From: mlevis@ringer.cs.utsa.edu (Mike Levis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Sexism and Plunging Necklines
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:33:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: ringer.1992Sep4.183354.4224
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio

In article <Bu0swH.Fsv@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>pierrot@milton.u.washington.edu (The Pierrot) writes:
>>	I personally find it entirely 
>>	plausible that Deanna might dress like that to make 
>>	*herself* feel attractive, not to slavishly gain the 
>>	approval of men;
>
>Yeah, right. That doesn't explain that her position (ship's counselor)
>is not to be attractive or not, but to counsel the people on the ship.
>
>Women's breasts are kept secret and propped up with such unnecessary
>items like Deanna Troi wears in order to keep the breasts sexually
>exciting to men.  In other words, the fetishes of men are controlling
>how women dress in this regard.  I disapprove of it entirely.  I see
>no reason why Deanna Troi can't wear a regular shirt like a lot of
>other people on the show do.  I've seen passers-by (always women)
>wearing mini-skirts and low-cut items and I find them equally against
>the idea that in the future portrayed by the show, these crew members
>can just do what they were meant to do: seek out and explore strange
>new worlds.  In no way is it necessary for those strange new worlds to
>be explored while Deanna Troi sufficates while being compressed in a
>tight shirt.

Huh?  Don't forget that Betazoid weddings require nudity.
They also have a high sex drive (Riker was surprised by this)
so I'm surprised that Troi does not reveal her body even more.

Also, Troi did wear other clothes in earlier episodes.  In the
pilot, she wore a Starfleet skirt.  After that, she wore pants
and a shirt (that covered her entire upper body).  Troi is
a civilian, if I remember correctly, so she does not wear the
Starfleet uniform like everyone else (despite the pilot episode).
Now she is dressing more like a Betazoid (actually, more like a
half-Betazoid, which she is :)

>On the topic of sexism in ST:TNG, ever notice how even the women in
>high ranking positions are addressed as 'sir'?  I think that's
>exceptionally offensive; as if ST:TNG is saying that women can
>(finally) be in the service *with* (as opposed to 'of') men, but
>nobody will recognize them as women.  Instead we shall choose to
>recognize them as men.  If they wanted a neutral term, neither 'sir'
>nor 'madam' should have been used.  Actually, it's obvious who is
>speaking and being spoken to in all circumstances that I can recall
>where anyone has addressed anyone else on the show as 'sir', hence
>another reason why neither 'sir' nor 'madam' is necessary.

My dictionary says that ``madam'' means the ``mistress of a
household'', or ``a woman in charge of a brothel''!  (Webster's
New World Dictionary).

Besides, titles should be sex-neutral, since it does not matter
whether the professional is male/female/both/neither.  Otherwise,
we will be forced to invent new words just to please everyone:
Doctress Crusher, Counseloress Troi, Lieutenantess Saavik,
Chief Engineeress <name>, Admiraless <name>, etc.  English is
hard enough already without inventing unnecessary words (try
putting that in the Universal Translator).

P.S.  I like ``female humans'' better than ``huwomans''.
      Don't create new words when existing words work.

>-- 
>-- Jeff (jeffo@uiuc.edu)
>-- No NeXTmail please


-- 
====== Mike Levis   mlevis@ringer.cs.utsa.edu ======
"I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good   .--.
life, I thought I was happy.  Then I found something  (OS/2)
that changed it all..."  --  Anonymous, 2112  [Rush]   ~--~
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc