I can also see how the episode could be perceived as incredibly misogynistic, and I was wondering where anybody else has seen it--particularly greyswandir.
I read this back when you first posted it, and had been meaning to comment, but as you can see I've taken forever to get around to it. :P That episode is indeed incredibly brilliant on principle, and I think you're right that the writers had no idea what they'd stumbled on. I liked the mutiny stuff, but yeah, I think somehow they didn't even notice the Kirk/Spock, which was approximately the most blatantly obvious thing ever.
I'm not sure whether I can say anything helpful about the whole subject of misogyny, though, because mostly when I think about misogyny, I'm just trying to figure out what other people are thinking about it. A lot of people seem to think that if there's a vain/stupid/evil/batshit female character on a show, that means the show's writers believe all women are vain/stupid/evil/batshit. Which to me seems incredibly dumb, since there really are plenty of unpleasant women in the world, and there's no reason why they can't appear in fiction just because it's not PC or something. Even if the show was trying to make some kind of statement about crazy, bitter, man-hating feminists, and how they need to calm down and make their point in some less insane way, I don't see anything wrong with that. There are crazy, bitter, man-hating feminists in the world, and I often think it'd be nice if someone would tell them to just stop, because they're making women look worse instead of better. Is that misogynistic? I don't know, but it seems reasonable enough to me.
And honestly, I thought the episode did a pretty good job of implying that the fault was at least partly (if not mostly) Starfleet's, for denying women the rank of captain. Sure, Dr. Lester was a crazy bitch who probably shouldn't have been a captain anyway, but it was Starfleet's unfair standards that made her think she was only being denied her dream job because of her gender, and not because she was -- you know, mentally unstable.
And sure, the episode could also be perceived chauvinistically, as a testament to the fact that women can't handle positions of power, or shouldn't aspire to men's work, or whatever. But the thing is, we've seen other powerful female characters, including a Romulan captain and the stern and austere T'Pau of Vulcan, so it seems plain to me that the writers considered some women perfectly capable of command. Just not this woman.
Anyway! You see what happens when you ask my opinion on something; I will rant about it forever. Really I should watch the episode again, because I might not even be remembering it correctly. But I seem to recall thinking Dr. Lester was a crazy bitch, but an interesting crazy bitch, and that she made a pretty decent villain. And a pretty convenient way for Kirk/Spock to happen without slash. ;)
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I read this back when you first posted it, and had been meaning to comment, but as you can see I've taken forever to get around to it. :P That episode is indeed incredibly brilliant on principle, and I think you're right that the writers had no idea what they'd stumbled on. I liked the mutiny stuff, but yeah, I think somehow they didn't even notice the Kirk/Spock, which was approximately the most blatantly obvious thing ever.
I'm not sure whether I can say anything helpful about the whole subject of misogyny, though, because mostly when I think about misogyny, I'm just trying to figure out what other people are thinking about it. A lot of people seem to think that if there's a vain/stupid/evil/batshit female character on a show, that means the show's writers believe all women are vain/stupid/evil/batshit. Which to me seems incredibly dumb, since there really are plenty of unpleasant women in the world, and there's no reason why they can't appear in fiction just because it's not PC or something. Even if the show was trying to make some kind of statement about crazy, bitter, man-hating feminists, and how they need to calm down and make their point in some less insane way, I don't see anything wrong with that. There are crazy, bitter, man-hating feminists in the world, and I often think it'd be nice if someone would tell them to just stop, because they're making women look worse instead of better. Is that misogynistic? I don't know, but it seems reasonable enough to me.
And honestly, I thought the episode did a pretty good job of implying that the fault was at least partly (if not mostly) Starfleet's, for denying women the rank of captain. Sure, Dr. Lester was a crazy bitch who probably shouldn't have been a captain anyway, but it was Starfleet's unfair standards that made her think she was only being denied her dream job because of her gender, and not because she was -- you know, mentally unstable.
And sure, the episode could also be perceived chauvinistically, as a testament to the fact that women can't handle positions of power, or shouldn't aspire to men's work, or whatever. But the thing is, we've seen other powerful female characters, including a Romulan captain and the stern and austere T'Pau of Vulcan, so it seems plain to me that the writers considered some women perfectly capable of command. Just not this woman.
Anyway! You see what happens when you ask my opinion on something; I will rant about it forever. Really I should watch the episode again, because I might not even be remembering it correctly. But I seem to recall thinking Dr. Lester was a crazy bitch, but an interesting crazy bitch, and that she made a pretty decent villain. And a pretty convenient way for Kirk/Spock to happen without slash. ;)