After making this post I received a couple of very insightful critiques from @pancake-sexuality (they’re in the comments if you’d like to read directly!) relating to the relationship between black women in media and romance, specifically how black female characters are treated when the possibility of a romantic storyline emerges for them.

In my haste to defend uhura against what i still believe to be anti feminist and reductive rhetoric, i completely overlooked the historical relationship that non black trek fans (although this is much more broadly applicable) have with the prospect of uhura being romantically involved with characters from the rest of the main cast. this fandom has a history of either bashing uhura for “getting in the way” of spirk, or framing their disapproval of spock/uhura as the less obviously anti black “oh i just don’t understand why women always need to be in a relationship she was much better alone” commentary that only ever seems to crop up when black women are involved.

unintentionally, my post falls into that second category. i still stand by the majority of my points in the original post, however, i can also recognize that although i do not consider myself to be among the camp of people who try to quash every single romantic relationship that involves a black woman and a desirable male lead, in this situation, my words still reflect that mentality. intentions are obviously less important than the impacts of our actions, and i am disappointed in my own inability to look beyond the surface level feminism that encourages the “she’s better off alone” mentality ESPECIALLY involving black women.

anyways, i want to leave the original post up, despite its ignorance, as i believe the comments and this reblog might be a valuable learning experience for anyone else who finds themselves falling into the same surface level analysis that i did. black women deserve heartfelt and well written romantic storylines, and that should never be a topic of debate. although i still believe it to be disrespectful and reductive to CENTER uhura’s value as a character around a romantic relationship, i now understand that doing the opposite and denying the importance of a romantic storyline for her can be just as harmful.

saw a very interesting take today about snw being conservative and less radical than tos that hinged around the spock/chapel relationship being regressive (sorta agree lol) and uhura being the romantic choice that “makes sense” for spock. it rubbed me the wrong way because despite its framing as a criticism of snw’s lack of radical politics in comparison to tos, it’s still centered uhura’s value as both a character and as representation for black women around her ability to land a male lead and be part of a romance that gets a lot of screen time.

while i agree that snw could be a lot more radical and progressive, i also don’t understand why for some, the most important marker of that radicalism would be a relationship between spock and uhura. applauding tos for depicting elements of interracial romance during the 60s is one thing, but believing that the peak of representation and radical storytelling in 2023 would be an interracial relationship feels like it completely ignores both uhura’s value as a character independent from romance and the other well written interracial relationships that have appeared on nutrek.

i’m very firm in my belief that uhura’s character is much more interesting without a long term romantic plot. in my opinion, although i’m not black so i can’t truly speak on the impact of uhura as representation, i feel like her character is one of the most dynamic, interesting, and well written characters in all of snw, and the majority of nutrek. she has interests, hobbies, doubts and worries, as well as a prodigious intellect that the show never tries to downplay or conveniently ignore in favor of letting a white male character take the spotlight. while snw could certainly take things further in terms of radicalism, i don’t really think uhura is the place to start changing things up.

anyways i welcome any other opinions u guys have about uhura, snw, and nutrek radicalism just don’t be mean to me lol

i’m confused .. someone left comments on this post but tumblr is saying they’re hidden?? if anyone knows how to fix this id really like to read them. they seemed like they were making good points from the four words i can read through my notifs

saw a very interesting take today about snw being conservative and less radical than tos that hinged around the spock/chapel relationship being regressive (sorta agree lol) and uhura being the romantic choice that “makes sense” for spock. it rubbed me the wrong way because despite its framing as a criticism of snw’s lack of radical politics in comparison to tos, it’s still centered uhura’s value as both a character and as representation for black women around her ability to land a male lead and be part of a romance that gets a lot of screen time.

while i agree that snw could be a lot more radical and progressive, i also don’t understand why for some, the most important marker of that radicalism would be a relationship between spock and uhura. applauding tos for depicting elements of interracial romance during the 60s is one thing, but believing that the peak of representation and radical storytelling in 2023 would be an interracial relationship feels like it completely ignores both uhura’s value as a character independent from romance and the other well written interracial relationships that have appeared on nutrek.

i’m very firm in my belief that uhura’s character is much more interesting without a long term romantic plot. in my opinion, although i’m not black so i can’t truly speak on the impact of uhura as representation, i feel like her character is one of the most dynamic, interesting, and well written characters in all of snw, and the majority of nutrek. she has interests, hobbies, doubts and worries, as well as a prodigious intellect that the show never tries to downplay or conveniently ignore in favor of letting a white male character take the spotlight. while snw could certainly take things further in terms of radicalism, i don’t really think uhura is the place to start changing things up.

anyways i welcome any other opinions u guys have about uhura, snw, and nutrek radicalism just don’t be mean to me lol

whenever people start thinking i’m too intelligent and thoughtful i like to forcibly remind them that the only movies i’ve ever watched more than twice are the abramsverse star trek movies and i rewatch them like clockwork every 3 months while refusing to consume any other form of media unless it somehow connects to the abramsverse star trek movies.

saw a very interesting take today about snw being conservative and less radical than tos that hinged around the spock/chapel relationship being regressive (sorta agree lol) and uhura being the romantic choice that “makes sense” for spock. it rubbed me the wrong way because despite its framing as a criticism of snw’s lack of radical politics in comparison to tos, it’s still centered uhura’s value as both a character and as representation for black women around her ability to land a male lead and be part of a romance that gets a lot of screen time.

while i agree that snw could be a lot more radical and progressive, i also don’t understand why for some, the most important marker of that radicalism would be a relationship between spock and uhura. applauding tos for depicting elements of interracial romance during the 60s is one thing, but believing that the peak of representation and radical storytelling in 2023 would be an interracial relationship feels like it completely ignores both uhura’s value as a character independent from romance and the other well written interracial relationships that have appeared on nutrek.

i’m very firm in my belief that uhura’s character is much more interesting without a long term romantic plot. in my opinion, although i’m not black so i can’t truly speak on the impact of uhura as representation, i feel like her character is one of the most dynamic, interesting, and well written characters in all of snw, and the majority of nutrek. she has interests, hobbies, doubts and worries, as well as a prodigious intellect that the show never tries to downplay or conveniently ignore in favor of letting a white male character take the spotlight. while snw could certainly take things further in terms of radicalism, i don’t really think uhura is the place to start changing things up.

anyways i welcome any other opinions u guys have about uhura, snw, and nutrek radicalism just don’t be mean to me lol

me seeing u guys purposefully misinterpret snw every time it slightly strays from/reinterprets canon

i think, as mentioned by some others, that the reason why snw spock feels a little off is because his dork to cunt ratio is SEVERELY unbalanced

#for science

PAUL WESLEY as JAMES T. KIRK in STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 2x03 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

do you think everyone on the enterprise now just thinks everyone in the future is just Like That

Boimler you will always be famous for basically breaking up chapel and spock he's literally my best friend he did it for me

that one scene in those old scientists where boimler is waving his flashlight around the shuttle and then mariner turns around like it’s fucking fnaf is permanently embedded in my brain

james t. kirk, tarsus survivor, whenever someone needs help and support: we should get hotdogs. in fact we should get two hotdogs. i’m going to get cookies. we’re going to split the cookie.

#she tall

people have replied to my criticisms of snw with variations of “let people enjoy it” and “who cares if it’s not 100% consistent with tos”

you join the oldest and nerdiest fandom and you’re shocked when the fans are obsessively acquainted with the source material? i’m sorry but of all the fandoms you expected star trek to be the one in which you could “just enjoy a simple show”?

like you go ahead and enjoy it “normally” all you want but just know that the rest of us will continue to like it in the weird intense way

WHAT DO U MEAN U DONT KNOW TUVIX

Controversial Character Tournament Round 1: Tuvix from Star Trek: Voyager

do love the historic nature of st fandom because you can read the most quietly devastating grief-causing beautiful jaw dropping cry yourself to sleep piece of fanfic ever and it'll be written by an old woman named debbie

this meme called to me with such strength you would not believe. i'm right tho 😤

SNW doesnt make sense truthers confuse me so bad because its actually very easy to see where the series is heading. like spock in his emotional slay era right now (real spock would never cheat on t’pring tho thats my biggest qualm with his characterization rn) and hes gonna spend all of snw healing his sarek related emotional trauma and then at the end horrible horrible bad things are gonna happen to pike, his emotional mentor, and then hes gonna go TOS spock mode until hes gently coaxed out of his shell by hot sexy himbo jim kirk.