Bringing science fiction of old into the modern world : how it *must* become woke !

Hi All, 

White Klingons, Black Romulans and BAME Time Lords? 

Science fiction from a woke perspective : 

One trope of older  science fiction (as least on tv) is that the humans on the show are always an ethnically (the religious aspect is downplayed) diverse group of characters, although they don't really have any LGBTQ or Muslim characters.  

 Yet any aliens (almost always human looking with some ridges on the nose, face or neck or pointed ears) are always uniform in more ways than one. 

In Star Trek Klingons are almost all uniformly brown- more noticeable in the original series as the makeup department couldn't do to them what they could in the films and the many spin off series, and are all uniformly 'warriors', so any intersectionality analysis can see the racist sub text here - and they call Star Trek "progressive"??!. The Romulans by contrast are always shown as white with pointed ears, even though they are an offshoot of Vulcans and we know there's been black skinned Vulcans on the show, but at least it is the whites who are the baddies now. In Doctor Who we used to have Time Lords: all apparently white -British, all  robed Cardinals come Oxbridge Dons, until the recent retcon. In Babylon 5, the Minbari and Centauri are  aristocratic white with either British or Eastern European accents , but the Narns are all orange with spots. All of these aliens mentioned are also uniform in culture, religion or politics. There is no mention of gay Romulans or transgender Narns, lesbian Klingons or bisexual Borg.

On the feminist front things are even worse. Yes there was Susan from Babylon 5, but today rather than being a Russian Orthodox Jewish, repressed and keeping it a secret telepath, bisexual and in the military, she would have to be a Pakistani Muslim, transgender, bisexual, full on powerful telepath with no flaws or kick ass coolness of the original and in anything but the military. Then there was Delen from the same tv show. While being an alien Minbari, she then changed to become half human looking (a parallel with transgender rights) but then she ends up falling in love with the main hero (a human white hetrosexual, military hero,  cis gendered man!) Captain Sheriden and instead of being an all powerful feminist role model, doing things without powerful men or a situation where men are utter idiots,  she and the aforementioned Captain become a leadership team and have to work together to stop the bad guys, the shadows (who are all - like all shadows are- black in colour, so maybe that show needs to be banned).

Thankfully Dr Who saw the light and decided to support transgender rights by making the lead character a female, albeit a white female who isn't either lesbian or bisexual. At least it is now canon of the show that the Doctor was originally a black female, which upset the patriarchy. 

You can see how popular such an approach is by the viewing figures and that alone means that we should have more woke, progressive science fiction. Science fiction has always been progressive. There's no room for anyone remotely centralist, conservative or general readership. It must be according to the woke agenda. Anyone who disagrees is a phobe of some description, 

So there!

Go woke or go broke!

New format

Hi All,

We've changed the format of this blog and we hope everyone likes it ! It is supposed to be more science fiction- y ...

On Toilets and changing rooms

One of the many controversies in the realm of gender and sexuality is that of transgender people and toilets, namely the right or not to use the room not of their current physical state but of how they identity in their mind (e.g. pre hormone therapy and operations) especially in colleges , universities and workplaces.

This means you could identify as a woman , but have all the bits of a man because you haven't had an operation yet which can lead to justified worry by women( including fully transitioned transgender women)  that any man could go into  women's toilets and use the excuse they're transgender , even though they could just be perverts or up to other nefarious matters.  

The obvious solution to my mind is for people to have passes for the toilets and these to be issued by security.  However what seems to be happening in the name of equality is gender neutral unisex  toilets  , in other words one bloc for men and women. Problem solved , except it doesn't ally any of my concerns. Interestingly they've done this at my  university and it's fascinating how the cubicles have been informally divided into a man's part and a woman's part (you can tell by which ones have the lid up).

I've noticed the same thing with the public swimming baths. They are also unisex and again I feel distinctly uncomfortable with showering next to men (note with swimming costumes on! Another inconvenience as bathing clothes stink of chlorine so there's not much point in showering).  Unless you are Muslim , in which case there's a special women's only night. Why this isn't extended to other faiths with modesty requirements ( eg Judaism) I don't know. Maybe the powers that be think we should all be like the shower scene in star ship troopers , where everyone showers naked, both male and female.  I just don't like the thought of it. 

Maybe I'm just too prudish or it could be my upbringing. Of Shomer Negiah . I don't have an issue with  mixed swimming or beaches as I've left a lot of my ultra orthodoxy. I don't   agree with the fifty foot high and beach long wall they built in Eilat Israel for the Haredi (to divide the sexes, thankfully there are lots of other nice beaches in Eilat) .  But neither do I like mixed sex toilets or changing rooms. 

 Inconsistent yes, but am I alone in feeling that there are some boundaries to push and others  to be left alone?