (mostly) girls wanting to see the two men together and wanting the girls out of the way altogether.

You know, I worry about this too. It's like a terrible self-perpetuating cycle when girls justify their dislike of female characters because they're not as interesting as the boys, and so writers/film-makers don't bother writing interesting female characters because the feedback from the internet is so dismissive of them.

Angel Coulby had some really horrible, hurtful, cruel things said about her.

I know. You try and stay away from it, but sometimes it just hits you in the face. I remember on the Merlin Network a picture of her in Dancing on the Edge emerged and out of nowhere someone said she looked like a hooker. Bwuh? In Dancing on the Edge?? The exact same person contacted me (SERIOUSLY) simply to tell me that she didn't like Angel Coulby because she walked like a man.

[issy5209]

The internet is certainly a strange place when people feel the need to be able to tell you things like that. There is also a hidden implication that you're wrong for liking a certain actor