Star Trek On Rape

Thanks to a post by George Takei^[1], I found Star Trek on Hulu^[2] and have been watching The Original Series.  I noticed something interesting in the episode, "The Enemy Within"^[3].  The premise of the episode is a transporter accident causing Captain Kirk to be split into 2 different halves.  One good, one evil.

In the scene at 9:19 Evil Kirk goes to Yeoman Rand's quarters and attempts to rape her.

In scene soon after, at 12:40, Rand is in sickbay with Spock, McCoy, and Good Kirk.  At this point, none of them know there are 2 Kirks running around.  So, as far as Spock & McCoy are aware, they're talking the victim of a sexual assault with the attacker in the room.  Better yet, the accused attacker is in charge of the questioning.

The conversation went like this^[4]:

AND: Then he kissed me and he said that we, that he was the Captain and he could order me. I didn't know what to do. When you mentioned the feelings we'd been hiding, and you started talking about us. 

KIRK: Us? 

RAND: Well, he is the captain. I couldn't just. You started hurting me. I had to fight you, and scratch your face. 

KIRK: Yeoman, look at me. Look at me, look at my face. Are there any scratches? 

RAND: I was sure I scratched you. I was frightened. Maybe 

KIRK: Yeoman. I was in my room. It wasn't me. 

RAND: Sir, Fisher saw you, too. 

KIRK: Fisher saw? 

RAND: If it hadn't been. I can understand. I don't want to get you into trouble. I wouldn't have even mentioned it! 

KIRK: It wasn't me! 

FISHER: It was you, sir. 

KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? 

FISHER: Yes, I know what I'm saying. 

MCCOY: Back to that bed, bucko. Come on, let's go. 

SPOCK: You can go now, Yeoman. (Rand leaves) There's only one logical answer. We have an impostor aboard.

The only reason she even reported the attempted rape, by the ship's captain, was the witness.  Had Fisher not been there, Rand would have let the assault go unreported.  She would have just let it happen without consequence.  For the attacker at least.  She would have still had the consequence of working for man who had tried to rape her.

Then there's the final scene.

FARRELL: Status report, green. 

SPOCK: All sections report ready, sir. 

KIRK: Good. Thank you, Mister Spock, from both of us. 

SPOCK: Shall I pass that on to the crew, sir? 

KIRK: The impostor's back where he belongs. Let's forget him. 

RAND: Captain? The impostor told me what happened, who he really was, and I'd just like to say that. Well, sir, what I'd like is 

KIRK: Thank you, Yeoman. 

SPOCK: The, er, impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman? 

KIRK: This is the Captain speaking. Navigator, set in course correction. Helmsman, steady as she goes.

According to the Star Trek wiki, Memory Alpha, Grace Lee Whitney (the actress who played Rand) had something to say about that^[5].

Actress Grace Lee Whitney was very unhappy about the last scene of this episode, in which Spock asks Yeoman Rand, if "The imposter had some very interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman?". In her autobiography, she wrote: "I can't imagine any more cruel and insensitive comment a man (or Vulcan) could make to a woman who has just been through a sexual assault! But then, some men really do think that women want to be raped. So the writer of the script (ostensibly Richard Matheson - although the line could have been added by Gene Roddenberry or an assistant scribe) gives us a leering Mr. Spock who suggests that Yeoman Rand enjoyed being raped and found the evil Kirk attractive!" (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 95)

No shit?  Praising the attacker, jokingly or not, to the victim is inappropriate?  Weird.

It may be a television show, and the incident is fictional.  But film is a reflection of society at the time.  For a show praised for its diversity^[6] and tolerance^[7], it really missed the ball on the subject of rape.  This is how one of the most progressive shows of its time portrayed rape.

I guess I would feel a little bit better about their failure 50 years ago if we had learned anything since then.  But then there's Steubenville^[8].

Yay for us.  Way to go.  Ugh.

Maybe we'll treat victims properly after another 50 years.

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1.  http://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/posts/279182158880193
2.  http://www.hulu.com/browse/picks/star-trek?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=StarTrek&utm_campaign=2013Q1_StarTrek
3.  http://www.hulu.com/watch/283813
4.  http://www.chakoteya.net/startrek/5.htm
5.  http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Enemy_Within_(episode)
6.  http://youtu.be/AFIGarb4_Yg
7.  http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/16/top-10-star-trek-episodes-dealing-with-tolerance/
8.  http://youtu.be/z86oaQ4aLcM

Twelve Apostates - Gene Roddenberry

I'm of the Next Generation generation.  I had never seen The Original Series when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered.  My television watching in the 90's consisted largely of Star Trek and reruns of M*A*S*H.

With the Star Trek Universe, Gene Roddenberry gave us a look at what we could do after we finally outgrow religion.  And he did so without even raising the ire of those who freak out at even the slightest criticism of religion/Christianity.  Not even when they took a direct shot at the danger religion poses to society.

I think how it treated religion was a big part of why Star Trek appealed to me so much.  For them, religion was a thing of the past.  All religion was to them like the Greek's gods are to us now.  Even when they found worlds who had gods, there was actual evidence of those gods.  They had characters that could easily be mistaken for gods who were, for the most part, never actually treated like gods.

And when they found something claiming to be a god, they still challenged them, giving us one of the best lines in cinema, as well as one of my favorite things to say to people quoting the Bible as proof of their god claims.

The Earth of Star Trek was a world beyond war, crime, hate, poverty, etc.  It was a world without religion.  It's one of the best examples of  "Good Without God" I've seen.

It may have been a fictional utopian world, but it's still a goal worth striving for.  We may not get there, but as long as we are fighting over who's myth is better and willfully holding back societal and technological progress, it's not even a possibility.