I've always been rather facinated by the divergent reactions to Star Trek's first two non-white male leading characters.
It seems as if, in terms of firsts, both producer thinking and fan reaction seemed to obsess more over Janeway as the first woman than Sisko as the first person of color.
For instance, the writers and producers on DS9 decided pretty early on to simply create a lead without stressing too much over his ethnicity. They knew they wanted a black lead b ut they did not go out of their way to dramatically craft an "ethnic" character. Thus Sisko's arrival was met with much less fan fare and stress. No one ever really freaked out that somehow Sisko's behaviour would reflect positively or negatively on minorities (though in fairness, Avery Brooks did have a few things to say about ensuring that the depiction of Sisko's relationship with his son and family were positive and healthy). Ultimately, Sisko was largely unencumbered by restraints on the character. He was a minority, but was allowed to be both the angry black man when warranted, and the cool badass leader. He was allowed to simply be a wide array of things within the context of the story. He was devoted father, war time leader, politician, confidant/advisor/mentor, religious icon, god like being and and vengeful idealogue.
Thus my love of the character had absolutely nothing to do with his race, and nothing to do with seeing someone like me in the leading role. Instead I could love the character because he was just a really good well written character.
As a side note, very little fuss was made over the fact that both his first and second officers were women.
Unlike Sisko, EVERYONE seemed to make a big deal over the fact that Janeway was the first female lead. Every aspect of the character was was filtered through the lens of trying to have an appropriate female character. Janeway was never allowed to simply be a good character. From the word go, she was held up as some sort of symbol. As a result, the character was never consistently written and her actions were always limited. Part of the Problem was Jerri Taylor, who saw it as some sort of sacred duty to ensure that the first woman was portrayed "properly." She could never be wrong, she could not have relationships (something that Mulgrew seemed to buy into) and she had to be the smartest person in the room. Conversely NONE of the male characters were allowed to stand up to her or agressively oppose her positions.
Beyond the producers, many female fans reacted to her as a symbol. To this day criticism and praise for the character are framed in the context of gender.
What do you think accounts for the radically different approaches two these two characters?
It seems as if, in terms of firsts, both producer thinking and fan reaction seemed to obsess more over Janeway as the first woman than Sisko as the first person of color.
For instance, the writers and producers on DS9 decided pretty early on to simply create a lead without stressing too much over his ethnicity. They knew they wanted a black lead b ut they did not go out of their way to dramatically craft an "ethnic" character. Thus Sisko's arrival was met with much less fan fare and stress. No one ever really freaked out that somehow Sisko's behaviour would reflect positively or negatively on minorities (though in fairness, Avery Brooks did have a few things to say about ensuring that the depiction of Sisko's relationship with his son and family were positive and healthy). Ultimately, Sisko was largely unencumbered by restraints on the character. He was a minority, but was allowed to be both the angry black man when warranted, and the cool badass leader. He was allowed to simply be a wide array of things within the context of the story. He was devoted father, war time leader, politician, confidant/advisor/mentor, religious icon, god like being and and vengeful idealogue.
Thus my love of the character had absolutely nothing to do with his race, and nothing to do with seeing someone like me in the leading role. Instead I could love the character because he was just a really good well written character.
As a side note, very little fuss was made over the fact that both his first and second officers were women.
Unlike Sisko, EVERYONE seemed to make a big deal over the fact that Janeway was the first female lead. Every aspect of the character was was filtered through the lens of trying to have an appropriate female character. Janeway was never allowed to simply be a good character. From the word go, she was held up as some sort of symbol. As a result, the character was never consistently written and her actions were always limited. Part of the Problem was Jerri Taylor, who saw it as some sort of sacred duty to ensure that the first woman was portrayed "properly." She could never be wrong, she could not have relationships (something that Mulgrew seemed to buy into) and she had to be the smartest person in the room. Conversely NONE of the male characters were allowed to stand up to her or agressively oppose her positions.
Beyond the producers, many female fans reacted to her as a symbol. To this day criticism and praise for the character are framed in the context of gender.
What do you think accounts for the radically different approaches two these two characters?
). Female captains, women in commanding positions, should not be anything unusual in 24th century Starfleet, and I have no idea why the hell should the Q Continuum be sexist and have gender roles akin to Earth of several centuries before. 
I guess it's open to either interpretation, and both interpretations are credible.
