I Don't Want to be Right

[Jester]

Would you agree though that in our society, discrimination and self-discrimination are an interrelated vicious circle. For gender say; the difficulty is in unpacking "what {wo}men want" from "what cultural norms pressure {wo}men to want". From birth, consciously or subconsciously, we reinforce gender stereotypes. Can we examine ourselves and even know which of our impulses are natural (correct), and which are imprinted expectations? Stereotypes are built on the simplified over-generalized notions and norms of the society.

Yes, of course I would agree with the idea that these things are a vicious circle. I've been thinking quite a lot about this lately, from the standpoint of the liberal/radical divide in feminism. Is it enough to "respect women's choices," and let that be the beginning and end of one's feminism? Or is there some more structural problem, that forces us to say "no, some peoples' values are just wrong, shaped as they are by patriarchy"? What does one say to a feminist who accepts "patrichical" views of what women want as her personal preferences, freely chosen? What about if that person was a man?

I would disagree that there is such a thing as a "natural" or "correct" impulse; humans are fundmentally social, learning creatures, and what we create in culture is not something alien or incorrect, nor is there a "real" self that somehow stands behind culture. Our real selves learn things from our social context, and reconstruct it for the next generation with a few changes. That's what "natural" humans do.

In Star Trek, the one thing that didn't much change in a Gene Roddenberry vision of the future is in gender roles and equality. The one decidedly anchor of the series and movies has been the male virility of the Captain. It is hard to find examples of females in power, yet numerous examples of them being objects of desire.

For TOS, sure. But Star Trek has examples of powerful women in commanding roles. I thought Janeway was a rubbish captain, but the fact that there was a woman in the big chair was a major step forward. Jadzia Dax and Kira Nerys were both strong characters, as was Beverly Crusher. Even Troi got better as the series progressed, and (as Marina Sirtis keeps pointing out) as her cleavage got smaller.

-Jester