most sexist episode
- Thread starter urbandk
- Start date
(Although seducing Spock had to be worth whatever trouble followed. 
)
Wow. How about "If only this woman wasn't completely insane. If only this woman hadn't stolen my body and tried to have me committed. If only this woman had tried to succeed on her own merits instead of blaming ME, who had nothing to do with her failures"
There is no denying that there are some sexist aspects to certain
TOS episodes due to the time it was made in. But it never ceases to amaze me how many backflips some people will turn to make cases for sexism when it wasn't there.
That Janice is batshit crazy is part of the point we're making--this episode equates being a woman who finds the institutionalized sexism of her time intolerable with being a lunatic who, rather than wanting equality, really wants to be a man because, to papraphrase Kirk, she hates her own womanhood. This is the textbook dismissal of feminism--all they left out was a scene of Janice (in Kirk's body) hitting on a female crewmember to insinuate they're all lesbians, too. In logical terms, Janice is a straw (wo)man.
No one is saying that Janice isn't a homicidal nutjob. What we are saying is that, in the context of a show which prided itself on its deftness with social and political allegory, the fact that the creators chose to create this character and tell this story is telling. And yes, it is sexist, no backflips required.
I've noticed that science fiction fans play the allegory card right up until the point the allegory becomes uncomfortable, then the story is just about the particulars, with no sub-text admitted: Planet of the Apes, a rancid allegory about race in both the French and American versions, is really just about... talking apes, the Great Melanin Purge of BSG is really just, I dunno, coincidence and Star Trek chose to tell a story that looks like an allegory about "unbalanced" feminism but is really just about one guy's crazy ex-girlfriend. As you wish.
Exactly. The guys who produced Star Trek were mainly New Deal/Kennedy liberals. Those folks were as challenged by the radical politics of the mid-to-late 1960s as anyone (and in fact the whole political coalition built around that loose ideology splintered and failed during that period). Both the youth peace movement and what was then called "black militancy" were as much rejections of 20th century American political liberalism as of they were of any other traditional politics.
TheLonelySquire
Vice Admiral
That Which Survives
Sulu: "Stop or I'll shoot!! I don't want to have to kill a woman!"
Isn't it ironc.......don't you think.
Hey, straight girls often say that gay guys treat them better than straight guys do. Perhaps Sulu didn't want to shoot because her outfit and makeup were fabulous and he wanted some pointers before the next drag show (to be held in the ship's bowling alley, natch).
There. I finally succumbed to the tempatation to make a "gay Sulu" joke.
There. I finally succumbed to the tempatation to make a "gay Sulu" joke.
Star Trek and gay rights: a whole other topic.
Yep. And why does Sulu come in for such a drubbing anyway? Just because Takei is gay hardly means Sulu is. After all, if characters and actors had to share sexual orientations, there would have been no Alices on Mudd's Planet but plenty of Oscars...
(Indeed, if characters and actors had to share orientation, I'd hazard to say that easily 1/4 to 1/3 of all characters in tv, movies and the stage would be gay.)
(Indeed, if characters and actors had to share orientation, I'd hazard to say that easily 1/4 to 1/3 of all characters in tv, movies and the stage would be gay.)
"Mud's Women" gets my vote. Women exist to "cook and clean" for their men. They are pretty much property Harry sells to the miners. Bleh. All the women care about is being too ugly without the drug to catch a husband. I want to vomit just writing this. It's a damned depressing story where the women seem no better off than those in Jane Austen's (one of my favorite authors BTW) novels, where all women could expect out of life (if lucky) is to catch a husband.
"Turnabout Intruder" is pretty grim, too. Shatner doing his best gay impression for 40 minutes in a story about no women starship commanders? That's the way I took it. Maybe they meant she was too insane to be a starship commander, but I dunno. It's offensive to women and gays and I belong to neither group.
"Shore Leave?" Not touching that: Barrows was the HOTNESS! Oink! Nobody's perfect!
"Turnabout Intruder" is pretty grim, too. Shatner doing his best gay impression for 40 minutes in a story about no women starship commanders? That's the way I took it. Maybe they meant she was too insane to be a starship commander, but I dunno. It's offensive to women and gays and I belong to neither group.
"Shore Leave?" Not touching that: Barrows was the HOTNESS! Oink! Nobody's perfect!
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You should have seen what they originally had Janice Lester smelling. It wasn't a glove, I can tell you that.
What's wrong with being Takei? I like him...
TheLonelySquire
Vice Admiral
Lol, maybe there's a lot to be said for not having the pressure of being the breadwinner. Maybe not worth the trade off though...
I think you two have won me over. 'Turnabout Intruder' really is the worst, no matter how much one tries to retcon it.
Considering the fact that SP and I are usually (ahem!) on opposite sides of issues around here, I find that post strangely touching. Thanks.
There are lots of moments from various episodes, many of which have been mentioned in this thread already, that are undeniably sexist. It seems like the prevailing attitude was, "Yes, women can have careers, but they are wives and mothers first and foremost... because that's what they want to be." 
There is one moment I don't think has been referred to yet: I don't remember specifically what episode it was (I think it was either "Who Mourns for Adonis?" or "The Lights of Zetar", though I could be wrong), but I recall McCoy talking about a skilled female officer, remarking that it will be a shame to lose her when she finally meets a man, gets married, and leaves Starfleet, because, apparently, such a thing is an inevitability with women.
Uggghhhh....
There is one moment I don't think has been referred to yet: I don't remember specifically what episode it was (I think it was either "Who Mourns for Adonis?" or "The Lights of Zetar", though I could be wrong), but I recall McCoy talking about a skilled female officer, remarking that it will be a shame to lose her when she finally meets a man, gets married, and leaves Starfleet, because, apparently, such a thing is an inevitability with women.
Uggghhhh....
It was "Who Mourns for Adonais?", another episode where a skilled officer has her head turned by a sexy dude and (inadvertantly or not) betrays her people (see also "Space Seed" and, from the other side, "The Enterprise Incident").
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ST-One
Vice Admiral
Definitely "Turnabout Intruder."
Sorry ladies, you can be telephone operators (Uhura,) nurses (Chapel,) or secretaries (Rand,) but you can't be a Starship captain. Might start an intergalactic war if the Romulans or Klingons meet you at the wrong time of the month.
Well, at least that German SciFi-show gave us one of the strongest, coolest General's ever:
Lydia van Dyke, Chief of Earth's Battleship-fleet and Commander of the Hydra
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