InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Wuddup?"

Willow (the_willow) wrote,
@ 2009-10-30 17:08:00

Entry tags:

#race issues: fandom

*sigh* When Extras Aren't Pluses
NuKirk apologises to the wrong Orion. On the one hand I'm glad someone decided 'Yeah, let us NOT put that into our final product'. On the other hand, it got filmed.

And I post about it here just as a reminder to myself of why I do not want to get involved in NuTrek fandom past a few icons.

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	jackandahat 2009-10-30 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	sighs Even with my whole "People are confusing" thing (Face-blindness, I confuse people easily, makes a lot of TV shows and films hard to watch) - she doesn't look like Gaila, they have totally different builds. It would need to be much more obvious that we're meant to point and laugh at the stupid boy for it to be even remotely funny. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	the_willow 2009-10-30 09:54 pm UTC (link)
	Different build, different bust size, different nose, different height and her hair is brown instead of red. And yet - All those ___ people look alike? Or is only the sexism with groups of women? The green ones, the brown ones, etc...? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jackandahat
2009-10-30 10:04 pm UTC (link)

Yeah - the nose I wouldn't get, because that's part of the face thing, and the height I tend to miss unless it's comparative (So stick them together, and I'd go "X is taller", but separate them and I couldn't say which was).

It's awkward, because when I explain it, it sounds like "They all look the same"... but it goes for everyone - all white middle-aged men with brown hair, all thin black women with short hair, all tall blond girls, that kind of thing. I keep track of people by hair colour, skin colour, haircut rough shape, things like that. I get confused with TV shows if you have two of the same "type" of person - I skipped all the 90s slasher flicks because I'm like "...another skinny blonde girl? Wait, is this the same one as last scene? No, wait, she was wearing red. Is this the one from before, or a different one. Who is she?" so I can't follow the plot.

...and that was a lot of rambling. But I felt I should explain my statement because as I said - it does come off badly at first. I hope I've explained it right.

But assuming someone is normal, there is no bloody excuse for this kind of rubbish. Kirk gets on my every last nerve. He's just... I don't get why we're meant to like him, and this just reinforces that.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

the_willow
2009-10-30 10:09 pm UTC (link)

Oh. No, I'm actually aware of the facial recognition dysmorphia (not the proper term for it) as an actual cognitive condition and have quite a few friends who have it to deal with. There was a lovely article in WIRED about it, oh... 3 or so years ago.

Though if they wanted Kirk to have that to deal with in actuality, which could be interesting, they'd also need to show it affecting more than the quiet moments, plus show what techniques he was trying to use to compensate.

Someone attempting to explain the scene away as 'How do you know Kirk doesn't have xyz' would face my wroth. Especially because someone aiming to be Captain SHOULD be looking for ways to compensate for that, because knowing your main crew members is incredibly important (And Spock & Bones should not become 'One Of Those Dark Haired Guys In Blue').

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jackandahat
2009-10-30 10:16 pm UTC (link)

Oh god no - I absolutely didn't mean he had it. I meant "I've got it, and even to me it's obvious That Is Not Gaila, so What Is His Excuse?"

(...now I'm curious how someone would write compensation for that. I'm still working on compensation in real life - given I have memory issues that tie in, it mostly boils down to fancy footwork and provoking people into identifying themselves.)

I've just watched an ep of Criminal Minds, where one of the characters who is known for being a player is made to think he's managed to forget the name of a woman he's slept with - she knows him when he goes to chat her up. He hasn't - she knows him from somewhere else - but he thinks he managed to forget her. For a minute, I thought that's what this was - the implication Kirk had slept with so many women that he couldn't keep them straight. It took me until I realised she was giving him a blank look to twig "Wait, he thinks she's Gaila"

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	PS the_willow 2009-10-30 09:57 pm UTC (link)
	Plus Gaila was 'command red' and not 'sciences blue' uniform wise as well. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: PS

jackandahat
2009-10-30 10:07 pm UTC (link)

...I have to admit, I just did the thing that gets me mocked by my female friends right there, and went "Huh. I didn't actually pay attention to the clothes."

I mean, now I'm thinking about it, I remember seeing Gaila in red at some point, and that this lady is in blue. But... I don't really pay attention to who wears what. It wouldn't have occured to me to look at clothes because they change between scenes some. Oops. /brainfail.

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	Re: PS the_willow 2009-10-30 10:12 pm UTC (link)
	Trek was one of my first fandoms and I was IN IT (rpgs, photo manips, puring through the ship specs for fun...) - so noticing uniform colour associations to departments is only natural to me when I watch visual media Trek. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: PS jackandahat 2009-10-30 10:17 pm UTC (link)
	nods Makes sense. It's just one of those running jokes about how guys never notice clothes, so it made me laugh that it totally passed me by, even though I knew clothes were a meaningful thing in Trek. grins (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: PS

tigresslilly
2009-10-31 07:53 pm UTC (link)

I think that while one might not look at clothes in day to day life, one would if they clearly meant something. For instance police officer uniforms or fire fighter uniforms mean something to us as a society so we notice and acknowledge them.

Within the context of the star trek verse where fleet uniforms are color coordinated to identify strengths and specialities, I think that Kirk would pay specific attention to them. I don't know. Aside from the racism and general "you all look a like" bs, I can't get over the basic not the same uniform flub.

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	Re: PS jackandahat 2009-10-31 07:57 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah - I didn't notice because they mean nothing to me, I've seen the film but I'm really not into Trek. But as has been pointed out to me, a fan would know, and in-scene Kirk has no excuse at all. It's just all so very stupid. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	dragovianknight 2009-10-30 10:43 pm UTC (link)
	I think it was just a matter of Kirk sleeping around so much, he can't fit faces to names. He's probably lucky he remembered Gaila was Orion. Of course, I still don't see why that shouldn't make us more eager to stab him in the face. The only thing I like about the scene is it means Gaila is not the only Orion in Star Fleet. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2009-10-31 08:02 pm UTC (link)
	wait... what? --Delux (Reply to this) (Thread)

	the_willow 2009-10-31 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. That. (Reply to this) (Parent)