Writer's Block: Back to School

[mothwing]

[Error: unknown template qotd]Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, if only for the chance to lust after Ms Hardbroom up close. Other than that, Hogwarts, of course, and maybe the Unseen University. I don't think I'm enough of a girlscout or fit enough to ever get into Starfleet.

Comments

[crocky-wock.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. The moment a series like Star Trek tackles a lesbian couple before even considering introducing a male-male relationship, my opinion of US TV-shows is going to turn upside down, explode into space and eat up all living creatures on the planet.
It's one thing to ask them to get over their general homophobia towards gay couples. But noticing the existence of lesbian love or *gasp* sexuality is not something I trust the US media with at present. For obvious reasons.

[krakelwok.livejournal.com]

I would mildly contradict that. There are shows which touch on the subject, however briefly. What annoys me about the treatment of the theme in mainstream entertainment is that whenever homosexuality comes up it is a story gimmick. I don't know of any series or movie with homosexuality in it that doesn't make a big deal out of the fact that two persons of the same sex have a romantic relationship. Gay people on comedy shows are usually unbearably placative, gay people in dramas usually suffer until their suffering is resolved and we're treated to some unctuous morality lesson. Is it good that the topic isn't a total taboo anymore? Yes. However, being gay is not treated as normal, not even when the overall message about it is a positive one. Homosexuality gets thematically singled out as an interesting plot point, something that is always emphatically noteworthy. To me that contradicts the naturalness of being homosexual in a way.
Does that make sense?

[crocky-wock.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I feel the same.

Rest: what Moth posted.
I should maybe have said "the moment a lesbian couple isn't portrayed seen only through the male gaze (in the sense of the technical term, obviously) I'll be very surprised". Like you, I feel that homosexuality should just be there and normal, full stop. Without the angsting, without being comic relief.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Well, they did have some ~innuendos~ (read: hawt female cast members making out on screen - and even that raised the wrath down South). I should be very much surprised if we have anything like permanently gay crew members on Star Trek before we raise little Trekkies, though, and lesbians - pshaw, yeah, dream on. Although, we might get a Seven-like bisexual character who makes out with a hot cast member in some episodes and then becomes a good girl and marries Foreman a man.

There are still a couple of things that severely bug me with this Utopia - Lesbian characters or, indeed, female characters come to mind, because as much as I love Star Trek and its women - gender equality is not exactly a strong suit of the canon, and its ethnocentricism isn't funny, either.