Trek's catsuit problem with female actresses

TrekMovie.com has a story detailing how actress Kim Rhodes was told she was rejected from the role of T'Pol in Star Trek: Enterprise by Paramount executives because she had the "wrong body type." When she inquired as to whether that was supposed to mean she was too fat, Rhodes's agent told her "yes."

Going back to TOS, the franchise has always to some degree featured scantily-clad women, whether it be Orion slave girls or women in Starfleet wearing miniskirts. I do remember Nichelle Nichols giving interviews where she discussed it as "empowering" and the idea of women wearing a miniskirt in the future as being symbolic of "sexual liberation."

However, I think the powers that be at Paramount have been screwing this kind of thing up since the 1980s when it comes to Star Trek.

• Troi
• Seven of Nine
• T’Pol

All 3 characters would have been much better served by putting them in a regular uniform. I don't think any of the actresses involved with those 3 characters would see their original costumes as some form of feminist statement, especially Jeri Ryan who reportedly had trouble breathing in some of the getups they put her in.

For all 3 characters, it seemed someone at Paramount thought they needed to be in form-fitting outfits to get the young, horny boy demographic.

 

As much as there are no ways to exonerate producers, wardrobe designers and studio heads for their sexism, especially Misters Roddenberry and Berman, tying that sexism to particular costume items is a little simplistic, IMO. Sure, the uniform made the women more professional-looking, but they were still outfitted with the custom-made bras when in the uniform. Those bras have not only been mode often the focus of complaints, they have been the source of harmful body image problems, especially for Sirtis and Farrell. I would also argue that the costume was not the singular means of sexualizing the actors. Camera angles, the thigh angles on Sirtis and the low angles on Visitor, could put the focus on body parts despite the costume. Indeed, the form-fitting outfit that Visitor got in the latter seasons meant less sexualization; the original Bajoran uniform had tighter pants, and the camera work did more to show off her posterior. (BTW, both Farrell and Behr spilled thr beans on Visitor: she kept demanding higher heels because she was conscious of the height difference with the other actors. )

 

Problem?
The whole reason Seven wore that suit was because it was a dermal regeneration suit. I just wish she took it off more often to see if it worked.

 

The whole reason Seven wore that suit was "BOOBS!"

 

Sex sells! There's nothing wrong with being sexy, everyone loves it.



It's all about having fun, I thought the catsuits were pretty cool looking, made the characters stand out more.

The only "problem" (it isn't a problem in the slightest) I see is that some people are mad that they're in their catsuits all the time and it isn't a one off treat. If someone doesn't like something the answer these days seems to be to take it away and ruin it for all, we're in an age of mean spiritedness and spite.

Why not dress up a Captain Kirk type character like Marlon Brando, a 1950's style motorcycle rocker with that pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve, greased back hair, he could even work out in the ships holo-gym to show off some muscles.

Either that or throw in a catboi... whatever you want!

 

Isn't this a problem of the past? Other than Michael Burnham's bubble wrap bikini in Discovery's pilot, it's been plain sailing.

 

Worth noting that in this particular instance, the actress' story makes it abundantly clear that this decision was made somewhere above Berman and Braga's heads.

 

This.

It's like I'm reading a thread from the early-2000s.

 

Every female character who was in a catsuit looked far better when actually put in a regular uniform. Until we get an equal number of male characters in just a codpiece and harness I hope that the female catsuit is a trope that has finally died a death.

 

Going to echo the sentiments that this was a product of the times. Not saying that's an excuse or a defense, but it is the reality of the matter. Specifically with Seven of Nine, who was brought onto Voyager for the pure purpose of sexing the show up.

Yes, Sirtis, Ryan and Blalock all looked better when they wore actual Starfleet uniforms than when they wore those silly catsuits. Hell, I thought Sirtis looked better in the "space cheerleader" skant outfit from Farpoint than she did in the outfit she wore for the remainder of the first season, which truly was horrible. The other catsuit outfits she wore were at least better than her season 1 costume, but I digress.

The period that the first five shows were produced in weren't exactly enlightened times for women on television. And considering Rick Berman has actually gone on record to say he feels a woman's only purpose on television is to "look pretty" I'm not at all shocked that some of the franchise's most sexualized female characters are in his era. The modern shows are at least correcting this matter, in that the female characters actually are treated as characters rather than sex objects.

It is worth noting Visitor herself has said she found the form-fitting uniform to be far more comfortable than the uniform she wore in the early seasons.

 

I think the far bigger story is that someone else could’ve played T’Pol, meaning she could have been willing to come back to the role for the current Trek. And that Rhodes seems to have a better career by not playing T’Pol at all.

Keep in mind that if she did get the role of T'Pol, she’d probably have to do a Maxim cover because the producers want her too, and not because she wants to, because that's what the era required.

 

Seven of Nine is great and the catsuit that you need to get sown into and can't fucking breathe in sucks but the worst part to me is that it didn't even work to keep new viewers. There was a ratings increase for "Scorpion 2" but then everything else continued to decline. And there was some article that said it was women who responded to Seven the most rather than the horny 20-30 male demographic so it seems like the whole thing was a waste of everyone's time.

 

Why so negative?

Also in the 4 months between scorpion 1 and Scorpion two, Paramount reran trailers and reran Scorpion part one ad infinitum, so even a casual viewer in the blip between parts had seen Scorpion 1 at least three times.

 

Thank God we have something controversial and topical to discuss.

 

Well, it is amazing how attitudes changed between ENT and DSC-- apparently Tilly will be returning, heavier than ever....hopefully not in a catsuit. What does that say about Starfleet's fitness standards.

 

Let's not not attempt to excuse the micro-skirts that barely covered the butts of the characters in TOS as "empowering".
Yes, Nichelle Nichols might have felt like that and that's okay, it was her right to have her own opinions.

But in practice the micro-skirts were definitely sexualized and explorative, pretty much every young/young-ish woman who appeared on screen in TOS wore some sort of revealing clothing, had luxurious hair and had close-ups in soft-focus.

So it isn't a "problem" that suddenly appeared in the 80s. It has been endemic with Star Trek from the beginning (the Orion Slave girl was in the pilot)
All they did in the 80s was switching form micro-skirts to catsuits.