Comment on It's sad that people completely misunderstand what Star Trek is about.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 6 days agoThe best progressive writing Trek did was when they addressed a social issue by having the actors pretend it wasn’t an issue at all.
Uhura was a bridge officer who was a black woman, and nobody cared or even noticed because in-universe there was nothing special about that.
The best progressive writing Trek did was when they addressed a social issue by having the actors pretend it wasn’t an issue at all.
Is Jay-Den being gay not exactly that? Nobody cares in universe. But somewhat it is a big thing for a lot of people for no reason at all.
It is exactly that. Same with the meltdowns over Adira.
Kirk@startrek.website 6 days ago
I like how in Discovery a character came out as non-binary and everyone is like “ok cool” and that was that and it was never brought up again (because why would it be)?
You can tell by the absolute meltdown conservative spaces had about that five second clip that it was absolutely the right thing to do.
jj4211@lemmy.world 5 days ago
It got there, sure, but that coming out was a bit rough, because they treated it as a “big deal”, they were afraid of coming out and ultimately did, but seemed to harbor anxiety that should have not had a place anymore. They got over it (I assume, I actually kind of lost track of Discovery), but at one point it was too big a deal.
Also, out of universe, they were a bit annoying about bragging about being the first non-binary representation in Star Trek ever, which just seems disrepectful of the times it came up before.
Kirk@startrek.website 4 days ago
I don’t believe any of this is supported by what we saw on screen. Do you have evidence to support these claims? Maybe just a line of dialogue for each claim?
jj4211@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I’d have to rewatch, but I recall as they picked Adira up from 32nd century Earth, despite being a fully grown up person, went by feminine pronouns. Adira had to work up to come out, rather than being out from the onset.
I recall because I was very confused on Adira’s introduction because they kept yelling from the rooftops about how progressive they were by having a non-binary character, but Adira and everyone around Adira kept using feminine terms. I distinctly recall a ‘coming out’ moment which seemed to be played with trepidation.
The fairest thing I could say is that 32nd century earth was no longer “federation” and so maybe they had a big old conservative backslide and so Adira’s plight was due to the gloomy setting of isolated Earth with the loss of FTL travel.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 4 days ago
But that’s not what they did with Uhura. They never hung a lantern on her being black or a woman. She was just there and it was such a normal thing it didn’t need to be addressed in-universe.
Having a character “come out” means the world is one in which people are hiding in the closet because of a social stigma. A world in which that stigma doesn’t exist doesn’t require a character to come out.
Kirk@startrek.website 4 days ago
Huh? How is Stamets supposed to know if nobody tells him?
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Don’t spend 5 episodes uses feminine pronouns for the character then have them “come out” as non-binary. Just establish their pronouns from the outset, and don’t make a big deal outside the show about how brave they are for having an NB Trek character.
You don’t normalize something by pointing out that it’s strange.