I just read an NBC promotional pamphlet for Star Trek, for the 1966 season. It provides a show overview, plus character descriptions and cast biographies. Here's the description that jumps out:
YEOMAN SMITH, who has drawn the important assignment of secretary to the Captain on her first mission in deep space, is easily the most popular member of Kirk's staff. A capable secretary and efficient dispenser of instant coffee, she also provides a welcome change of scenery for eyes that have spent long hours scanning the vast reaches of space.
Popular with whom, exactly? And why?
Just startling, the crass normalization of profoundly overt sexism...so effortlessly condescending, in a manner so pervasive that hardly any viewers (male, anyway) would have noticed.
And mind you, don't blame Star Trek - this was NBC, hawking its own show. But the book where i found this, "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by solow and justman, revealed that the working conditions behind the scenes were appallingly sexist. Even predatory - prepare to be demeaned and pawed. That mindset was absorbed into the writing, with the passivity/sexualization of females, who were portrayed as ineffectual slaves to emotion, their worth defined by looks. Were there any female characters who broke that mold? In the original series...no. And the one episode that attempted to condemn sexism ("Turnabout Intruder") was still so groaning with tropes that one cringes.
Sigh. Deepest apologies, andrea dromm.
(a follow-up to https://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2014/07/progress-trek.html)
