This is a short article/rant of mine. I can’t exactly be completely unbiased in a sociology blog, but whatever.
I was reading the ST Kink Meme (which really isn’t friendly to ANYONE), and I was all set to read a Spock/Uhura/Kirk fic. I actually like this OT3 in particular, but it seems the fic filler…didn’t.
Now, why am I writing about it? Well. Uhura wasn’t put into the best light, and the person that filled the fic mentioned something along the line that “Uhura needs to be punished for putting her hands on Spock!”
…excuse me?
So we’re going to go about making Uhura do terrible things (what I like to call Uhura Does Something Shitty fic) because she, a fictional character who doesn’t even exist, has a relationship with another non-existent character.
That’s totally logical, Spock would approve!
Really, people? Have women internalized misogyny so much that they decide who is and isn’t good enough for an imaginary person? It’s one thing to write break-up fic. It’s another to not exactly like Uhura (though I don’t quite understand it but whatever). It’s another to kill a character (Uhura out the airlock for grieving K/S, or Kirk dying for Bones to really acknowledge how much he loved him), or to have said character be OOC just to fulfill your ship (ie: I read a fic where Bones is a pederast in general, but focuses his attentions on Chekov to not get tossed in jail)!
What bugs me here is that said fanpeople are just being pricks here. I mean, no one deserves abuse (and I mean this in a non-consensual way, BDSM is another entire idea). But in the Kink Meme, there’s no shortage of it.
What is your kink is not mine but that is okay. However, there tends to be Unfortunate Implications with it being in regard to a Black woman in particular.
9/25/09
Appropriating GLBTQQAI Issues For Your Ship
Can I just say this is the hugest NONONO I’ve ever said in my whole life?
Please don’t try to make anything canon. Even though I love Sukov (Chekov/Sulu), I’m not going to send letters and ask they make that canon. Or Bones/Kirk.
These characters are assumed straight, and that’s how the writers will probably keep them. Until we, as a society, decide to stop being so heteronormative, there probably won’t be any legit same-sex canon couples for a long time in sci-fi (not counting Jack/Ianto in Torchwood :3). Not saying that they couldn’t come sooner, but it makes it more difficult to reach a wide audience if we’re still treating GLBTQQAI people as strange and disgusting. There needs to be a strong, confident character that represents that character and doesn’t get killed in the series (not even if they pull a resurrection like they did with Spock in the TOS films). I would be BEYOND thrilled if we had a trans character as well (actually, I’d probably have a heart attack that someone thought that transpeople exist in the future, too).
GLBTQQAI (yes, I use all the letters) issues are for them to stop being seen as the other. Just as women are the other compared to men (though XX is actually the biological default), gay and lesbian people are just trying to be seen as just that. People!
So, using the advocacy cause of “visibility in mainstream culture and not as a stereotype” to try and push any agenda in a sci-fi film with supposedly straight characters isn’t going to help anyone (not to mention the Unfortunate Implications of Spock leaving Uhura for Kirk [knocking her back to the loveless background character she was in TOS, and I feel a lot of people don’t understand HOW this is important]).
I do talk a lot about K/S, but truthfully, I don’t really care about if you ship them or not. The point I keep trying to make is the backlash against S/U (and Uhura in particular) is highly unwelcome and as a Black woman, I feel as if I have to defend a character I identify with greatly. If I had a kid, I’d want her to be just as brilliant and awesome as Uhura (either universe version). And obviously, I have no issues with gay or lesbian relationships (and I try to be active in the community and support it whenever possible as a responsible feminist).
The reason I bring up K/S is that they are the Vocal Minority. I haven’t heard about anyone trying to make the other ships I mentioned (and if they were, I’d discourage them equally). There’s a whole other group of people who love S/U, don’t really care but see the point, and people who see these characters as straight and would raise an even larger stink if any of the characters in a homosexual relationship were made canon.
Please don’t try to make anything canon. Even though I love Sukov (Chekov/Sulu), I’m not going to send letters and ask they make that canon. Or Bones/Kirk.
These characters are assumed straight, and that’s how the writers will probably keep them. Until we, as a society, decide to stop being so heteronormative, there probably won’t be any legit same-sex canon couples for a long time in sci-fi (not counting Jack/Ianto in Torchwood :3). Not saying that they couldn’t come sooner, but it makes it more difficult to reach a wide audience if we’re still treating GLBTQQAI people as strange and disgusting. There needs to be a strong, confident character that represents that character and doesn’t get killed in the series (not even if they pull a resurrection like they did with Spock in the TOS films). I would be BEYOND thrilled if we had a trans character as well (actually, I’d probably have a heart attack that someone thought that transpeople exist in the future, too).
GLBTQQAI (yes, I use all the letters) issues are for them to stop being seen as the other. Just as women are the other compared to men (though XX is actually the biological default), gay and lesbian people are just trying to be seen as just that. People!
So, using the advocacy cause of “visibility in mainstream culture and not as a stereotype” to try and push any agenda in a sci-fi film with supposedly straight characters isn’t going to help anyone (not to mention the Unfortunate Implications of Spock leaving Uhura for Kirk [knocking her back to the loveless background character she was in TOS, and I feel a lot of people don’t understand HOW this is important]).
I do talk a lot about K/S, but truthfully, I don’t really care about if you ship them or not. The point I keep trying to make is the backlash against S/U (and Uhura in particular) is highly unwelcome and as a Black woman, I feel as if I have to defend a character I identify with greatly. If I had a kid, I’d want her to be just as brilliant and awesome as Uhura (either universe version). And obviously, I have no issues with gay or lesbian relationships (and I try to be active in the community and support it whenever possible as a responsible feminist).
The reason I bring up K/S is that they are the Vocal Minority. I haven’t heard about anyone trying to make the other ships I mentioned (and if they were, I’d discourage them equally). There’s a whole other group of people who love S/U, don’t really care but see the point, and people who see these characters as straight and would raise an even larger stink if any of the characters in a homosexual relationship were made canon.
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