A few years back, I was speaking to a roommate. I complained that the (then) new Star Trek had forced diversity. He immediately shut me down, “Star Trek has ALWAYS been like that”. He was a huge fan of Star Trek
Star Trek (TOS) never needed to BE about diversity, because it was set in a utopian future where racism, and sexism weren’t problems anymore. You had an entire multi-racial cast on the bridge of a starship so just from THAT you knew that racism wasn’t a problem in the future. There was no more war, poverty, disease or crime. Conflict only came from humanity’s meetings with alien races.
TOS Star Trek never needed to beat you over the head every 5 minutes with how gay someone was because that wasn’t a problem in the 23rd century. Nobody gave a shit.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think the best way for Trek to handle queer issues is to just put queer people on the bridge. A gay Riker equivalent or a trans woman who talks about her past with the same discomfort but honesty as how Picard talks about his is what I want. And in that vein I’m still on my first watch of TNG and it’ll be a while before I get to nutrek.
But I’m not going to pretend that to a certain portion of the population TOS wasn’t seen as being overly preachy on race. But seeing as I haven’t gotten to TOS yet either, I will say that in modern day I do think TNG was a bit preachy about disability and I’m glad they were.
Why would you even complain about that in the first place?
People tend to think that “forced diversity” is something being pushed from the top, but the people who own Hollywood are literally paying money to the right wing who limits diversity.
My personal belief is that there are simply a lot of homosexuals and trans people in the art world. Whether it be make up artists, actors or screenwriters, i think aaaaall of this is a lot more normal amongst creatives than it is among the regular population.
So obviously, its gonna show up more in movies and shows, than in real life. Because the people making the art knows these actual people.
People tend to forget when watching a movie, that just like when looking at a painting, they are in fact watching someone else art, and they are welcome to just not look at it, or find artists that more aligned with their bigoted views.
A few years back, I was speaking to a roommate. I complained that the (then) new Star Trek had forced diversity. He immediately shut me down, “Star Trek has ALWAYS been like that”. He was a huge fan of Star Trek
Except people weren’t complaining about forced diversity, which is also known as “representation”.
Star Trek (TOS) never needed to BE about diversity, because it was set in a utopian future where racism, and sexism weren’t problems anymore. You had an entire multi-racial cast on the bridge of a starship so just from THAT you knew that racism wasn’t a problem in the future. There was no more war, poverty, disease or crime. Conflict only came from humanity’s meetings with alien races.
TOS Star Trek never needed to beat you over the head every 5 minutes with how gay someone was because that wasn’t a problem in the 23rd century. Nobody gave a shit.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think the best way for Trek to handle queer issues is to just put queer people on the bridge. A gay Riker equivalent or a trans woman who talks about her past with the same discomfort but honesty as how Picard talks about his is what I want. And in that vein I’m still on my first watch of TNG and it’ll be a while before I get to nutrek.
But I’m not going to pretend that to a certain portion of the population TOS wasn’t seen as being overly preachy on race. But seeing as I haven’t gotten to TOS yet either, I will say that in modern day I do think TNG was a bit preachy about disability and I’m glad they were.
honestly i think DS9 strikes a better balance. and it too was disliked at the time for going against what star trek was.
Are you one of those people who believes Discovery had a coming out as nonbinary plot
What does that even mean?
some people believe that star trek discovery had a story arc about a character coming out as non-binary.
Wasn’t that arc about a lesbo character, in fact, becoming binary? They had to merge two to save one.
Why would you even complain about that in the first place?
People tend to think that “forced diversity” is something being pushed from the top, but the people who own Hollywood are literally paying money to the right wing who limits diversity.
My personal belief is that there are simply a lot of homosexuals and trans people in the art world. Whether it be make up artists, actors or screenwriters, i think aaaaall of this is a lot more normal amongst creatives than it is among the regular population.
So obviously, its gonna show up more in movies and shows, than in real life. Because the people making the art knows these actual people.
People tend to forget when watching a movie, that just like when looking at a painting, they are in fact watching someone else art, and they are welcome to just not look at it, or find artists that more aligned with their bigoted views.
As a person of color I can tell you that white liberals limit diversity more than white conservatives.