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You know, with how great and progressive Star Trek is... Uh... The older Trek, mind you... I often wonder how anyone like Berman could even make something like that.
How could Star Trek continue under Berman and still be Star Trek?
Never meet your heroes. Joss Whedon, JK Rowling, Orson Scott Card... all the horrible people making super influencial content that so essentially stands in opposition to their horrid real life behavior. I just don't get it either...
This is a long watch, but this video explains how Harry Potter is essentially a story about the virtues of bland centrism, and shows that the breadcrumb trail to Rowling's bigotry was there all along. The scales fell from my eyes while listening to this.
I was going to ask for a TLDL, but I think I'll actually listen to the whole thing (at x1.5).
Look closer and you'll find that Berman's run wasn't as progressive as you might remember. He repeatedly vetoed attempts to write stories about homosexuality, continued Roddenberry's thing about putting women in skimpy outfits, and so on. TOS was very progressive for the '60s, but TNG, VOY, and ENT were significantly less progressive for their time.
continued Roddenberry's thing about putting women in skimpy outfits
No. Female officers wearing short dresses was requested by the women on set at the time, not by Roddenberry.
Initially men and women were going to wear the same uniforms, which was criticised by feminists.
Remember that at this time, women were rebelling against having to cover up their bodies for modesty sake. It was at around the time of "free the nipple" and women burning their bras. Short skirts and dresses were popular at the time because it's what women wanted to wear.
Women dressing "skimpy" on TOS was an act of female empowerment. Youre looking at this through a prudish 2024 lense and assuming seeing womens legs is down to sexism.
Based old-school feminism.
You're correct about the uniforms, but outfits like this were the result of Roddenberry, according to others who worked on the show.
Bob Justman: I watched resignedly as Gene, up to his old tricks, kept costume designer Bill Theiss busy, taking a tuck here and a trim there.... just before [Teri Garr]'s first scene on stage, Gene went to work on her costume again. He kneeled down, gathered up her already scant skirt, and told Bill Theiss, ‘It’s too long, Bill.’ Teri rolled her eyes.
TOS was very progressive for the '60s, but TNG, VOY, and ENT were significantly less progressive for their time.
It'e also been a trend that's unfortunately carried over into the newer treks. They barely push the boundaries at all.
DS9 probably only got away with as much as they did because Voyager was commanding most of the attention at the time.
That's why I really cringe each time Kurtzman and Co are giving themselves golden stars and patting themselves on the back about things that were either already done in Star Trek before, or are already socially accepted.
And, moreover, all this so-called progresivism they're doing is an incredibly thin veil wrapped around a ball of generic action sci-fi writing.
My issue with Berman isn't the occasional sexy, skimpy woman on screen. I don't mind that one bit.
No, my issue is with all the behind the scenes problems they were having with women. Gates McFadden was really disrespected, as just one example.
