Star Trek’s History of Progressive Values — And Why It Faltered on LGBT Crew Members
But long before the 47-year-old franchise was breaking box office records, it was breaking ground as one of the most forward-thinking franchises in television and film history. Thanks largely to the (at the time) radical philosophy of creator Gene Roddenberry, the show attracted audiences with its adventure stories, but it kept them with its utopian optimism: the idea that the raging intolerance of the day would someday become a thing of the past, and anyone could explore the stars if they wanted.
In the future, Roddenberry envisioned race and gender as non-issues. He put Japanese-American George Takei, as Lt. Hikaru Sulu, at the helm; African-American Nichelle Nichols, as Lt. Nyota Uhura, in the communications chair; and even attempted to make the Enterprises first officer a woman (studio executives rejected that unsavory idea, so the alien Spock took the job). The equality on the U.S.S. Enterprises bridge was a watershed moment, both in television history and in Americans understanding of social equality.
Most television shows, at best, follow cultural trends. Star Trek had clear-cut ideals of its own, wrote Joan Winston, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Sondra Marshak in their 1975 book Star Trek Lives!, the first and most definitive chronicle of the early years of Trek fandom. No one would claim that Star Trek was the cause of all the improvement [we've made with problems like racism and sexism]. But it is still harder to believe that it had no effect, when twenty million people tuned in to Star Trek and saw Mr. Spock being treated as friend and brother by Captain Kirk, saw the black and the Russian and the Oriental [sic] and the Southerner and the others treating each other with respect and love.
from wired
cross posted in lgbt
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)ended up dead....
i wonder if they knew they were screwed when they were handed those red shirts
Megalo_Man
(88 posts)Somebody hasn't watched TNG, DS9, or Voyager if they say that "star trek has failed LGBT."
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)Because I have watched TNG and Voyager, and they have failed the LGBT.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)I think it was DAX who kissed another woman on DS9. As for an aside comment, directed at the article, I wish they hadn't used the word Oriental, as its OUT DATED. "Asian" is what we prefer these days.
found it
arcane1
(38,613 posts)I'm surprised it's the 47th year of Trek and they aren't commemorating that magic number. Or maybe they are and I missed it
Skittles
(152,964 posts)he fell apart emotionally and could not handle commanding!!!
cprise
(8,445 posts)Roddenberry was an avowed secular humanist.
Billy Graham used to rail against secular humanism in the 70s and 80s, and apparently the American media are averse to naming it (like "socialism", in America its a term that is mostly reserved for use by conservatives in demonizing people).
--
Speaking as a gay guy, I wasn't disappointed that TNG lacked a regular cast member; I never thought we were populous enough to warrant representation on any particular show (TV and movies in general being another matter). I was more perplexed that Worf and Geordi were obscured by heavy prosthetics... out of an aversion to black males IMHO. The Gennai episode did impress me in how forceful yet equivocal it was, and I was mostly disappointed especially in how a lot of people back then chose to interpret it as a warning against rampant feminism or androgyny.
It was soon after that I realized Hollywood Liberals had bought into ambiguity as an absolute rule when dealing with issues (or worse, using the Liberal label as a cover for making reactionary and authoritarian impressions, such as those on the show COPS). For a long time since the mid-90s, solidly progressive messages were left to cartoons (e.g. The Simpsons).
yurbud
(39,405 posts)sort of the way some people thought Ferengi were based on Jewish stereotypes only with big ears instead of big noses.
I half expected to hear rap and black Muslim names along with Klang, Karg, Worf, and the like:
"Shaq! Jamal! Kill the Federation scum!"
cprise
(8,445 posts)and Bajorans like Palestinians.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)I never watched DS9, so I can't comment on the Bajorans, though their earrings have really caught on.
FunkyLeprechaun
(2,383 posts)and my husband is a borderline Trekkie, I keep reminding him that it was Lucille Ball that approved Star Trek in the first place (she was the only one to give Roddenberry a chance), despite the disapproval of other board members. She was the first female president of a production company, Desilu, at the time.
dsc
(52,129 posts)what an interesting connection. Lucille Ball was every bit the revolutionary as Rodenberry.
cprise
(8,445 posts)mainer
(12,013 posts)with the exception of Kirk (who was always getting it on with the ladies) and Spock (who had to go through that mating ritual). I don't think we ever learned whether Scotty or Sulu or Chekhov were straight, because it just didn't come up as subject matter. So if they did introduce an LGBT character, might it have required a complete change in focus? Suddenly we'd have to find out about the crew's sexual conduct, which was supposed to be verboten anyway aboard a ship full of professional crew members.
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)Data and Tasha Yar. Ricker and Troi (among hundreds of others). Janeway and her husband she left behind. Tom and B'lana Torres. I could go on and on, and among them, not a single gay character. There have been a few episodes with gender changing aliens.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Dax had been both male and female in her past. Dax ALSO had a scene where she kissed a woman. I don't recall the episode but I remember reading how pissed off a few people were about it. Mostly Born again Christians.. I thought it was a great scene.
found it
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)It could possibly be a transgender character, if one stretches a bit, but not gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)There was several episodes I remember in the Star Trek universe where there was woman on women kisses. One with the alternate universe Kira with the Ezri Dax. There was also an episode where an alien was of a third gender, kissing Riker in the Next Generation. This idea has been in Star Trek episodes, though rare I am sure. Still, it was not ignored as you would have everyone believe.
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)Kissing someone of the same sex, especially the ones you are describing, are not examples of gay and lesbian, or even bisexual characters. They have been completely ignored, despite your valiant efforts to put forth claims they were/are not ignored.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)But Kissing same gender on Star Trek has happened, and you don't do that unless you are Inclined to.
This episode was where this species that have both male and female parts. Soren wanted to be female.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Outcast_%28episode%29
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)I completely disagree with your assertion on same-sex kissing; it is no different in many cases than kissing someone of the other gender. I am aware that a few of the "Star Trek"s have addressed, in an "Afterschool Special" type of way has addressed issues of gender. Think of the number of episodes of all the "Star Trek"s combined, it has to be well over a thousand, and not ONE gay, lesbian, or bisexual character...at least not one I can recall, and certainly not a regular.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)NO...SAME SEX KISSING isn't off the table, just because a person may kiss (maybe someone like) their parents good night...THESE WERE PASSIONATE kisses. You don't do that unless you lean one way or the other..or both ways. I AGREE... THAT Star Trek never showed same sex marriages, or Same Sex couples. Maybe they should have tried harder, except that during this time period, many of the later shows were filmed, it was still difficult to put anything like that on Main Stream Television. Hell, it was probably just as difficult to have it on a Cable Network.
I remember while living here in San Francisco, during the time of these episodes aired, there were still NEWS stories of Gay Bashing in the Castro and on Folsom Street. Not by local people, but from people who were visiting the city, and were drunk or otherwise being hateful.
I wonder how many TV programs that are on today feature a main character that is gay.. and being loving relationship and kissing on Network TV? I don't have a TV so I would wager to guess not that many. During that time period.. (Was it the 80s?) this kind of thing was unheard of on many TV shows. In fact, before that on the original episodes, it was unheard of for a guy like James Kirk to kiss a woman like Uhura simply because she was black. That was the first racial kiss, as I recall hearing.
Maybe STAR TREK, representing the so called future, should have had many things acceptable that we would expect for the future, but Network TV, who had sponsors were not going to allow too much too fast. Shows that tried to push the envelope got shot down eventually because the sponsors were putting their commercials there as their a stamp of approval. No Commercials no air play.
Behind the Aegis
(53,823 posts)I have endured, tolerated, overcome, and battled homophobia for years and years, and continue to do so. I don't know what angle you are going for, and quite frankly, I am starting to assume it is not a good one, so I will stop, but I will say this about your red herring arguments, there are a few gay characters on various shows, more so on cable shows, and given the ground-breaking work "Star Trek" and its franchise did for a number of issues, it is very disappointing it has not done the same for GLB people, which is the premise of the article, and the reason for my agreement with what was contained within it.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)I am bi.. not that should matter.. but as a fan of Star Trek..for years..I have loved that the show went as far as it did, during the times it was in. I don't even have a TV or cable and refuse to watch the garbage that is spewed out on television these days.. I don't have an agenda.. but one can imagine how difficult it was .. (I guess it was the 80's)for that kind of thing to be even hinted at on TV. Star Trek has broken a lot of barriers, but I guess some people have a problem with that..because in their mind, they didn't go far enough. I say consider the times... when it was aired. Back then, a show didn't get air time, if no one would would buy a time slot on their show. Later came syndication but still it required still, advertisements on TV to back that show. If a advertiser didn't like what was happening on a TV show, despite the ratings it would die out.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Asexuality.
They are so far in the closet, I don't even know if any of my best friends are A.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)Last edited Thu May 16, 2013, 05:46 PM - Edit history (1)
It's not necessary to add "sexual conduct" in order to present an LGBT character. Simply incorporating gender references to mates and as Whoopi apparently did, removing gender referencing when generalizing about relationships, would have been enough to establish the sexuality of some bridge characters.
Roddenberry was ready to address it over 20 years ago.
nlomb269
(11 posts)The episode where the aliens with half-white, half black faces...where Frank Gorshin played the security officer after an racial activist, and Kirk says but you're the same! Gorshin replies no the left side of his face is white, and the right is black, and mine is the other way...a truly effective comment on the absurditiy of racism.
nlomb269
(11 posts)I like the one where they waged war by computer, and if you were in the zone of a strike, you had to be painlessly executed - a war without destruction very orderly that had been going on for centuries!