whiskey Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I'm hoping there are some Star Trek fans out there that can help me with this. So I have an English professor who, in the midst of a lecture, made a statement that during the late 1960's and the sexual revolution that the reason for the design of the NSS Enterprise's saucer-like shape directly relates to femininity. Rather than a phallic shaped like craft depicting masculinity that the creators went with something more relevant to the times and wanted to relate to feminism. Anybody know if there is truth in this? I couldn't find anything while looking it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorby Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 That bit sounds a little unlikely to me. The outfits many of the female characters wore seems to portray them a 'sexy' rather than 'liberated'. (or is that just me? ) Having said that, there are some characters that do compete with the men on an equal footing, and are seen in empowering roles. I don't know how old you are, but the 60's and 70's were very, very different in the way that women were perceived, so in comparison to other TV & film roles, they were ahead of many other shows. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 33 minutes ago, whiskey said: I'm hoping there are some Star Trek fans out there that can help me with this. So I have an English professor who, in the midst of a lecture, made a statement that during the late 1960's and the sexual revolution that the reason for the design of the NSS Enterprise's saucer-like shape directly relates to femininity. Rather than a phallic shaped like craft depicting masculinity that the creators went with something more relevant to the times and wanted to relate to feminism. Anybody know if there is truth in this? I couldn't find anything while looking it up. I don't believe so, at least not consciously. Memory Alpha has a pretty good article on the conceptualization and design of the original model of the Enterprise here. It seems it was a desire to break away from the unrealistic rocket ships of the Buck Rogers serials that influenced their design choices. Notably, one of the earliest designs for the Enterprise has a central rod tipped by a rather phallic-looking prow protruding from a series of rings, which should delight all budding Freudians. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick4350 Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Maybe this in the universe for the maybe upcoming Tarantino feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whiskey Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 Appreciate the answers and input gents, I didn't think there was a correlation but had to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 Perhaps it's a theory backdated to the show rather than something the show set out to do. But if you consider the Enterprise in planform it does look a bit like the Venus symbol ♀ which represents femininity and feminism. Maybe that's what the Prof had in mind? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_symbols#Venus 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whiskey Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 (edited) So my wife suggested that I should ask the Gene Roddenberry people on twitter as they apparently have an account. I don't "tweet" I guess they call it, anybody out there willing to take up the cause lol? Edited June 11, 2018 by whiskey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 1 minute ago, whiskey said: So my wife suggested that I should ask the Gene Roddenberry people on twitter as they apparently have an account. I don't "tweet" I guess they call it, anybody out there willing to take up the cause lol? I work on Twitter, but this is not necessarily a course of action I'd recommend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 The countdown to someone saying something inflammatory is ticking, and I'm not at all comfortable with that. I'm shutting it down, as it's doomed from the outset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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