Star Trek sponsoring the NFL.  It looks like J. J. Abrams’ re-branding of the science fiction franchise is complete.  Star Trek has been remasculinized.  It’s too bad that women lose out in the bargain.

(Minor spoilers ahead.)

I have mixed feelings about the new Star Trek film, and thinking about watching it on DVD makes make excited and cranky all over again.  There’s a lot to love about the film: crisp, well-paced action, more excitement and energy than all the post-Wrath of Khan films put together, solid acting, and a genuinely moving story about fathers and sons.  But that that last point is where my deep disappointment in the new film comes from: this new film re-imagines the universe pretty much wholesale (while still trying to stay true to Roddenberry’s humanist spirit) except in the way that imagines gender and its female characters.  (Wait, what female characters?  Yeah, that’s kind of the point.)

The NFL sponsorship underscores these issues for me.  I think it’s actually very cool that Star Trek is now considered un-nerdy enough for jocks to enjoy.  I think it’s great that Trek fanboys are getting some respect.  After all, geeks are starting to rule the pop culture school.  But women have made zero progress in this new Star Trek.  Zilcho.  None.

Consider Uhura.  Zoe Saldana is great as Uhura, and the character has been reintroduced as a smart, confident woman.  But the main part she plays in this film is to establish Spock’s sex life.  Yep, that’s right.  This is the greatest gift Abrams could give to the fanboys: the most cerebral, uptight, nerdyriffic boy in the Star Trek universe gets THE girl.  The only girl, such as it is.  As a result, the central action Uhura gets to take in this new film is abandoning her post to express concerns to Spock, or to make out with him before he leaves on a heroic adventure.  Let me emphasize this point: Sulu swordfights, Chekov pilots the ship awesomely, Kirk and Spock save the Starfleet universe, and Uhura walks off the bridge time and again to chase after Spock.

Well, that sucks.

As does inscribing the whole Trek universe as a story of sons and fathers (while killing off Spock’s mother just to ratchet up the emotional stakes) – and, by extension – men and their (male) mentors.

Look, I’m not asking for something radical, like re-casting Chekov as a woman. (Although, come to think of it…) But this is a film that jettisons pretty much the entire Trek canon, so you can’t tell me that there’s no room to re-think how women are imagined here.  Female Trek fans have enjoyed the potential of Star Trek for a long, long time – and we’ve even gotten some great female characters to watch over the years.  But now that Star Trek has moved squarely over to the realm of mainstream sci-fi action, female Trek fans and new women viewers alike are losing big time.  We’re boldly going nowhere in this universe right now.

Maybe Abrams will change my mind in future installments.  Maybe there’s a couple of amazing deleted scenes on the Star Trek DVD that will make me appreciate these efforts more. Regardless, Star Trek is still problematic for me.  Very rewarding, and equally disappointing.

It’s easy to disparage the gender politics of the original Star Trek series.  It’s laughable.  But understand that even thought it’s laughable now, it was groundbreaking then.  For its time, it was a really meaningful advancement in the representation of women. Now, consider: is Star Trek’s representation of women a meaningful advancement for science fiction or action?  No way.  At best, it’s status quo for the genres.  That, to me, is a pretty dismal re-imagining of the future.