Star Trek endorses Rape Culture
(TW: Rape Culture, objectification, enslaving women)

Hey everybody? You know what Star Trek needs? More objectification and exploitation of women! But we'll make them *green*, and alien so that it differentiates them from Earth women. That'll throw off the feminist hordes!

What am I talking about?

Why, Official Star Trek Fratboy shirts featuring the words "ORION SLAVES GONE WILD" on a t-shirt specifically being marketed to Frat Boys for Spring Break.

I wish I was kidding. I *so* wish I was kidding. I think what hurts the most about this is this is Star Trek. Ostensibly, it's supposed to be inclusive.

Bonus: These shirts were advertised on the official Star Trek Facebook page! No warning, no words, just a trigger out of the friggin' blue, with a heapin' help of "Get back in the kitchen" jokes for any women that complained about it in the comment thread.

ETA: http://www.facebook.com/StarTrek/posts/194446503919172

- I get threatened to be whipped.
- One guy threatened to show me what it was like to *not* survive a rape, but thankfully that was taken down. You see the fallout of that comment later.

Why is it when someone merely *mentions* that something might be exploitative or offensive in a firm tone that challenges the status quo, the death threats and the rage!posting occurs? It's like fucking clockwork.

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	sistercoyote 2011-03-10 05:32 am UTC (link)
	You have to hunt for it, but there's a fair amount of TOS/TNG stuff in the comm. I know Crusher is a favorite, and I'm pretty sure...Yep. Here's the TNG tag, and here's TOS. And, hey -- no worries! Sometimes we just got to let that filter break for a little while. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

napalmnacey
2011-03-10 05:41 am UTC (link)

Oh good! Crusher is my favourite TNG woman by far, so I'm glad to know fandom is fairly active around her.

I think it's cause Trek was my first fandom. I was practically breast-fed the damned stuff. Mum painted pictures of it, she read the novels, it was on TV and Mum taped it and watched it over and over again. Our family has a whole host of in-jokes and lore built up around it. We have an ongoing game where we quote the most obscure lines from the original series as we can, and whoever can't pick the episode the quote is from, loses the game. To have the official source of our fun basically condone rape and sex slavery is just - very hurtful. In a way I wasn't expecting.

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squeakthemouse
2011-03-10 01:03 pm UTC (link)

I seem to have a habit of butting in to these comment threads lol. But I saw you love Crusher, which we have in common, and also being Trek fans since childhood. I remember watching ToS reruns with my Dad when I was little, and then when TNG came on we used to watch it together every week. It was one of my fave shows in junior high (that and original 90210). I find it pretty fitting I went to the '09 Trek with my Dad, since it's something I've shared with him pretty much my whole life. So far I'm the only person I know practically raised on Trek, so it's nice to have company!

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	sistercoyote 2011-03-10 06:42 pm UTC (link)
	This makes three of us -- and I literally took in Star Trek with my mother's milk! And my dad totally cried when Spock died in Wrath of Kahn. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

napalmnacey
2011-03-10 11:35 pm UTC (link)

My sister Helen *still cries* when she sees that film. And she's seen it, like, hundreds of times! When my sister Cati got her a book of Leonard Nimoy's photos with a personalised message in it? My sister Helen *burst into tears* and then went sort of into shock. It was so adorable, the poor thing! It's her prized possession that she only handles with white cotton gloves.

We're so Trekky we even love the Animated Series like fire. I love that series cause Uhura gets to do some seriously good shit, like command the Enterprise. Oh, and Lt. M'Ress. I dressed up as her once. *^_^*

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	everstar 2011-03-11 08:39 pm UTC (link)
	Dr. Crusher rules, trufax. (My first online shipdom? Picard/Crusher on the AOL boards back in the nineties.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

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