A televisão como tecnologia de gênero e as representações femininas na franquia Star Trek (1965-2022)

Abstract

In this research, we aim to analyze how the character Number One was approached in the American television franchise Star Trek, from its debut in 1965 to the last production of the series in 2022, taking into consideration the presence – or not – of women in command positions in military organizations. We argue that there was a significant change in the way the character was represented, taking into account the social, political, and historical context in which the series were produced, as well as the way in which gender representations of each period influ enced the construction and subsequent rejection or acceptance of these figures. The guiding thread of our investigation will be the analysis of the aforementioned character, created in 1965, but who, due to her leadership position, in dissonance with the gender standards of the time, was rejected by both the public and the broadcaster during the program's testing phase. How ever, in 2018, the character was reintroduced in another series of the franchise, being acclaimed by fans and critics alike, to the point that, four years later, she would star in her own series. Thus, the pilot episode of the classic Star Trek series, produced in 1965, episodes 13 and 14 of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, aired in 2018, and episode 3 of the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, aired in 2022, will be analyzed, since in all of them the char acter under analysis appears prominently. In this work, we will use the concepts of genre ac cording to Judith Butler (2019), and of Gender Technology developed by Teresa de Lauretis (1994), as well as methodologies of cinema and image analysis, such as Ismail Xavier (2005) and Carlos André F. Passarelli (2013).