He's everything I ever liked about you.
Oct. 23rd, 2009 02:00 pmI want to write an essay of sorts on how the Farscape episode "My Thee Crichtons" can be interpreted as a feminist retelling of the Star Trek (TOS) episode "The Enemy Within", with an excursion on the coding of John Crichton as (for want of a better word) 'the female', in contrast to Aeryn's hard edges and proclivity for blowing shit up.
(Here I would possibly link to an essay titled "Cold War Masculinity In The Early Work Of Kate Wilhelm" from Justine Larbalestier's anthology of feminist SF stories Daughters of Earth and maybe include some words about, heh heh, penetration from this essay and try to refrain from going on about (mind)rape and PTSD and so forth.)
Thing is, I would have to watch "The Enemy Within" again to confirm that Kirk's darker self is as masculine-coded as I remember and that this aspect of his personality is ultimately portrayed as essential to his command abilities, with his softer self (the 'female' part) being an afterthought to leadership skills. I might be making this up, I can't remember much of what happened other than Spock's awful smirk at the end, when he asks Yeoman Rand if she didn't enjoy it a little bit when the Captain's double was lying on top of her and pulling rank, har har rape sal;jslkdl;kdfdkf- FUCK YOU SPOCK
:-|
So, like I said, I'd have to rewatch that. But then Farscape comes along and celebrates empathy and self-sacrifice over cold logic and violence and is ridiculous and lovely and has muppets and teaches us about the values of family, oh so many essays waiting to be written about the notion of "family" in the Farscape verse. Only I can't write essays. But if I could I would write something alone these lines.
(Here I would possibly link to an essay titled "Cold War Masculinity In The Early Work Of Kate Wilhelm" from Justine Larbalestier's anthology of feminist SF stories Daughters of Earth and maybe include some words about, heh heh, penetration from this essay and try to refrain from going on about (mind)rape and PTSD and so forth.)
Thing is, I would have to watch "The Enemy Within" again to confirm that Kirk's darker self is as masculine-coded as I remember and that this aspect of his personality is ultimately portrayed as essential to his command abilities, with his softer self (the 'female' part) being an afterthought to leadership skills. I might be making this up, I can't remember much of what happened other than Spock's awful smirk at the end, when he asks Yeoman Rand if she didn't enjoy it a little bit when the Captain's double was lying on top of her and pulling rank, har har rape sal;jslkdl;kdfdkf- FUCK YOU SPOCK
:-|
So, like I said, I'd have to rewatch that. But then Farscape comes along and celebrates empathy and self-sacrifice over cold logic and violence and is ridiculous and lovely and has muppets and teaches us about the values of family, oh so many essays waiting to be written about the notion of "family" in the Farscape verse. Only I can't write essays. But if I could I would write something alone these lines.