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I just noticed Kirk got kicked in the balls by Finnegan.

You would think in a diverse Federation a human having blonde hair would be no big deal lol
I just encountered the supposed fact that 1-in-3 women dyes her hair "a shade light enough to be considered blonde."
I'm not sure I buy that globally. It's a bit implausible even if they meant only in the US.
Then again, if you told me 1-in-3 women who colors her hair uses a shade of blonde I'd say that seems a little low. (Maybe I'm behind the times. I know colors not found in nature havebeen gaining in popularity, but I don't think they collectively beat elderly brunettes in denial about going grey.)

Anyway, it hardly strains probability to have most of Kirk's romantic interests be blonde.
 
I've always taken Ruth to be an older woman in a relationship with cadet Kirk ever since I was old enough to start piecing those details together.

I've also always taken Carol Marcus as the little blonde lab technician. We don't know how long their relationship lasted but it ended around 5 years before Kirk's command of the Enterprise in "Where No Man..."

Interestingly, according to Memory Alpha, Kirk was in a relationship with Janet Wallace the year David was born. The following year saw Kirk in a relationship with Areel Shaw (well, that was the last time they saw each other prior to his court martial trial).
 
I agree that Ruth was an older woman Kirk met while he was at the academy. She may have had nothing to do with Starfleet at all.
 
Anyway, it hardly strains probability to have most of Kirk's romantic interests be blonde.
Not a strain on probability, but a strain that the fascination our present culture has with blondes will extend to a diverse Federation, where for example a whole race of people have white hair as a given (Andorians) and a lot of them are not even humanoid e.g Caitians
 
I've also always taken Carol Marcus as the little blonde lab technician. We don't know how long their relationship lasted but it ended around 5 years before Kirk's command of the Enterprise in "Where No Man..."
I'm assuming that you worked that out from the presumed date of David's birth?
Interestingly, according to Memory Alpha, Kirk was in a relationship with Janet Wallace the year David was born. The following year saw Kirk in a relationship with Areel Shaw (well, that was the last time they saw each other prior to his court martial trial).
I have Kirk and Carol's relationship starting in 2257 while he's at Command School (Yes, she's the little blonde lab technician). Their breakup is in early 2260, with David being born in September of that year. Kirk's relationship with Janet Wallace is in 2262 (his first serious relationship after his breakup with Carol), and Areel Shaw is in 2263.

My dates are a bit different than the official chronology because I have TWOK taking place in 2283 instead of 2285, and I believe that TOS covered all five years of the 5YM, not just three in the middle.
 
JQ, did you square the Janet Wallace date with the "how long has it been?" conversation in TDY?
 
Not a strain on probability, but a strain that the fascination our present culture has with blondes will extend to a diverse Federation, where for example a whole race of people have white hair as a given (Andorians) and a lot of them are not even humanoid e.g Caitians
The thing is, our current fascination with blondes is rooted in our dna, and isn't going away any time soon.
In brief: most women with blonde hair have their hair turn darker as they get older, so blonde hair is a signal that a woman is still young enough to bear children.
It's sorta like high heels: children have legs that are shorter compared to their torso. In puberty, the legs grow more than the torso, so long legs is a signal that a woman is old enough to bear children.
And yes, that part of our brain is dumb enough that even longer legs suggests even more fertility. So the illusion of longer legs created by high heels is attractive to men.
 
The thing is, our current fascination with blondes is rooted in our dna, and isn't going away any time soon.
In brief: most women with blonde hair have their hair turn darker as they get older, so blonde hair is a signal that a woman is still young enough to bear children.
It's sorta like high heels: children have legs that are shorter compared to their torso. In puberty, the legs grow more than the torso, so long legs is a signal that a woman is old enough to bear children.
And yes, that part of our brain is dumb enough that even longer legs suggests even more fertility. So the illusion of longer legs created by high heels is attractive to men.

Rooted in ones cultural DNA perhaps. If you lived on a planet or island where blonde hair was as special as red, brown or black hair or was not considered special at all, you would soon find out your DNA had nothing to do with the present, real life cultural preference that you were born and raised in. My friends and I visited Aarhus, Denmark in 1987 where seeing someone like me (the complete opposite of blonde, pale skin and blue eyed) was not the norm back then, most of the people were of traditional 'Nordic' appearance. The cultural fascination was reversed.
 
Now the problem for young males today is the super strict no fighting. If someone clocks you, and you dare to fight back, suspension for you both!

And now males have no weapons against the bastards.

Uh....nope. That's not a new thing. One time in biology class, the kid in front of me was harassing me. I told him stop a couple of times, then told him if he did it again, I'd kick his ass. He did it again and I threw a punch at him and we started a fight. The teacher wrote us both up and ignored me when I tried to tell him what happened. We both got sent to the principal and told our side of the story. The other kid completely owned up to everything in front of the principle and said it was all his fault and that I shouldn't be punished.

This wasn't this kid's first trip to the principles office, but it was mine. I believed in staying off the radar, so my record was clear. The principle noted this, accepted that the other kid was responsible for instigating everything and understood why I did what I did. However, he did not want students to think that they could get away with fighting in school...and I was to receive the same punishment as the kid who started it all.

This was in the early 80's...in Texas.

The other kid apologized to me for everything, including me getting pops. We became friends of a sort after that.
 
Rooted in ones cultural DNA perhaps. If you lived on a planet or island where blonde hair was as special as red, brown or black hair or was not considered special at all, you would soon find out your DNA had nothing to do with the present, real life cultural preference that you were born and raised in. My friends and I visited Aarhus, Denmark in 1987 where seeing someone like me (the complete opposite of blonde, pale skin and blue eyed) was not the norm back then, most of the people were of traditional 'Nordic' appearance. The cultural fascination was reversed.
I think you're conflating two things, and I think neither of them is strictly cultural.
There is a definite attraction to "obviously not from around here". It's why people find accents sexy. And it exists because adding new genes to the local pool occasionally has proven beneficial. So if someone looks or sounds obviously foreign, part of your brain goes "I bet (he/she) has some interesting dna. We should mate with that."

There is also an attraction to physical signs of fertility. This is because people who mate with fertile people generally have more kids than those who don't. So an inherited attraction to certain physical attributes is pro-survival, in the long term.
Attraction to long legs isn't cultural, it's physiological: long legs show she's ready to mate. And as I said, that part of your brain is stupid enough that it works even when you know you're being lied to.
Blonde hair is like that: it's a big sign that says "this womb is open for business", and it works even when you know you're being lied to.

Now, it's possible those aren't genetic, but I think they exist at a level deeper than culture.
And if they are genetic, ... well, the attraction to blonde hair can't be older than blonde hair itself, so there's a good chance that a big chunk of Earth's population doesn't have it.

Anyway, rowing desperately back towards the supposed topic, it seems unlikely that this slight bias towards blonde women among heterosexual caucasian men collectively is going away in the next few hundred years, and therefore some women will choose to alter their appearance to yank on that lever. Similarly, natural blondes will remain a significant fraction of the population for centuries to come.
That the majority of women James Kirk had relationships with before commanding the Enterprise (that we know of) were apparently blonde is no more remarkable than that they were all caucasian.
 
That the majority of women James Kirk had relationships with before commanding the Enterprise (that we know of) were apparently blonde is no more remarkable than that they were all caucasian.
At least Kelvin Kirk is not so biased..he is an equal opportunity dater lol:lol:
 
Uh....nope. That's not a new thing. One time in biology class, the kid in front of me was harassing me. I told him stop a couple of times, then told him if he did it again, I'd kick his ass. He did it again and I threw a punch at him and we started a fight. The teacher wrote us both up and ignored me when I tried to tell him what happened. We both got sent to the principal and told our side of the story. The other kid completely owned up to everything in front of the principle and said it was all his fault and that I shouldn't be punished.

This wasn't this kid's first trip to the principles office, but it was mine. I believed in staying off the radar, so my record was clear. The principle noted this, accepted that the other kid was responsible for instigating everything and understood why I did what I did. However, he did not want students to think that they could get away with fighting in school...and I was to receive the same punishment as the kid who started it all.

This was in the early 80's...in Texas.

The other kid apologized to me for everything, including me getting pops. We became friends of a sort after that.
In Australia they're now applying zero tolerance to violence at schools or filming them.
I have a child who for years was constantly the victim of bullies. Eventually he started hurting himself to avoid school. After getting no help from the school after 3 phone calls I eventually said to my son. Just punch them. I don't care if you're suspended from school. I wrote a note and put it in his bag.
If they question you tell them I told them to hit them back after they hit you. My son has never hit anyone in his life. Not me, not his sister, not anyone. The perfect victim.
I understand there are circumstances where bullies make friends with their victims but there are people like my son who are different (la bit like Sheldon) who aren't able to defend themselves, who hate everyday they have to walk past someone who kicks them or trips them and has to be careful not to go to the toilet alone.

Obviously Jim Kirk's bullying did not affect him significantly for the rest of his life and he was able to deal with it and maybe it made him a better man.
 
I am uncertain if Finnegan's stuff ever really elevated to fighting and was mostly just pratical jokes and maybe hazing. People though I am guessing in the Star Trek universe though are more evolved to a point where hazing isn't as bad as it has been in modern times, granted Kirk does fight him but I also wonder what is going on in his mind. Surely he knows the Finnegan he see's isn't the real person and knows something weird and unusual is going on because everyone else is seeing things they shouldn't be seeing as well.


Jason
 
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