#and to see this attitude alive and well in 2024 is insane to me

[simptasia]

the last convention i went to i was discussing trek with a guy and he triumphantly declared that reboot uhura is "a SLUT" and the look of panic in his eyes when he realised i wasn't laughing and just cringing was palpable. he went on to explain that "uhura never needed to be a love interest, she was better than that" oh lord

firstly, committed relationship with one man does not equal slut

more importantly: uhura wasn't allowed to be a love interest in the sixties due to racism. gene, leonard and nichelle wanted spock & uhura to be a thing but it literally was not allowed during those days. spock and uhura kissing and being together in the trek reboot movies is a show of how far we've come since then

im also frustrated with the notion that being in a romantic relationship diminishes a woman, in real life or in fiction

love, romance and sexuality does not subtract from a woman

yes, many female characters are reduced to love interests and nothing else, due to sexist writing. but that really doesnt apply to reboot uhura. for one thing, this is where they canonized her being a linguistics genius. and furthermore, feminism looks different for different types of women. white female love interests are dime a dozen, but its still to do this day progressive for black women to be love interests because theres been a history of black women being underrepresented in media in general, including as people being worthy of being loved. i think that's an important thing for all oppressed groups to see in fiction. to love and be loved

did the reboot trek movies have any of this in mind? i fucking doubt it. do those movies have sexist writing? oh yeah. but man, uhura and spock being together was never a bad decision

long ago i saw a black woman say "i love seeing a woman like me be loved by spock" and ya know what? fuck everybody else, the star trek reboot movies are for her specifically. i think many trekkies can agree that being loved by spock would be an extra special honour

thank you for your time