Comment on The best answer to "when did Star Trek get woke?"
danielquinn@lemmy.ca 2 weeks agoI’ve seen (and read) The Expanse, and you’re right, it’s fantastic. One of the authors has also repeated gone on record as doing his best to fight the patriarchy.
SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
And that is exactly my point.
You think The Expanse would be better if Avasarala was a strong woman leader fighting to make her mark in a male-dominated world? I think not. The whole thing that makes her so great is that she can be herself, by not needing to prove herself worthy she proves herself worthy. Or Bobbie Draper- if she was the GI Jane, struggling to be taken seriously in a male-dominated MMC? No, then the story stops being about a badass woman being badass, and starts being about the men who don’t recognize that badassery. And that’s a MUCH less interesting story. Or Drummer- I’ve not yet read the books but I understand TV-Drummer was a combination of two characters-- after the mutiny on Tycho she’s wounded, someone tries to help her up but she pushes them away, grabs the guys sidearm, blasts the two mutineers, and hobbles off to the infirmary on her own… would that scene be better if someone was saying ‘I guess women can have balls after all’?
No, the way you fight patriarchy, or racism, or homophobia, isn’t to fight patriarchy or racism or homophobia. It’s to show people what happens after patriarchy, racism, and homophobia are defeated, and let people decide that’s the world they want.
The Expanse took great strides to fight a number of prejudices. But never once was it ‘woke’.