Over the last 18 months my wife and I have started watching various episodes of Star Trek with my niece who is now 9 and a half years old. We babysit her once or twice a month and it's turned into a bit of a tradition of watching an episode before she gets ready for bed.
Her favourite series is TOS and we have watched over a dozen episodes all of which she has loved. We have also watched several episodes of TNG and DS9 and started watching Voyager a few months ago. Generally what we do is that we watch episodes in relative sequence based on where my wife and I are in our own schedule with each series. We skip "scarier" ones that have things like monsters or too much threat and conflict in them as my niece is still a bit on the squeamish side for a kid her age. This has worked great so far and she has really taken to the shows and started calling herself "a bit of a Trekkie". She has even started asking to watch episodes back home and has a few merchandise toys that she treasures.
So far so good.
Enter Seven of Nine.
We watched our first episode of Voyager last night featuring Seven of Nine. We picked an episode that I have always been rather fond of called the Omega Directive.
Now something that I have been concerned about since getting back into season 4 has been Seven of Nine's costume. The last time I watched Voyager is just under 10 years ago which was my second re-watch at the time after Voyager's original broadcast. I was in my early 20s back then and it never really bothered me that Seven was given such a blatantly sexualised outfit. Sure, I would have preferred something a bit more measured but, generally, I just saw right past it (I know, hard to believe...).
Anyhow, re-watching her come onto the show this time I have been quite uncomfortable with how jarring her attire actually is. It really lacks dignity and respect for the actress and character. In fact from what I have read they used additional undergarments like a corset to further enhance her sexually evocative physique which were so uncomfortable for Jeri Ryan to wear that she would pass out on set. This treatment of Seven of Nine also seems to have lead to a degree of alienation with the rest of the cast in particular Kate Mulgrew.
I feel this aspect of the show has aged absolutely terribly. I have wondered if that is just me, or the fact we live in the #Metoo era or that tastes just change. Interestingly, my wife, although a staunch feminist, seemed not to mind it that much and quickly saw Seven of Nine's personal strengths as a female character. However this doesn't mean she wouldn't prefer her wearing something more respectful.
My niece, on the other hand, really struggled. In fact I would say it disturbed her. From the moment Seven appears, (we had already explained the background of the character), she completely fixated on her clothing. Asking question after question about why she was wearing something that made her look naked (her words).
Her costume of course stands in extreme contrast to the rest of the cast. Even the non-Starfleet characters. Essentially what I think unnerved her was that in the supposedly professional work environment of Starfleet, this one young woman is singled out to wear the opposite of professional clothing for no practical reason. In fact my niece gave at least half a dozen arguments of why it would be unpractical to wear what Seven was wearing. In addition, the costume and camera angles also make her body look out of proportion. Especially her chest is enormous in some scenes. This "distortion" was picked up on by my niece and she clearly found it confusing. It is also interesting that she has never batted as much as an eye-lid at some of the skimpy clothing actresses wore on TOS. Which means this isn't just down to childish prudishness.
I think that the style of filming and the costume of Seven which was indeed designed to be "skin-like" and therefore evoke nudity feels like a violation of her dignity. For example my niece pointed out how Seven was quite stiff and awkward in her personality and she seemed to think that this was linked to her looking "naked" and how embarrassing that must be. I tried to reassure her that her character would be free to choose any clothing she wanted in the show just like Neelix or Kes and that her character didn't feel the typical embarrassments you learn from growing up in human society but she did not accept this. She clearly understood that this was a choice made by the makers of the show for dubious motives.
Now I'm not suggesting my niece, who has not yet started puberty, understood the full sexual subtext of all of this. But she is bright and what she did understand was that there was a disconnect in how this one character was represented in comparison to everybody else. How this clashed with what she had learnt to expect from Star Trek. That this is a show that values dignity and decency for every individual. It troubled her so much that we had to abandon the episode and I felt I had some pre-emptive explaining to do when she was picked up this morning by my sister-in-law.
I have to say this has left me feeling a bit unnerved and embarrassed about the show and I don't know how easy it will be for me to look past this in the future. I feel it is such a shame because Seven has so many strong feminist qualities. Far more so, in my opinion, than what you get from some of the Mary-Sues of current sci-fi franchises even if the way they are filmed and dressed is more respectful of women.
Something else that might have influenced this is that my niece has grown up in an environment where women are in strong professional roles. Her mum is a senior police officer, her mum's mother is a judge and her mum's sister a physicist. On the other side my mother is a headmistress of a secondary school and my wife is a GP. She goes to a middle class school where the mum's of her friends tend to have similar white collar professions. I doubt she has ever seen a woman dress like Seven of Nine before. My wife suggested the only place you would, in the real world, is the red light district.
In the end Seven's outfit does not make you think it is a free choice. On the show itself, it is the male gendered holographic doctor who selected and designed the outfit (honestly, how could this ever be endorsed by a medical professional?). It all just seems so out of place and as time has passed it is now sticking out like a sore thumb in every episode. It is a sad irony that the one Star Trek show that elevated more women into powerful, classically male dominated leadership roles (CO, chief engineer, chief science officer) than any before should have a problem like this.
Her favourite series is TOS and we have watched over a dozen episodes all of which she has loved. We have also watched several episodes of TNG and DS9 and started watching Voyager a few months ago. Generally what we do is that we watch episodes in relative sequence based on where my wife and I are in our own schedule with each series. We skip "scarier" ones that have things like monsters or too much threat and conflict in them as my niece is still a bit on the squeamish side for a kid her age. This has worked great so far and she has really taken to the shows and started calling herself "a bit of a Trekkie". She has even started asking to watch episodes back home and has a few merchandise toys that she treasures.
So far so good.
Enter Seven of Nine.
We watched our first episode of Voyager last night featuring Seven of Nine. We picked an episode that I have always been rather fond of called the Omega Directive.
Now something that I have been concerned about since getting back into season 4 has been Seven of Nine's costume. The last time I watched Voyager is just under 10 years ago which was my second re-watch at the time after Voyager's original broadcast. I was in my early 20s back then and it never really bothered me that Seven was given such a blatantly sexualised outfit. Sure, I would have preferred something a bit more measured but, generally, I just saw right past it (I know, hard to believe...).
Anyhow, re-watching her come onto the show this time I have been quite uncomfortable with how jarring her attire actually is. It really lacks dignity and respect for the actress and character. In fact from what I have read they used additional undergarments like a corset to further enhance her sexually evocative physique which were so uncomfortable for Jeri Ryan to wear that she would pass out on set. This treatment of Seven of Nine also seems to have lead to a degree of alienation with the rest of the cast in particular Kate Mulgrew.
I feel this aspect of the show has aged absolutely terribly. I have wondered if that is just me, or the fact we live in the #Metoo era or that tastes just change. Interestingly, my wife, although a staunch feminist, seemed not to mind it that much and quickly saw Seven of Nine's personal strengths as a female character. However this doesn't mean she wouldn't prefer her wearing something more respectful.
My niece, on the other hand, really struggled. In fact I would say it disturbed her. From the moment Seven appears, (we had already explained the background of the character), she completely fixated on her clothing. Asking question after question about why she was wearing something that made her look naked (her words).
Her costume of course stands in extreme contrast to the rest of the cast. Even the non-Starfleet characters. Essentially what I think unnerved her was that in the supposedly professional work environment of Starfleet, this one young woman is singled out to wear the opposite of professional clothing for no practical reason. In fact my niece gave at least half a dozen arguments of why it would be unpractical to wear what Seven was wearing. In addition, the costume and camera angles also make her body look out of proportion. Especially her chest is enormous in some scenes. This "distortion" was picked up on by my niece and she clearly found it confusing. It is also interesting that she has never batted as much as an eye-lid at some of the skimpy clothing actresses wore on TOS. Which means this isn't just down to childish prudishness.
I think that the style of filming and the costume of Seven which was indeed designed to be "skin-like" and therefore evoke nudity feels like a violation of her dignity. For example my niece pointed out how Seven was quite stiff and awkward in her personality and she seemed to think that this was linked to her looking "naked" and how embarrassing that must be. I tried to reassure her that her character would be free to choose any clothing she wanted in the show just like Neelix or Kes and that her character didn't feel the typical embarrassments you learn from growing up in human society but she did not accept this. She clearly understood that this was a choice made by the makers of the show for dubious motives.
Now I'm not suggesting my niece, who has not yet started puberty, understood the full sexual subtext of all of this. But she is bright and what she did understand was that there was a disconnect in how this one character was represented in comparison to everybody else. How this clashed with what she had learnt to expect from Star Trek. That this is a show that values dignity and decency for every individual. It troubled her so much that we had to abandon the episode and I felt I had some pre-emptive explaining to do when she was picked up this morning by my sister-in-law.
I have to say this has left me feeling a bit unnerved and embarrassed about the show and I don't know how easy it will be for me to look past this in the future. I feel it is such a shame because Seven has so many strong feminist qualities. Far more so, in my opinion, than what you get from some of the Mary-Sues of current sci-fi franchises even if the way they are filmed and dressed is more respectful of women.
Something else that might have influenced this is that my niece has grown up in an environment where women are in strong professional roles. Her mum is a senior police officer, her mum's mother is a judge and her mum's sister a physicist. On the other side my mother is a headmistress of a secondary school and my wife is a GP. She goes to a middle class school where the mum's of her friends tend to have similar white collar professions. I doubt she has ever seen a woman dress like Seven of Nine before. My wife suggested the only place you would, in the real world, is the red light district.
In the end Seven's outfit does not make you think it is a free choice. On the show itself, it is the male gendered holographic doctor who selected and designed the outfit (honestly, how could this ever be endorsed by a medical professional?). It all just seems so out of place and as time has passed it is now sticking out like a sore thumb in every episode. It is a sad irony that the one Star Trek show that elevated more women into powerful, classically male dominated leadership roles (CO, chief engineer, chief science officer) than any before should have a problem like this.
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