Women in Startrek

[eismith]

Are women in startrek equal to men?

Apart from Janeway and seven and B'anna. Most alien or human female is weak especially in the Orignal Series. I would Like The furture to be Equal.

 

[EmilyH]

The idea is that they are supposed to be.

TOS was made in the 60's, so they couldn't do anything too ground-breaking with the female characters.

As for female characters with strong personalities, you have Beverly Crusher in Next Gen, Dax in Deep Space Nine, and Be'lanna Torres in Voyager. Be'lanna could have kicked Captain Kirk's rear from Earth to the Delta quadrant. Not that I don't like James T. Kirk, but Be'lanna *is* physically stronger and more athletic than he ever was.

Then there was Guinan, who wasn't a Starfleet officer, but she was a pretty cool female character, nevertheless. They hinted that El-Aurians have certain psychic abilities but never really got into it. There's been speculation that Guinan has faced down Q on her own, but that was never proven.

I offer this evidence as proof of equality, or at least intentions of it on the writer's part: If anyone's noticed, in some of the episodes and movies, female Starfleet officers are referred to as "sir" just like the male officers.

 

[little star]

I agree totally with EmilyH.

From a current perspective, TOS was laughable in its treatment of women, but it was a product of its times.

With the exception of that series, I'd have to give ST pretty high marks for the way they've depicted women, (at least compared to other television series in general).

And speaking of strong women, let's not forget Tasha Yar and Kira Nerys.

And Voyager was definitely intended to show the equality of women. Janeway, B'Elanna, and Seven were not just peripheral characters thrown in as token females on the ship. (Okay, so maybe Jeri Ryan's figure-hugging stretch suits may have been unnecessary, but at least her personality was not that of a vacuous bimbo.)

little star :star:

 

[stripe]

yep

I agree but if you look at it a little closer LT Uhura was fundamentally a strong woman in TOS not only was she an officer but she was female and black.
In the 60's time frame it was fairly unheard of.


Even Nurse Chapel had almost as much knowledge as the good Doctor.....I'd say that was pretty close to as equal as you could get again for that era.

In TNG you had the race of 'amazonian' type females who ruled their own planet.
There have been many examples of wonderfully strong Trek women throughout all the series....

LOL!! little star....... I agree on Jeri's clothing

 

[EmilyH]

I agree but if you look at it a little closer LT Uhura was fundamentally a strong woman in TOS not only was she an officer but she was female and black. In the 60's time frame it was fairly unheard of.

True, and TOS did have the very first intra-racial kiss on the small screen, but unfortunately, they had to explain it in terms of the characters being controlled by the alien. Otherwise, the critics of the time would have jumped all over them.

And one other thing I found out at a Star Trek convention a few weeks ago: The makers of Star Trek did not give the actress who played Uhura all the fan mail she got. Apparently, she didn't discover this herself until a few years ago. No one knows exactly why, but they kept it and just didn't give it to her. Nichelle Nichols (sp?) was not happy to find that out.

 

[eismith]

Thanks

Thank you

 

[Maria8475]

Originally posted by EmilyH

And one other thing I found out at a Star Trek convention a few weeks ago: The makers of Star Trek did not give the actress who played Uhura all the fan mail she got. Apparently, she didn't discover this herself until a few years ago. No one knows exactly why, but they kept it and just didn't give it to her. Nichelle Nichols (sp?) was not happy to find that out.

STRANGE! So much for women having equal rights! And doesn't Bev say something along those lines in one of the episodes?

 

[Neo]

Re: yep

Originally posted by stripe
I agree but if you look at it a little closer LT Uhura was fundamentally a strong woman in TOS not only was she an officer but she was female and black.
In the 60's time frame it was fairly unheard of.


Even Nurse Chapel had almost as much knowledge as the good Doctor.....I'd say that was pretty close to as equal as you could get again for that era.

In TNG you had the race of 'amazonian' type females who ruled their own planet.
There have been many examples of wonderfully strong Trek women throughout all the series....

LOL!! little star....... I agree on Jeri's clothing

Have to agree with u on this stripe..... not that i have necver agreed with u yet ??? lol

Look at Kira.... she was a very strong women in her own right... Sisko had his wars with her never mind any other alien species....

 

[Dave]

I'm a man, but a recent letter in 'Star Trek Monthly' someone asks why married women in 'Star Trek' change their names instead of retaining their maiden names. Both Kasidy and Keiko did this, although I'm not sure about B'Elanna (is she a Paris now?)

She thinks that the principal carer should be the one to give their name to their children. Her ideas seem a bit radical, but maybe they are a logical extension of what is already happening today. If so 'Star Trek' is way behind.

The August 2001 issue of 'Star Trek Monthly' will have a feature on 'Women in Star Trek'.

 

[Neo]

seems like a good edition...... seen bits from a friend who works there

 

[lene morissette]

In responce 2 Dave's question, they havnt changed B'Elanna Torres 2 B'Elanna Paris in the opening credits so I assume that her name hasn't changed. (they changed Roxann Biggs-Dawson 2 Roxann Dawson when she changed her name so i don't c y they wouldnt change B'Elanna's name if it had changed.)

Secondly, the star trek writers/costume people have always had different cotumes 4 women, although it's not as bad now as the women get a choice in their uniforms. (Seven chooses 2 wear catsuits and B'Elanna and Janeway wear the regulation uniform.)

E.G. In TOS the women wore short skirts and even now Seven wears 'spray-on catsuits' to quote my dad.

 

[Dave]

Welcome, lene morissette.

Thanks for posting. I hope you'll like it here and come here a lot. Any questions you have just ask. Everyone is very friendly here.

Originally posted by lene morissette
In TOS the women wore short skirts and even now Seven wears 'spray-on catsuits' to quote my dad.

Star Trek has unfortuately always been very sexist.

I know things were different in the sixties, but for a programme which likes to think it was progressive--

Yeomen and 'Girls' -- most women crewmen were Yeomen -- glorified secretaries, bringing coffee, offering clipboards to be signed and taking dictation using a tricorder. Women are frequently referred to as girls.

Leering -- this occurs frequently during TOS and the films:
Riley in 'The Naked Time', a technician in 'Mudd's Women' but they film their rear views all the way through, Kirk in 'The Squire of Gothos', Christopher in 'Tomorrow is yesterday', Sulu at Illia in 'ST:I', and Sulu and Chekov together in 'ST:V'.

Marriage -- no married couples are seen serving aboard starships until TNG.

'Turnabout Intruder' makes it clear there are no female starship captains at that time. We see them later.

 

[lene morissette]

Hi everyone I'm new here and I'm just finding my way around at the mo. but I do have 1 question.

Will Janeway die at the end of Voyager series finale? I'm asking because I read an interview with Kate in Star Trek monthy mag and she said she thought the only proper ending that would do her character justice would be 4 her 2 go down with the ship and then a couple of issues later she said that she was v. pleased with the ending and she thought that fans would b 2. Does this mean that she got her perfect ending with Janeway dying? I really hope not coz it would b such a shame 4 her 2 reach home and then b killed off @ the end. Wot does evry1 else think?

 

[Dave]

I can't tell you because I haven't seen it yet, and I don't want to know yet, because it would spoil it for me. So any answers to this question, please put them in the Voyager Forum with a big warning saying SPOILERS.

If you go to that forum there are already a few reviews of the episode (it's called 'Endgame') already posted, and I'm sure you will find the answer there.

 

[lene morissette]

I dont wanna no exactly wots gonna happen but i dont wanna hear that ne of the regular characters r gonna die! So if ne1 knows nething about characters dying, I really dont want 2 hear it coz I'll get v. upset! I want a happy ending! (But I don't want B'Elanna 2 patch things up with her dad coz he's a p'tak and he doesnt deserve it after wot he said about B'Elanna!)

 

[Dave]

In that case she has also said that the ending is very "sad", so maybe you aren't going to like it.

 

[little star]

RE: Dave--Sexism in Star Trek

The examples you gave were right on the mark. Here's another----remember when Kirk told Elaan she needed a spanking because she was acting spoilt?

The examples you gave were from TOS. What are your opinions on the treatment of women in the subsequent series?

little star :star:

 

[Dave]

The later series tried to be much more PC. I'm not sure that they suceeded but they weren't as blatently sexist.

In 'Angel One'TNG men are supposedly subservient to the more dominant women. Riker has to dress in an open chested tunic and tight fitting pants in order for Mistress Beata to meet him. Troi and Crusher find this highly amusing. Besides the fact that this is unprofessional, no one stands around laughing when Troi is forced to wear her tight fitting 'Bunny' suit.

And in 'Voyager' PC seems to have been totally discarded in an attempt to attract a larger audience of young men to the show, with the most revealing outfit of all for Seven. Q's son then removes all her clothes ('Q2' VOY) so that he can leer even more. The studio must have loved that idea, but I'm suprised Jerri Ryan did it. She has been complaining that they trailers for upcoming episodes have been emphasising Seven too much, even in episodes where she has a very minor role. Voyager did give us a female captain. Even in the 1990's many thought the series would fail because of that, so it took some guts.

DS9 was very good for women's roles -- lots of strong female characters -- both Dax's & Kira especially. Also Keiko was allowed to leave her family on the station to pursue her own career on Bajor -- you would never see that on TOS. And even the Dhabo girls get to form a union against Quark. Leeta grew from an 'airhead' to a very intelligent woman. Can't see what she sees in Rom though.

 

[markpud]

Originally posted by Dave
And in 'Voyager' PC seems to have been totally discarded in an attempt to attract a larger audience of young men to the show,

Lets not forget the gratuitous B'Elanna in the sonic shower scenes... :blush:

 

[Dave]

Marina Sirtis in 1997
I think we've gotten the women on Star Trek to the point where they should be, but it's been done gradually. it works out in the end.

She means that they now have positions of power. Kira was second in command, now commander of DS9. Jadzia Dax was science officer. Janeway is the Captain. B'Elanna is Chief Engineer. But as Markpud's and my examples show they are still illustrated the same way as a pulp sci-fi magazine from 50 years ago -- skin tight costumes, bursting at the seams, immaculately coiffured hair. Does Seven really need those two anti-grav units inside her uniform?