Uhura in Mirror, Mirror

[Red Ranger]

As for why NBC let her go on "navel maneuvers" that Barb Eden could only dream of, maybe it was the old racist mentality that Nichols could do it, because it was "expected" of someone who was non-white; we are talking about October of '67, after all. Before anyone protests or blushes, consider this: look at the number of original cast members of "Sesame Street" on NET/PBS only a couple of years later, and you'll see a number of blacks and latinos, who were deliberately selected to stimulate their audience because they would not be seen as authority figures.

Wingsley,

I think you hit the nail right on the head why they let Nichelle Nichols show off her belly button and not Barbara Eden. It's the old "National Geographic" mentality that allowed them to show naked breasts of non-white members of primitive tribes and not the breasts of white women anywhere else except in Playboy and other skin mags.

And yes, I love Uhura, esp. in "Mirror, Mirror"! Like the o.p., I have had the longest crush on Nichelle Nichols, even when she did the fan dance in "TFF." But esp. back in the day, I would've loved to have been a fellow junior officer on the Enterprise and just sit at her feet and look into her eyes.

Red Ranger

 

[Procutus]

Great pic, that's what I'm talking about.

Indeed.






Yeah, I always was fond of Uhura as well, and I loved her look in MM, still my favorite TOS ep.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

As for why NBC let her go on "navel maneuvers" that Barb Eden could only dream of, maybe it was the old racist mentality that Nichols could do it, because it was "expected" of someone who was non-white; we are talking about October of '67, after all. Before anyone protests or blushes, consider this: look at the number of original cast members of "Sesame Street" on NET/PBS only a couple of years later, and you'll see a number of blacks and latinos, who were deliberately selected to stimulate their audience because they would not be seen as authority figures.

Wingsley,

I think you hit the nail right on the head why they let Nichelle Nichols show off her belly button and not Barbara Eden. It's the old "National Geographic" mentality that allowed them to show naked breasts of non-white members of primitive tribes and not the breasts of white women anywhere else except in Playboy and other skin mags.

And yes, I love Uhura, esp. in "Mirror, Mirror"! Like the o.p., I have had the longest crush on Nichelle Nichols, even when she did the fan dance in "TFF." But esp. back in the day, I would've loved to have been a fellow junior officer on the Enterprise and just sit at her feet and look into her eyes.

Red Ranger

I just had a quick look and Kirk's woman in the episode also bares her navel. She doesn't look "whitey-white" but she's not black either.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x23/theomegaglory_332.jpg

 

[HRHTheKING]

In the MU, Uhura should herself have been a segregationist towards aliens and advocated human supremacy.

 

[Red Ranger]

As for why NBC let her go on "navel maneuvers" that Barb Eden could only dream of, maybe it was the old racist mentality that Nichols could do it, because it was "expected" of someone who was non-white; we are talking about October of '67, after all. Before anyone protests or blushes, consider this: look at the number of original cast members of "Sesame Street" on NET/PBS only a couple of years later, and you'll see a number of blacks and latinos, who were deliberately selected to stimulate their audience because they would not be seen as authority figures.

Wingsley,

I think you hit the nail right on the head why they let Nichelle Nichols show off her belly button and not Barbara Eden. It's the old "National Geographic" mentality that allowed them to show naked breasts of non-white members of primitive tribes and not the breasts of white women anywhere else except in Playboy and other skin mags.

And yes, I love Uhura, esp. in "Mirror, Mirror"! Like the o.p., I have had the longest crush on Nichelle Nichols, even when she did the fan dance in "TFF." But esp. back in the day, I would've loved to have been a fellow junior officer on the Enterprise and just sit at her feet and look into her eyes.

Red Ranger

I just had a quick look and Kirk's woman in the episode also bares her navel. She doesn't look "whitey-white" but she's not black either.


Mr. Adventure: You are correct. Marlena was played by Barbara Luna, who was part Filipina and a whole smorgasbord of ethnicities -- check out her profile on IMDB.com. So the deal is she was also probably considered non-white and fair game to allow her to expose her belly button. She's a hottie, too! BTW, I just noticed that two of the other women certainly appear Caucasian, so maybe ST really did try to break the rules! -- RR

 

[AxelFoley]

Yes she was hot too, I knew she had some kind of asian in her.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Yes she was hot too, I knew she had some kind of asian in her.

Sulu?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Wingsley,

I think you hit the nail right on the head why they let Nichelle Nichols show off her belly button and not Barbara Eden. It's the old "National Geographic" mentality that allowed them to show naked breasts of non-white members of primitive tribes and not the breasts of white women anywhere else except in Playboy and other skin mags.

And yes, I love Uhura, esp. in "Mirror, Mirror"! Like the o.p., I have had the longest crush on Nichelle Nichols, even when she did the fan dance in "TFF." But esp. back in the day, I would've loved to have been a fellow junior officer on the Enterprise and just sit at her feet and look into her eyes.

Red Ranger

I just had a quick look and Kirk's woman in the episode also bares her navel. She doesn't look "whitey-white" but she's not black either.


Mr. Adventure: You are correct. Marlena was played by Barbara Luna, who was part Filipina and a whole smorgasbord of ethnicities -- check out her profile on IMDB.com. So the deal is she was also probably considered non-white and fair game to allow her to expose her belly button. She's a hottie, too! BTW, I just noticed that two of the other women certainly appear Caucasian, so maybe ST really did try to break the rules! -- RR

You still assume there even was a rule that "only Caucasian women can't show their belly buttons on TV".

 

[AxelFoley]

Yes she was hot too, I knew she had some kind of asian in her.

Sulu?

No, Marlena.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ I think you might be missing the joke

 

[Michael]

^ My thoughts exactly.

 

[AxelFoley]

^^ I think you might be missing the joke

I'm sorry man, got it now. It's 4:30 in the morning over here in Sweden, I'll use that as an excuse

 

[Michael]

^ So why aren't you sleeping then!?

No, you're right. It's also 4:30 in Germany now (we share the time zone) and I ought to go to bed ...

EDIT to ask: Say, is Star Trek dubbed in Sweden?

 

[AxelFoley]

^ So why aren't you sleeping then!?

No, you're right. It's also 4:30 in Germany now (we share the time zone) and I ought to go to bed ...

Ah, a German. Ach so?

Well I'm a nightowl but I am getting a bit tired. Will head for the sack soon as well.

 

[Red Ranger]

I just had a quick look and Kirk's woman in the episode also bares her navel. She doesn't look "whitey-white" but she's not black either.

EDIT: Just to belabor the point:
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x05/theapple_323.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x04/TOS_2x10_MirrorMirror0234-Trekpulse.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x23/theomegaglory_332.jpg

Mr. Adventure: You are correct. Marlena was played by Barbara Luna, who was part Filipina and a whole smorgasbord of ethnicities -- check out her profile on IMDB.com. So the deal is she was also probably considered non-white and fair game to allow her to expose her belly button. She's a hottie, too! BTW, I just noticed that two of the other women certainly appear Caucasian, so maybe ST really did try to break the rules! -- RR

You still assume there even was a rule that "only Caucasian women can't show their belly buttons on TV".

And you're still missing my point. Let me try to explain it further. At that time, sensibilities about what was permissible for "proper, white women" were different than for "exotic" non-white women, as the stereotype persisted, and still does, that women of "color" had looser morals, while "white" women were put on pedestals. Therefore, white women couldn't bare certain body parts, but just as I tried to explain, it was quite alright even for a general circulation publication like National Geographic to show bare breasts of women of color. That attitude probably persisted among the censors of the time, who were almost certainly white men, and therefore they probably were OK with allowing women of color to be seen as more sexual beings. Sure, the pics you posted show that maybe that wasn't the case for the censors dealing with ST, but not all of them on TV. -- Red Ranger

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Mr. Adventure: You are correct. Marlena was played by Barbara Luna, who was part Filipina and a whole smorgasbord of ethnicities -- check out her profile on IMDB.com. So the deal is she was also probably considered non-white and fair game to allow her to expose her belly button. She's a hottie, too! BTW, I just noticed that two of the other women certainly appear Caucasian, so maybe ST really did try to break the rules! -- RR

You still assume there even was a rule that "only Caucasian women can't show their belly buttons on TV".

And you're still missing my point. Let me try to explain it further. At that time, sensibilities about what was permissible for "proper, white women" were different than for "exotic" non-white women, as the stereotype persisted, and still does, that women of "color" had looser morals, while "white" women were put on pedestals. Therefore, white women couldn't bare certain body parts, but just as I tried to explain, it was quite alright even for a general circulation publication like National Geographic to show bare breasts of women of color. That attitude probably persisted among the censors of the time, who were almost certainly white men, and therefore they probably were OK with allowing women of color to be seen as more sexual beings. Sure, the pics you posted show that maybe that wasn't the case for the censors dealing with ST, but not all of them on TV. -- Red Ranger

I got that but you're still assuming that mentality is came into play regarding the showing of navels and I don't know that you can say there absolutely is a connection there. I think "believing white women couldn't bare parts that other ethnicities can", "navels shouldn't be shown on television" and "Uhura showed her navel on Star Trek" can all be mutually exclusive ideas. I don't know that Uhura showing her navel is proof that TV standards and practices would allow black women to show their navels. In the same way, I don't believe the FCC only makes a big deal of black women showing their breasts at the Super Bowl.

The National Geographic thing isn't completely fair either because I don't think magazines in the 60's could show normal black American women in nude layouts either.

 

[Unicron]

In the MU, Uhura should herself have been a segregationist towards aliens and advocated human supremacy.

For what it's worth, I did some TNG-era MU characters a while back. I was never happy with how DS9 got rid of the Empire, so I included some mirror versions of TNG characters. The MU version of Tasha Yar I designed is such a supremacist.

 

[Michael]

EDIT to ask: Say, is Star Trek dubbed in Sweden?

AxelFoley, since you haven't answered I take it you overlooked my question. It's completely off-topic of course, but I would really like to know.

 

[Wingsley]

Are you sure that's why they included minorities on Sesame Street? Is there a link to that somewhere?

No, I don't have a link. I just learned that worthless bit of trivia from a broadcasting class I took in college over 20 years ago.

 

[Shatmandu]

Middle Redshirt: "Ooh, baby ..."
Leaning Redshirt: "Nah. Last time I took sloppy seconds off of ol' scarface over there, my dick smelled like spoiled bacon for a month ..."