Star Trek and Body Size

I’ve always been a Star Trek fan, but over the past few years, I’ve gotten back into it pretty heavily. Part of the reason is because of all the new shows – Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and most recently Star Trek: Academy.

It’s also because I discovered the YouTube channel TrekCulture, which reviews the shows and provides other Trek info. That’s where I first learned about Nana Visitor’s wonderful book, Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman’s Trek.

Visitor, who played Major Kira Nerys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (a show that still feels very relevant now, even 30 years later), wrote about the actors who played the various women in Star Trek, from the original series up to Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks.

And one theme that came up again and again was about body size in Trek, specifically, women in Trek. I learned a lot I didn’t know, and I’m glad there’s been some positive change.

Earlier Trek

I’m lumping a lot into this group – the original series (TOS), Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. These were all the shows that aired before the more modern era that began nine years ago.

Even if you haven’t seen the original series for a long time, or much of it, you may recall that the women didn’t have the same uniforms as the men. They wore miniskirts, while the men wore pants. I was surprised to learn that for Grace Lee Whitney, who played Yeoman Rand, miniskirts were actually a symbol of empowerment. She wanted to show off her legs, and it seemed very freeing to her after the more repressive clothes worn by earlier generations.

I don’t know if all the other women in the show agreed with that, though they also had to wear miniskirts. And while that may have been empowering for some, it only worked well for certain body types. As Visitor commented about the women who were guest stars in the original series: “Evidently in space, you never gained weight, and you thoughtfully died at 40.” (p. 40)

The trend of thin women in Trek continued for many years. In TNG, one oddity of the show was that for a long time, Counselor Deanna Troi didn’t wear a regular uniform, even though she was a Starfleet officer. The reason? Marina Sirtis, who played Troi, was told that she carried too much extra weight for the regular uniform.

This struck me as absurd for a couple of reasons. One is that looking at Sirtis, I don’t see how she could be considered too heavy. The other reason is that producers never seemed to have a problem finding uniforms that fit heavier men, such as Scotty by the time of the movies, or some of the admirals or guest stars in the various series.

Sadly, Sirtis wasn’t the only one to experience this. Terry Ferrell, who played Jadzia Dax in DS9, was told that she needed to lose some weight. This was even though Ferrell had previously been a model.

Of course, it also depended on where the weight was and wasn’t. Nana Visitor wasn’t told to lose weight, but she had a bit of the opposite problem. She was told to wear not one, but two pairs of gel breast enhancers so she would look much bustier than she was. She hated it, but in those days, she didn’t think she had a right to argue.

Then there was Jeri Ryan, who played Seven of Nine on Voyager. She wasn’t told to lose weight, either, but they clearly wanted to emphasize her figure. Her original costume was so skin-tight that if she needed a restroom break, production halted for half an hour because it was so difficult to get out of the outfit and then back into it. Thankfully, she got a better outfit, and it was refreshing to see her in a regular uniform in the more recent Star Trek: Picard.

Finally, in Star Trek: Enterprise, Jolene Blalock, who played T’Pol, was also put in a very revealing outfit. This was a bit jarring considering that the human women of the crew (T’Pol was a Vulcan) actually wore the same jumpsuits as the men, but apparently, the producers felt the show needed more sex appeal. And Blalock’s neckline got lower and lower every season, which seemed to be an attempt to help with falling ratings.

When reading about all this and more, I tried to remember if I thought much about any of this as a teen and young adult. I know I wasn’t a fan of the miniskirts in TOS, and I was glad most women had regular uniforms by the time of TNG. Otherwise, I don’t think I considered it any differently than other shows that prioritized young, thin, pretty women. It didn’t occur to me to think that maybe by that point in the future, we’d have gotten better at accepting more diverse body sizes. That simply didn’t seem possible to me.

Newer Trek

Things have changed with the newer Trek series, though, most notably with Discovery. Even though the show takes place before TOS, because it came out in 2017 – a full fifty-one years after Star Trek first aired – Discovery looks very different, and not just in special effects.

The cast is much more diverse. The main character – who eventually becomes a captain – is a Black woman. Several other people of color are bridge members on the ship. The show has two main characters who are a gay couple, and later on, it introduces a non-binary character.

And then there’s Tilly.

I liked Ensign Sylvia Tilly right from the beginning. She’s funny, smart, caring, and talks too much when she’s nervous (and some other times, too). Visitor described her as “one of the most vibrantly human characters” in Star Trek, and I’d have to agree. Tilly also has big, curly red hair, and she’s a larger, full-figured woman.

To me, seeing her felt like a breath of fresh air. She was the first woman with a larger body in Trek who was part of the main cast and who was represented in a very inclusive way. None of the other characters makes an issue of Tilly’s size, even when she’s taking up running (I couldn’t help thinking of the taunting I got when trying to run a mile in gym class), and she’s portrayed as someone to be respected and admired. This was quite a contrast to the character of Lwaxana Troi on TNG and DS9, played by Majel Barrett. Lwaxana was also heavier than the other women on the show, but she wasn’t a main character and was often played for laughs.

Unfortunately, Tilly (and Wiseman for playing her) has gotten a lot of online hate. As Wiseman said, “[They] tend to be men that think I’m too fat to be in Starfleet.” (p. 216)

Just reading that made me angry on her behalf. Similarly, when Star Trek: Academy premiered this year, a few scenes show that one of the instructors is a heavier woman, and online haters pounced on that (among other things).

I wish I could say this negative feedback surprised me, but sadly, it doesn’t. We have far too many online trolls, and body shaming has never gone away.

Or it hasn’t in real life, but I was glad to see Trek making some strides in showing us a possible future where we don’t have to put up with that. And I applaud Wiseman for continuing to show up, for herself and those in the audience she represents – I know that takes real courage.

What the future might look like

The draw of Star Trek for me and many others is seeing a vision of our future that’s hopeful, that shows that we can eventually get past our differences and work together to achieve something better. The Star Trek universe does acknowledge that things will get worse before they can get better, but still, the hope is there that things can improve.

In our turbulent times, that message feels more important than ever. This doesn’t mean Star Trek is perfect, and certainly body size isn’t the only problem to tackle. But I’m still glad to see Star Trek showing that hopeful future, and allowing even more people to see themselves in it.