Trek - after sleeping on it
Monday, June 1st, 2009 05:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
delphia2ohohohI'll go ahead and put this behind a cut for spoilers because I'm pissed enough to unlock this one.
Yes, I'm about to rant about Spock/Uhura. I've slept on it and mulled it over and the more I think about it, the more pissed I get.
I've re-read what you had to say about it, aelfgyfu_mead and I agree with your points on it and more. However, I have to say this: if anyone ever dared suggest I didn't like the shipping because I was JEALOUS, I'd be bitch-slapping someone. As if I'm some teeny-bopper trekkie who runs on immature emotions? I'm talking thru my genitals? No, I don't think so. I'm a grown up and I'm looking at this from an important perspective: that of a W-O-M-A-N.
It sucked. It sucked for these reasons:
1) Spock would not be calling Kirk up before the review board for breaking the rules when he was breaking one himself. Sorry, I can't believe that a personal relationship between a student and a teacher would be allowed in the future when we know how damaging they can be at this point in our history. It made him look like a hypocrite and stupid one at that. Either that or he was going after Kirk because Kirk out-smarted him and that pissed him off which totally WTF and not Spock who was so carefully controlling his emotions at that point in his life.
2) Spock was still dealing with his mixed races identity. Unlikely he'd fall into an emotional situation while he was trying to decide if he was Vulcan or Human or where he fell in-between. Nor can I believe he'd be unaware that it would be manipulating a human's emotions. Yes, many women equate sex=love and I don't think that's going to change. I think it's a hard-wired response for the biological imperative and I don't think Spock would ignore/chance that to get his rocks off.
3) Uhura would know better than to mess around with her teacher. She wouldn't dare put herself in that position. She wouldn't need to because she's smart and capable.
I've had the pleasure to listen to Nichelle Nichols speak more than once and read her book. One of the watershed moments in her life was a time when she confessed to Dr. King that she was thinking of quitting the role. He talked her out of it. He told that just her being there, even if she was silent, was a message to all women and particularly women of color that they could achieve! She was on the bridge in an important position. She was an important role model and indeed, Astronaut Mae Jemison was inspired by Uhura to enter the space program.
To turn her role into that of a women whose position on the Enterprise is suspect because of a personal relationship is an insult to me as a woman.
As aelfgyfu_mead pointed out, her leaving her post to check on her boyfriend was just disgusting. I'm insulted by that too.
I kept watching the couple to see if there was some spark there and failed to see it. Spock looked emotionally dead to me. Not Vulcan supressed. Just dead. It made Uhura look clingy and needy and it was all around uncomfortable. Uhura was anything but needy.
I'm pissed they diminished her in this way and I feel like they've diminished me as a woman too.
So why did we get this? I can guess a few reasons. I have to blame writers and director for equally for this mess so J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman are the general 'they' I'm talking about here. (Yes, Gene is listed, but it's honorary mostly I'm sure....I doubt he left any notes on this one.) Any one of them could have voiced an objection or made things better since they all have that power to change things. They didn't.
If I wanted to be snotty, I could accuse someone of the very thing I deny...emotions. Someone in the group had the hots for Uhura and wanted to vicariously lay her. It could be a factor. It could also be they thought it would appeal to the fanboys who had the hots for Uhura.
But what I think they wanted was to try to attract an audience demographic that they don't understand. I can hear this logic in their minds: "Oh, we need something to attract the girly girls: fan girls who want to sleep with Spock and girls who get dragged to this by their fan boyfriends so we have to put in a romance or they won't watch."
Please. As if I don't enjoy a good adventure? It has to have romance to make it emotionally appealing? You think so little of my brain as to think I need that? Do you not have wives, girlfriends? Did you ask them how they felt about this? Is this a role model you want your daughter to emulate? Sleeping her way into a high position? Did you not understand the appeal of the original show's friendships? Kirk and McCoy's friendship in this was the best thing I can think about it right now. (Well, them and Scotty's little alien buddy...he was adorable!)
I wish I could back JJ into a corner and say 'What the hell were you thinking?' I want to know why. And I want him to know why it's got me pissed. As it stands, I can only vote with my dollars and I probably will not feel good enough about this to buy it. Some days I look at how far we've come and I'm proud and other days, when I see crap like this, I wonder when men are going to pick their goddamned knuckles up off the ground and act like they've evolved.
One last note. As with TOS, Uhura is the only woman of note on the bridge in this movie. We see others, but none had more than a one-line speaking role. BSG had the balls to make Starbuck and Boomer into girls when they re-imagined the show. So why didn't this group see any potential for women in the same way? Chekov or Sulu would have worked as a ballsy woman. Or even Scotty. Instead, we got the man club again. Sure, I like to look at the pretty men sometimes, but Trek has always been more than the pretty face. I wanted more. I deserved more and Uhura sure as hell deserved better.
Yes, I'm about to rant about Spock/Uhura. I've slept on it and mulled it over and the more I think about it, the more pissed I get.
I've re-read what you had to say about it, aelfgyfu_mead and I agree with your points on it and more. However, I have to say this: if anyone ever dared suggest I didn't like the shipping because I was JEALOUS, I'd be bitch-slapping someone. As if I'm some teeny-bopper trekkie who runs on immature emotions? I'm talking thru my genitals? No, I don't think so. I'm a grown up and I'm looking at this from an important perspective: that of a W-O-M-A-N.
It sucked. It sucked for these reasons:
1) Spock would not be calling Kirk up before the review board for breaking the rules when he was breaking one himself. Sorry, I can't believe that a personal relationship between a student and a teacher would be allowed in the future when we know how damaging they can be at this point in our history. It made him look like a hypocrite and stupid one at that. Either that or he was going after Kirk because Kirk out-smarted him and that pissed him off which totally WTF and not Spock who was so carefully controlling his emotions at that point in his life.
2) Spock was still dealing with his mixed races identity. Unlikely he'd fall into an emotional situation while he was trying to decide if he was Vulcan or Human or where he fell in-between. Nor can I believe he'd be unaware that it would be manipulating a human's emotions. Yes, many women equate sex=love and I don't think that's going to change. I think it's a hard-wired response for the biological imperative and I don't think Spock would ignore/chance that to get his rocks off.
3) Uhura would know better than to mess around with her teacher. She wouldn't dare put herself in that position. She wouldn't need to because she's smart and capable.
I've had the pleasure to listen to Nichelle Nichols speak more than once and read her book. One of the watershed moments in her life was a time when she confessed to Dr. King that she was thinking of quitting the role. He talked her out of it. He told that just her being there, even if she was silent, was a message to all women and particularly women of color that they could achieve! She was on the bridge in an important position. She was an important role model and indeed, Astronaut Mae Jemison was inspired by Uhura to enter the space program.
To turn her role into that of a women whose position on the Enterprise is suspect because of a personal relationship is an insult to me as a woman.
As aelfgyfu_mead pointed out, her leaving her post to check on her boyfriend was just disgusting. I'm insulted by that too.
I kept watching the couple to see if there was some spark there and failed to see it. Spock looked emotionally dead to me. Not Vulcan supressed. Just dead. It made Uhura look clingy and needy and it was all around uncomfortable. Uhura was anything but needy.
I'm pissed they diminished her in this way and I feel like they've diminished me as a woman too.
So why did we get this? I can guess a few reasons. I have to blame writers and director for equally for this mess so J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman are the general 'they' I'm talking about here. (Yes, Gene is listed, but it's honorary mostly I'm sure....I doubt he left any notes on this one.) Any one of them could have voiced an objection or made things better since they all have that power to change things. They didn't.
If I wanted to be snotty, I could accuse someone of the very thing I deny...emotions. Someone in the group had the hots for Uhura and wanted to vicariously lay her. It could be a factor. It could also be they thought it would appeal to the fanboys who had the hots for Uhura.
But what I think they wanted was to try to attract an audience demographic that they don't understand. I can hear this logic in their minds: "Oh, we need something to attract the girly girls: fan girls who want to sleep with Spock and girls who get dragged to this by their fan boyfriends so we have to put in a romance or they won't watch."
Please. As if I don't enjoy a good adventure? It has to have romance to make it emotionally appealing? You think so little of my brain as to think I need that? Do you not have wives, girlfriends? Did you ask them how they felt about this? Is this a role model you want your daughter to emulate? Sleeping her way into a high position? Did you not understand the appeal of the original show's friendships? Kirk and McCoy's friendship in this was the best thing I can think about it right now. (Well, them and Scotty's little alien buddy...he was adorable!)
I wish I could back JJ into a corner and say 'What the hell were you thinking?' I want to know why. And I want him to know why it's got me pissed. As it stands, I can only vote with my dollars and I probably will not feel good enough about this to buy it. Some days I look at how far we've come and I'm proud and other days, when I see crap like this, I wonder when men are going to pick their goddamned knuckles up off the ground and act like they've evolved.
One last note. As with TOS, Uhura is the only woman of note on the bridge in this movie. We see others, but none had more than a one-line speaking role. BSG had the balls to make Starbuck and Boomer into girls when they re-imagined the show. So why didn't this group see any potential for women in the same way? Chekov or Sulu would have worked as a ballsy woman. Or even Scotty. Instead, we got the man club again. Sure, I like to look at the pretty men sometimes, but Trek has always been more than the pretty face. I wanted more. I deserved more and Uhura sure as hell deserved better.
