look I will make you a deal
I will retract every single thing I’ve said about Spuhura and nu!Uhura if someone can tell me at least two or more facts (of merit for fucks sake. not “her hair is black” or “she looks good naked”) about nu!Uhura other that’s not related to
- Spock
- Gaila
- Jim
- Xenolinguistics
you’ll be hardpressed to find anything of merit because THEY DIDN’T GIVE HER ANYTHING
you don’t know that she’s an accomplished singer or that she grew up in Africa and she was extremely proud of her heritage or that Swahili is her first language or that she ran track as a child or that her name means freedom or that she and Spock played music together.
you don’t know that her crew thought her to be kind and intelligent and talented. that she was a valuable member of their team and that her opinion greatly mattered to them. and that Spock never had to validate her credentials for her to be taken seriously.
you don’t know that she also risked her career on multiple occasions to help save the people she loves and to do the right thing. showing loyalty, bravery, compassion, and a sense of justice.
you don’t know that she was considered to be one of Captain Kirk’s closest and most faithful confidants until the day he died. that she was someone he entrusted his life and the fate of his ship and crew (trust me that’s a huge deal) with on more than one occasion.
and that’s a real shame for such a wonderful character who commanded so much respect and admiration from not only her crew, but from the millions of viewers who looked up to her. who still look up to her.
that’s why I am upset. I don’t need my pairing to be canon to love them together. I don’t need to see space husbands happen for my shipping needs to be validated. I can happily take what TOS gave me and move on with my life, content in every way.
What I do need are independently strong, intelligent, driven women (WOC especially) characters to be presented as equals to their male counterparts.
for those who think that she just needs to “prove herself to be capable”, then you. get. our. motherfucking. point.
BECAUSE WHEN EVERYONE ELSE WAS ABLE TO PROVE THEIR ABILITIES AND SKILLS AND THEIR WORTH TO THE TEAM, UHURA ULTIMATELY GOT SHAFTED.
she, in fact, was made into a sexual object during the one scene that proved her talent to the audience. that didn’t happen to any of the male characters now, did it?
so was it really necessary for her to be mostly naked talking to her mostly naked roommate for Uhura to prove she was a gifted xenolinguist? couldn’t Jim have overheard her talking in a classroom or a cafeteria or ANYWHERE ELSE?
in the end, I’m honestly just disappointed that TOS!Uhura, a character made in the 1960’s during the height of Black oppression in America, is ultimately a more progressive and impressive figure in media than nu!Uhura, a character remade in 2009 when our country elected our very first Black president.
