At 10:38 AM 11/10/97 -0800, Susan Palwick wrote:
>Now, since I don't have a TV and therefore haven't seen any of the zillion
>new versions of ST, I don't know anything about this character's
>*behavior.* If she acts like a bimbo, that's one thing. But the outside
>of the package has no correlation with the number of gray cells inside.
>Right?
Seven of Nine is far from a bimbo. She is somewhat similar to Tuvok, the
Vulcan, in that logic and practicality seem to be the main arbiters of her
behavior, though she is also capable of emotion. I think she is a great
addition to Voyager, which has vastly improved this season.
I think her clothing is fine, except for the high heels, which don't
fit it in at all with Seven's practical nature. However, I am bothered by
the fact that so many viewers of the show have fixated on her breast size,
rather than her character. I do think that the responsibility for this lies
on both sides: the producers of Voyager wanted Seven to be perceived as a
"babe", perhaps to compensate for her "cold" persona, so they dressed her
in an outfit that would make the audience very aware of the body underneath
her clothes. However, all the guys I've heard (particularly on Usenet)
leering and/or sneering at Seven and the actress who plays her because of
her outfit are still being jerks.
I guess what I'm saying is that many choices in our society carry a
certain amount of symbolic baggage. What people wear, particularly "out in
public" is calculated, more or less effectively, to achieve an effect. So I
can't agree with Susan that the outside of the package has nothing to do
with what's inside. But I certainly don't think that someone's appearance
grants or revokes permission for immoral behavior on the part of others.
The "she was asking for it" argument is reprehensible and all too common.
-- Janice
-----
Janice E. Dawley.....Burlington, VT
http://homepages.together.net/~jdawley/jedhome.htm
Listening to: Radiohead, OK Computer; Tricky, Pre-Millennium Tension
"...the public and the private worlds are inseparably connected;
the tyrannies and servilities of the one are the tyrannies and
servilities of the other." Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas
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