SEXUALISATION IN MEDIA HASN’T BEEN EXCLUDED FROM ‘UTOPIA’
In our culture, sexualisation has become a hot topic and it’s become a commodity, because ‘sex sells’. Scholars and professionals are constantly debating the ways it impacts us. But what can’t be denied is that we live in a society that is bombarded with sexuality in a way that we have never been before. With a click, you can easily access pictures of ‘hot single women in your area’ or view the latest sexy music video. The idea of sex and that the female body is linked to sexiness is so strongly ingrained in our cultural identity it certainly is hard to imagine a world without it. Yet we still try…
In this analysis, I will use the science fiction franchise ‘Star Trek’ as an example to display that the political values of the Star Trek universe mirrors the values of the society and the culture in which the series were produced. Science fiction commonly portrays ‘women as primarily sexual, even if in the role of initiator’ (Weinbaum, 1999, pg. 4). Despite Star Trek being a well-known series about a utopian future, and being acknowledged for being progressive it still has firm roots in present-day issues, such as sexualisation and therefore sexism (Bjorklund, 1986). Here I will explore how such ideas are portrayed through clothing in particular where even in an imagined ideal futuristic society sexualisation is still an influential element that we cannot ignore.
WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT AN OLD TV SHOW?
I believe science fiction has rather untapped potential. It is a genre that tackles futuristic concepts such as worlds with advanced technology or time travel and aliens. Anything and everything is possible. Utopianism means an idealistic world, such as the world we commonly see portrayed in Star Trek. In sci-fi, this usually means a technological utopia which means seeing ‘technological innovation as bringing about an idyllic human society on Earth’ (Havens & Lotz, 2012, p. 130). Thus, there is quite possibly no better way to see our own beliefs than in the things we create. ‘The boundary between science‐fiction and social reality is an optical illusion’ (Haraway, 1990, p. 174). The more we attempt to show another world, more of our world’s beliefs and values are portrayed. What better way to show humanity at its core than juxtaposed through ‘alien’ interaction.
If our idea of utopia still depends on the heavy sexualisation of women’s bodies it means there is a progress to be made for women’s inclusion in paradise.
THE FUTURE IS COOL AND IT HAS MINISKIRTS!
For context Star Trek came about in the 1960s with creator Gene Roddenberry’s hope for a future where we would live in a world without poverty, hunger, or greed, and everyone would collectively work together for the benefit of society.
While it is easy to dismiss the original series as a prime example of sexualisation of the female body, we must look back on the past to understand where we are now. It is not my intention to challenge the arguments that define the original Star Trek series as sexist as Star Trek is sexist because we live in a culture that harbours such prejudices. Instead, I want to highlight that this was a time when women were able to move away from the public image of the ‘hysterical woman’ (Attwood, 2012) which was the previous perception (if you could call it that) of women’s sexuality.
The female characters on the show did appear ultra-feminine by wearing short miniskirts with stockings complete with go-go boots (Vettel-Becker, 2014), distinctively separating them from their male counterparts, and therefore reinforcing gender roles. While modern audiences look back on this uniform as an example of 60s sexism, the miniskirt had a different meaning in the period. Lt Uhuru pictured here, played by Nichelle Nichols explained in her biography.
‘The miniskirt was a symbol of sexual liberation. More to the point, though, in the twenty-third century, you are respected for your abilities regardless of what you do or do not wear’ (Nichols, 1994).
ENTER THE NEXT GENERATION
Picard and his crew boldly made their first appearance on our screens in 1987, originally debuting with three female crewmembers! The idea of praising shows for the inclusion of female characters makes me more uncomfortable the more I think about it. I find myself rewarding old TV shows for introducing a female character, which is quite really the bare minimum. Here the character Counselor Deanna Troi for example didn’t even wear a uniform despite the Starfleet dress code for most of the seven-season run of the show. Instead, she wore tight bodysuits and dresses. Fashion Scholar Joanne Entwistle explains ‘when it comes to clothing, these connections between woman, the body and sexuality remain strong so that even in the professional workplace they are often seen in those terms.’ (Entwistle, 2015, pg. 145).
This character is an excellent example of how clothes are quite an influential factor in sexualisation of the female body.
Marina Sirtis the actress who played Troi explains ‘if the chick has a cleavage, she cannot have a brain…I got cleavage, and all my gray matter departed… Troi was supposed to be the brains of the Enterprise. So when the cleavage came, all that left, and I became decorative, like a potted palm on the bridge’ (Liston, 2019)
You may ask yourself ‘why not a woman in a sexy outfit doing her thing!’ In this case, it is easy to see that this was not a decision of the character or the actress, but instead a producer. The actress even voiced her discomfort of the weird dresses and the celebration when finally putting on a uniform. Despite the Starfleet Dress code uniform neither Sirtis or the other actress McFadden ‘ever wore the same costume as the men.’ (“Sexism and Gender Roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation — Forgotten Trek”, 2019).
TIGHT BODYSUITS BECAUSE WHY NOT!
Voyager, despite having the first Star Trek led by a female Captain (Bowring, 2004), struggles to demonstrate a woman who is both sexually and academically successful in her field with Captain Janeway even being ‘consistently punished for daring to express her sexuality’ (Shaw, 2006, pg. 66). The show later introduces a character known as Seven of Nine. A strong intelligent female who is once again forced to wear something that Spock would describe as ‘illogical’. Wilson describes that ‘fashionable dressing is commonly assumed to have been restrictive for women and to have confined them to the status of the ornamental or the sexual chattel’ (Wilson, 2003, p.13). This speaks true even for futuristic space catsuits as Seven of Nine has become a sex icon because of her outfits.
WHY CAPTAIN THIS IS ILLOGICAL! MORE CATSUITS!
The 21st century brought Star Trek Enterprise which attempted to normalise more uni-sex uniforms. The uniforms that are worn by female characters on the Enterprise look similar to the men’s but are more fitted to the women’s waists (Andres, 2013). However, the Vulcan character T’Pol wears a tight jumpsuit made to emphasise her curves, which after her introduction to Starfleet once again doesn’t match up to uniform regulations. In the reality of the show, it doesn’t make any logical sense but once again the outfits apply the same principles of characters like Deanna Troi and Seven of Nine before her. Andes explains the reason ‘to keep their target audiences interested’ (Andres, 2013, pg. 647).
KIRK IS A JERK
The Star Trek franchise has done many things in the 50 years it’s been around. In 2009 it got a reboot of Captain Kirk and his crew. This movie followed by two sequels sparks anger in me which I can only describe as ‘angry wasp noises’.
The movie contributes to the cultural misremembering as well as misunderstandings about Captain Kirk by portraying him as an arrogant and sexist man. While the original Kirk is far from perfect and still encapsulates sides of masculinity that could be described as harmful, he was considered a feminist for his time. 1960s Kirk commonly makes more emotional connections with stunning intelligent space women rather than just having a lot of casual sex with random space babes (Garlow, 2015). The new Kirk favours the common characterisation of the likeable, jerk male action hero. He reinforces sexualisation of women, with his creepy leering and placing womansing over his work (something the original never did). As captain, his behaviour has tones of sexual harassment (Horáková, 2017), and people often refer to these tropes as way to justify their own blatant misogyny. It disturbs me that Kirk’s characterisation instead of progressing has regressed. In over 40 years Kirk has been more enabled to sexualise women. It says a lot about our culture when it is normal to see male heroes do this. Meanwhile female characters are commonly seen in their underwear, and that’s not seen as something unusual.
SUMMARY OF THE GOOD, BAD AND THE SPACE MONSTER LEVEL UGLY
Here we can see how far we have come. The sole purposes of such sexualised clothing throughout all eras confirm that Star Trek also panders to the stereotypical male gaze that sexualises women by turning them into a spectacle to look at. Sexualisation and objectification proves that gender equality does not exist in Star Trek’s utopian future (Andres, 2013) and therefore reflects inequality in our society.
Star Trek has managed to portray women’s sexuality in some important ways over the years with a better example I would say being Lwaxana Troi as a representation of older female sexuality. With this information, it must be acknowledged that these rare instances are a sign of the problem, not the cure. How rare is it for us to find such characters? Their sexuality is still structured around the idea of male/ female gender binary and the idea of compulsory heterosexuality despite being alien (Shaw, 2006).
WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US NOW?
Sexualisation is everywhere by even bleeding into our idea of utopia. The conclusion is that sexualisation exists and has been heightened by our environment of digital media.It is uncomfortable to think about when we look to the imagined future that even in Star Trek we are dealing with the same problems. People ask me, ‘Why do you watch this stuff if it angers you so much?’ The reason being, if I don’t watch this… what will I watch? In our culture, there is a sexual norm that has always unsurprisingly favoured men. We can now acknowledge this as the ‘male gaze’ and can see every day how libido is a stereotypically masculine characteristic. Men are praised for their sexuality far more than women, and quite often women are shamed for it. The existence of the word nymphomaniac comes to mind, and the portrayal in media communicates that ‘women are the sexual objects that fulfill male desire’ (Jensen, 2016 pg. 2) The ideal woman must embrace aspects of unachievable femininity partly for herself but predominantly society. Such representations of sexuality should disgust and anger men too. As it paints them as helpless and reinforces the ‘stereotypical image of men who are unable to think clearly as soon as a beautiful woman is nearby’ (Andres, 2013).
While I cannot find the exact answer to what a utopia for women would be like. The reality is that women, like myself, have developed a remarkable talent to find pleasure in a system that routinely oppresses us (Tolentino, 2016). The harsh truth of this depressing reality means that we must have sex, not in a wonderful utopia but facing whatever social pressures we are presented with. Whether those be social norms that call us sluts or demean us in other ways such as objectification. This is why it is crucial that times were ‘different’ in the past and in the world of 1960s Star Trek, 1980s, and so on.
This is a conversation we need to keep going if we ever hope to come close to achieving paradise. It’s my hope that when we look back on this current era from Star Trek that we will acknowledge that it was progressive for our time, but that there have certainly been improvements made in the shows following. This can be achieved by allowing more involvement from female writers and creatives. Despite all these points being made, I still believe Star Trek is a show worth consuming despite falling down in areas of representation and breaking away from traditional gender roles. Unlike other shows, Star Trek makes an effort to use the sci-fi medium to bring attention to problems in our own society and therefore is constantly changing. Star Trek has always been a show that looks to the future, and specifically a future in which white men are not the default. This is likely why the ‘Star Trek fandom is overwhelmingly female,’ (Bjorklund, 1986) and has been since the beginning. I certainly hope the ‘future is female’ or at least treats them better by not sexualising them in the show or in the public consciousness.
REFERENCES
Andres, K. (2013). Fashion’s Final Frontier”: The Correlation of Gender Roles and Fashion in Star Trek. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 5(4), 639–649. https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.135639
Attwood, F. (2012). Sex and the Media. In K. Ross (Ed.), The handbook of gender, sex, and media (pp. 455–469). Retrieved from: doi: 10.1002/9781118114254.ch27
Bjorklund, E. (1986). WOMEN AND STAR TREK FANDOM: FROM SF TO SISTERHOOD. Minerva, 4(1), 16–65. Retrieved from https://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1814081435?accountid=13380
Bowring, M. (2004). Resistance Is Not Futile: Liberating Captain Janeway from the Masculine‐Feminine Dualism of Leadership. Gender, Work & Organization, 11(4), 381–405. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2004.00239.x
Entwistle, J., (2015). Chapter 1: Addressing the Body. In The fashioned body: fashion, dress, and modern social theory (pp. 140–145). Malden, MA: Polity Press. Retrieved from Queensland University of Technology QUT Readings
Garlow, A. (2015). In Response to Captain Kirk womanizing myth. Retrieved 8 June 2020, from https://soycrates.tumblr.com/post/107354427153/hey-dont-tell-me-what-to-do-the-great-shatner
Haraway, D. (2013). A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s In Nicholson, L.J. (ed.) Feminism/Postmodernism, (pp. 173–204) Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/10.4324/9780203093917
Havens, T., & Lotz, A. (2012). Understanding Media industries. Oxford University Press.
Horáková, E. (2017). Freshly Remember’d: Kirk Drift. Retrieved from http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/#note8
Jensen, R. (2016). Pornographic Values: Hierarchy and Hubris. Sexualization, Media, & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374623815627787
Liston, B. (2019). A Spirited Defense of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Deanna Troi. Retrieved from https://www.themarysue.com/defense-star-trek-next-generation-deanna-troi/
Nichols, N. (1994). Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories (p. 169).
Sexism and Gender Roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation — Forgotten Trek. (2019). Retrieved from https://forgottentrek.com/sexism-and-gender-roles-in-star-trek-the-next-generation/
Shaw, D. B. (2006). Sex and the single starship captain: Compulsory heterosexuality and star trek: Voyager. Femspec, 7(1), 66–85,155. Retrieved from https://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/200162531?accountid=13380
Tolentino, J. (2016). What Should We Say About David Bowie and Lori Maddox?. Retrieved from https://jezebel.com/what-should-we-say-about-david-bowie-and-lori-maddox-1754533894
Vettel-Becker, P. (2014). Space and the Single Girl: Star Trek , Aesthetics, and 1960s Femininity. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 35(2), 143–178. https://doi.org/10.5250/fronjwomestud.35.2.0143
Weinbaum, B. (1999). Sex role reversals in star trek’s planets of women as indices of second wave media protest. Femspec, 1(1), 9. Retrieved from https://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/200050422?accountid=13380
Wilson, E. (2003). Introduction. Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. London: I.B. Tauris. Retrieved from Queensland University of Technology QUT Readings
