Do people with southern accents seem weird in oldTrek?

[Wadjda]

By old Trek i mean not the JJverse, the other on screen stuff. They kind of take me out of it just like with SW which had one southerner in that goofy Droids cartoon. I really don't know why that is. Maybe it's because we don't really see rednecks in utopian settings. I could see one in JJTek which seems less utopian and more grounded as far as society is concerned. What about you?

 

[Christopher]

Gene Roddenberry himself was born in El Paso, Texas. So Star Trek was created by a Southerner.

The South isn't just an undifferentiated mass of "rednecks" -- that's as hurtful and unfair a stereotype as any other. A Southern accent doesn't make someone a right-winger or a bigot or an uneducated hick.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Not everyone with a Southern accent is a redneck.

But then it seems okay for a Frenchman to have an English accent.

 

[MacLeod]

Perhaps France was annexed by the UK following WWIII.

 

[Wadjda]

Gene Roddenberry himself was born in El Paso, Texas. So Star Trek was created by a Southerner.

The South isn't just an undifferentiated mass of "rednecks" -- that's as hurtful and unfair a stereotype as any other. A Southern accent doesn't make someone a right-winger or a bigot or an uneducated hick.

I never stated any of that. It just takes me out because of the prevalence of above mentioned stereotypes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Since Star Trek is not a utopia and not all southerners are "rednecks" you're starting from two false premises.

 

[Wadjda]

It is utopian compared to pretty much all of human history.

 

[Christopher]

I never stated any of that. It just takes me out because of the prevalence of above mentioned stereotypes.

But if you recognize the absurdity of such stereotypes, then it shouldn't "take you out of it" at all. There is not a single valid reason why a person with a Southern accent can't be a good, intelligent, enlightened, caring person. Your implication that Southern accents are somehow inappropriate for inclusion in a work like Star Trek because of the kind of personality they suggest is deeply dismissive and derogatory, whether you realize it or not.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It is utopian compared to pretty much all of human history.

Your standard for "utopia" must be pretty low. Trek has death, war, destruction and all sorts of bad stuff.

 

[Christopher]

It's perfectly valid to describe ST as utopian, because it depicts a future society in which humanity has solved its problems and built a better society. The crises and destruction we see usually come from outside that society, or from rogue forces within it, and are the exceptions to the rule.

What isn't valid at all is the implication that people with Southern accents wouldn't be present in a utopian society. The whole point of the Federation's utopianism is that it welcomes everyone, regardless of who they are.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's perfectly valid to describe ST as utopian, because it depicts a future society in which humanity has solved its problems and built a better society. The crises and destruction we see usually come from outside that society, or from rogue forces within it, and are the exceptions to the rule.

What isn't valid at all is the implication that people with Southern accents wouldn't be present in a utopian society. The whole point of the Federation's utopianism is that it welcomes everyone, regardless of who they are.

But Trek isn't set on Earth and doesn't spend a lot of time dealing with the "better society".

 

[Wadjda]

I never stated any of that. It just takes me out because of the prevalence of above mentioned stereotypes.

But if you recognize the absurdity of such stereotypes, then it shouldn't "take you out of it" at all. There is not a single valid reason why a person with a Southern accent can't be a good, intelligent, enlightened, caring person. Your implication that Southern accents are somehow inappropriate for inclusion in a work like Star Trek because of the kind of personality they suggest is deeply dismissive and derogatory, whether you realize it or not.

I said it feels weird for me in old Trek. I fail to see how it's dismissive. Some things just feel weird like my example in the OP about Star Wars Droids. It's not a value judgement.

 

[Armored Saint]

It's only weird when they're using their spitoon and refuse to give their phaser after an assignment in the name of the Second amendment.

Since Star Trek is not a utopia and not all southerners are "rednecks" you're starting from two false premises.

There's also a major contradiction: If Earth is an utopian and united world where all humans coexist peacefully no matter their origins, there's no problem to see a dude from the South on a Starship.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I never stated any of that. It just takes me out because of the prevalence of above mentioned stereotypes.

But if you recognize the absurdity of such stereotypes, then it shouldn't "take you out of it" at all. There is not a single valid reason why a person with a Southern accent can't be a good, intelligent, enlightened, caring person. Your implication that Southern accents are somehow inappropriate for inclusion in a work like Star Trek because of the kind of personality they suggest is deeply dismissive and derogatory, whether you realize it or not.

I said it feels weird for me in old Trek. I fail to see how it's dismissive. Some things just feel weird like my example in the OP about Star Wars Droids. It's not a value judgement.

Would you feel the same about another accent that you associate with "low class"? You're making a value judgement based on speech.

McCoy, a character from TOS and one that's pretty much iconic has a southern accent. So its been part of Trek since the beginning.

 

[Wadjda]

McCoy had a southern accent? I have to check TOS again. One can easily be a rich southerner and have the accent.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

McCoy had a southern accent? I have to check TOS again. One can easily be a rich southerner and have the accent.

It became exaggerated when he was drunk or otherwise impaired. Consult "This Side of Paradise" and "The Deadly Years."

 

[Nerys Myk]

McCoy had a southern accent? I have to check TOS again. One can easily be a rich southerner and have the accent.

You didn't know McCoy ( and Kelley ) are southerners? Wow. There are all types of southern accents, that cover many social and cultural groups.

 

[JD5000]

If Kirk had been a Masshole, it would have been hilarious. Instead of 'Take us in' it would have been 'Pahk it hahd in the yahd, Sully."

 

[T'Girl]

On my short list of favorite Trek characters are Bones and Trip. So I consider a southern accent to be perfectly normal part of Star Trek, Bones and Trip actual have different southern accents.

It's too bad (given his origins) that Sisko didn't have a little bit of Creole in his speech, Joseph too. It would have given "spice" to the characters.

I do wonder, really no offense in tended, where the OP poster is from that Southern accents would be considered "weird?" Such perspectives are not unheard of, in the viewpoint of many of the people where I live (the Pacific Northwest) those with a "American mid-Atlantic" accent are generally perceived to be, in all honesty, dense.

But many of the people on Star Trek have a variation of that accent.

 

[Nerys Myk]

If Kirk had been a Masshole, it would have been hilarious. Instead of 'Take us in' it would have been 'Pahk it hahd in the yahd, Sully."

Or Picard spoke with a Yorkshire accent. "Mek it sa numba 'un!"