I promise, we are not here for attention. It’s getting better little by little, and more discussions about it are happening, but it’s clearly still a major issue. They end up turning people away from taking part in something they love and dedicate hours of their lives and countless dollars to. They may not have the same depth and breadth of knowledge some of us do, but we should welcome them with open arms nonetheless.Ī lot of fan communities, and not just Star Trek, still have problems with marginalizing their female members, particularly the younger ones. It’s not my job, or anyone else’s to determine who is or who is not a real fan. I’m not going to assume that just because she’s a young woman and a pop star she couldn’t possibly REALLY know or like this thing. If Rihanna says she likes Star Trek and that it has always been a part of her life, I’m going to believe her. That she isn’t trustworthy, that there’s some ulterior motive to her profession of fandom. (Rihanna does not need help selling albums, for the record.) It feels like some people have a problem with a woman who uses sex appeal in her art liking the same thing they do. As if she were pretending to be a fan to sell albums or get attention. The major problem that people seem to have with her is that she is a young, attractive pop star professing to love Star Trek, and that doesn’t fit what their idea of a “real” fan should look like. From a man at the gym looking at my Star Trek t-shirt and asking “Do you actually like Star Trek, or are you just wearing that?” to a myriad of comments about my appearance and how I don’t look like a “Trekkie.” I’ve had my own share of that sort of situation, too. There is this entire article by Corrigan Vaughan about her experience at the Into Darkness premiere. I passed it and then told him I was never gonna date him.” (A.V.)
It covered stuff from like Babylon 5, and Douglas Adams etc. It was my first experience with this kind of gatekeeping, and it definitely changed the way I looked at fan groups.” (S.K.)Īnother dealing with dating: “In college a guy handed me a literal test, several pages long, that I was supposed to pass before I could date him. Responses have been edited for length/clarity.įrom one woman, describing joining a Star Trek discussion group and being given a trivia quiz to pass for entrance: “After some posts to that little fan group, it turned out that anyone listed as “female” in their profile self-reported a trivia quiz when joining, but none of the men did. I asked for examples of this happening to other women in fandom before writing this. The Star Trek community is far from the only place this happens, too.
Rihanna sledgehammer gif full#
We see both of these concepts in their full glory (or horror?) in the reaction to Rihanna declaring herself a Star Trek fan. In specific it means that some people (usually men) think they have the right to decide if other people (usually women), are good enough or know enough to be a part of the community. This in general means people deciding who is or is not welcome to join their group. The second thing I want to bring up is called gatekeeping. The first is the “Fake Geek Girl/Idiot Nerd Girl” meme (you can find a thorough description and history here, which is the idea that some women or girls pretend to like nerdy or geeky things to make themselves seem more attractive to men, or some variation on that theme. There are two concepts I want to discuss in order to circle back around to this. There is a lot to unpack in these and other things I’ve seen. In these three comments alone we have slut-shaming, misogyny and death threats. “Shes never seen an episode in her life.” “some tramp that gets her t*ts out to sell music is Trek fan, its sad day indeed.” I’m going to sample some of the comments I’ve seen to give you an idea of the vitriol. I want to comment on the reactions I’ve seen to Rihanna’s video, where she talks about being a fan of the series. I’m not here to talk about how we feel about Star Trek doing a cross-promotional marketing campaign with a huge pop star and how that makes us feel about Star Trek and its ideals, nor about the quality of the song or the accompanying music video. I mean really, truly, ugly and hateful things, for no reason other than she claims to be a Star Trek fan.īefore I get going, I want to clarify a couple things. I’ve seen people say some really ugly things about Rihanna in comments. It seems like some of you are really angry about Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer” video and its tie-in to Star Trek: Beyond.
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