Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films

by David Greven

Studying the Star Trek myth from the original 1960s series to the 2009 franchise-reboot film, this book challenges frequent accusations that the Star Trek saga refuses to represent queer sexuality. Arguing that Star Trek speaks to queer audiences through subtle yet provocative allegorical narratives, the analysis pays close attention to representations of gender, race, and sexuality to develop an understanding of the franchise’s queer sensibility. Topics include the 1960s original’s deconstruction of the male gaze and the traditional assumptions of male visual mastery; constructions of femininity in Star Voyager, particularly in the relationship between Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine; and the ways in which Star Enterprise’s adoption of neoconservative politics may have led to its commercial and aesthetic failure.

Genres: Star Trek, Nonfiction

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Lola Phoenix · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe any queer theorist would seriously rely on Freud as much as this book does. Freud is a ridiculous hack who had a couple of insights but largely the whole 'everyone wants to sleep with their parents' and 'penis envy' bs is tired and old. And apparently anyone who isn't a recreation of 50s gender roles is automatically queer. Sorry but this analysis is really weak.

[Isa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Greven is literally smoking fucking dick. It's literally just morally reprehensible to make the claim that the rape of a woman in her marital bed is disrupting an institution of heterosexuality or "claiming a queer voice" or what the fuck ever, and it really shows how willing male queer theorists are to put queerness and maleness over women's real traumas and experiences. Every other bit of analysis in this book is pretty solidly weak as well, and, in a personal gripe -- you're going to write an entire book about reading queerness into Star Trek, and then insist the entire time that Picard is solely a representation of "white heteromasculinity"? Okay, dude, sure, but he's gay. (Could've been an interesting reading of Picard and Shinzon, too, since Greven touches on it a little with his "total top"/"unruly bottom" dichotomy, but oh fucking well.)

If you want to read a good book about gender in Star Trek, -- and especially if you would like to see an actually good criticism of Picard as a character and the institutions he represents -- try Robin Roberts' Sexual Generations. Don't try this.

Go Clemson.

[Timothy Moyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I wasn't thrilled with it. The content tended, at times, to overpower the concept. Just my opinion.