TOS most sexist episodes/moments
- Thread starter jtkirk
- Start date
A lot of the hot ladies were already dressed scantily...
I grew up with the original series and I considered it very progressive (it was) for it's time. I was always off-put by its visual cheesyness though so I tended to bury myself in the novels - especially Alan Dean Foster's novelizations of the animated series. Later of course, the movies and 24th century spin-offs dominated the Trek landscape. It wasn't until a few years ago that I got the DVDs of TOS and watched the episodes I hadn't seen in decades. I was THUNDERSTRUCK by the sexism. It's quite a statement of how far we have come since the sixties. I thought nothing of it in the early seventies reruns era but today, it is shocking.
Against the backdrop of the 60's it was progressive. Why condemn it now? Do you feel guilty for not being outraged then?
ETA: times change...our attitudes change. The show is stuck in a time warp. Of course we look at it with different eyes now. How could we not?
Last edited:
Emma Peel was the real mold breaker, but she was in a BBC series. I have heard the Solow and Justman version of the "Number One" issue and I wouldn't doubt that there's some truth to it. However, I think that there is also some plausability to Roddenberry's version. I would think it's quite possible that NBC gave Roddenberry that version on the record. Even if the biggest reason is Roddenberry's casting couch antics, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that there were a combination of factors at work. A mold breaking female character in a mold breaking proposed series with a producer having the chutzpah to cast his girlfriend in a main role....all of it taken together may be closer to what really happened than any single version.
No. Mini skirts in that time and place were considered a sign of women's liberation and their ability to show their sexuality. Of course, someone noted that the absence of fat legs and or knocked knees was the tip off that were talking fantasy and not reality.
That would be because it's what happened.
Quite right. Until then, women had been expected to be passive and naive about sexual matters. The ideal was a woman who'd faint dead away at the very mention of sex -- which would leave her rather helpless in any sexual situation. So for women to acknowledge, embrace, and display their own sexuality, as they began doing in the '60s, was an assertion of power over their own bodies, of the freedom to choose to express and experience sexuality for themselves rather than remaining passive.
I'm not sure how reliable this is, but I think Grace Lee Whitney took credit for pushing for the miniskirt look. Much like Karen Gillan in Doctor Who today, she chose to dress in a way that showed off her legs.
I'm not sure what you mean by "condemn it." I'm not saying it was wrong of them include all that sexism because in their own minds, they were not being sexist at all; they were being progressive for the time. It does make many of the episodes difficult for me to watch today though. I can understand perfectly when someone 35 or younger watches TOS and experiences total WTF moments over the blatant sexism and all the racism towards Spock.
TOS was wonderful in its time but many elements of it have become badly and painfully dated.
I tend to enjoy it for the action and drama. Because I love TOS, I tend to gloss over the sexist attitudes knowing that it was progressive in many areas for the time in which it was produced.
The racism toward Spock mirrored my own life as an outsider. It gave me someone with whom I could identify, and it saved me from teenage suicide.
The racism toward Spock mirrored my own life as an outsider. It gave me someone with whom I could identify, and it saved me from teenage suicide.
If the fun is spoiled for you because certain elements of the show don't measure up to your standards that's fine. Everyone has their opinion and certainly there are going to be some elements of TOS that haven't stood the test of time, but anyone who watches nearly 50 year old television shows and is scandalized by anachronistic words and attitudes probably should be watching stuff that's more contemporary. That's my opinion and not meant as an insult.
Teenage suicide! (Don't do it!) Teenage suicide! (She blew it!)
And all this time, I thought she preferred to keep living a fulfilling "life" (albeit a fancy one) than try to build a new life at a very advanced age. Silly me...
Yes, silly you. When Pike thinks she’s attractive, he thinks she should return to human society. When he sees the female’s true appearance, he agrees that she needs to stay on Talos so she can have her illusion of beauty. She says that everything works and the only issue is her appearance.
[url=http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/1.htm]Chrissie's Transcripts[/url] said:
Yep, you're right it has to be sexist. Couldn't be any other reason.
Yep, you’re right, I’m really going way out on a limb by assuming that when Pike says he agrees with her reason he’s referring to the reason she gave him.
The idea that she couldn't face rebuilding her life at that age in a completely new environment has to be sexist? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
