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101 reasons I <3 Captain Janeway
Oct. 20th, 2013 09:42 amRachel and I have a habit of getting into older TV shows on Netflix and watching only that for weeks. Right now, it's Star Trek: Voyager. This was the first Star Trek show that I watched while it was actually airing, and I was very fond of it at the time. I love it even more now <3
I've grown super-fond of all of the characters, even the ones I wasn't that interested in before. The Doctor and Harry Kim were my favorites back in high school (predictably) but now I don't know if I could choose, except that Janeway is at the top of the list. She is SO AWESOME and such an sterling example of a strong, fully fleshed female lead. I love that she started her career as a science officer and still has a hard time letting anything but science dictate her decisions. I love that she doesn't have to justify her authority - she's earned her rank and nobody questions her for it on the basis of her gender. I love that she treats her crew like her family, while keeping the necessary distance from them when she has to. I love that she has no qualms about partying with her subordinates and that she struggles with the ultimate power she has as the highest ranking Starfleet officer in the entire quadrant (and sometimes loses and makes poor decisions, which are usually acknowledged and questioned - unlike Kirk, who made poor decisions all the time but was always shown as being right).
I haven't lately sought out fandom stuff on the internet, and with Voyager, it aired so long ago that I don't come across it easily. I did look up one episode the other day, and what I found - I should have expected this - was a lot of criticism of Janeway as too cocky, too arrogant, too sentimental, a shameless self-insert of one of the writer-producers… people tore her apart, in ways they would never ever do to one of the male captains. It was so incredibly frustrating. There was one comment in particular that really made me angry: someone criticized her for, at one point, putting her arm around the shoulders of one of the younger officers. They said "Can you imagine Picard or Sisko doing that? Does she have to be so touchy-feely?"
Here's a newsflash, folks: Janeway is not Picard or Sisko. She's her own distinct character. She's extroverted, laid-back, and emotionally available. No, I can't imagine Picard acting like she does - because Picard has his own personality, one that's very different from Janeway's. All of the captains have their own style. That's why Star Trek is so awesome: it shows that people who are very different can command in their own ways and still all be effective. Every captain shouldn't have to be Picard or Sisko in order to be seen as a good captain.
Janeway's situation is also vastly different. She has responsibility for an isolated group of people who are so far away from home that they'll likely never get back in their lifetimes. She's the single authority responsible for making decisions about situations for which there are no regulations. For better or worse, she doesn't have Starfleet breathing down her neck. Of course she has to handle things a little differently.
I can't help but feel that this particular criticism of Janeway is especially rooted in her being a woman. Our society has taught us that women are (allowed to be) more openly affectionate and emotional. The validity of that aside, the problem here is the assumption that a captain can't be affectionate and emotionally open without compromising their authority and effectiveness. I really feel that Janeway's open affection for her crew and her emotional availability make her a better captain in her situation. It's generally "uncool" nowadays to say "Janeway's a bad captain because she's a woman," so people find ways to say the same thing and make it sound like a legitimate criticism of her character.
There's no mistaking that some episodes of Voyager are badly written, clunky, and sacrifice character continuity for ease of plot. But all Star Trek series have those episodes. If reading those criticisms have done anything for me, it's to convince me further not to seek out fandom stuff on the internet :\
I've grown super-fond of all of the characters, even the ones I wasn't that interested in before. The Doctor and Harry Kim were my favorites back in high school (predictably) but now I don't know if I could choose, except that Janeway is at the top of the list. She is SO AWESOME and such an sterling example of a strong, fully fleshed female lead. I love that she started her career as a science officer and still has a hard time letting anything but science dictate her decisions. I love that she doesn't have to justify her authority - she's earned her rank and nobody questions her for it on the basis of her gender. I love that she treats her crew like her family, while keeping the necessary distance from them when she has to. I love that she has no qualms about partying with her subordinates and that she struggles with the ultimate power she has as the highest ranking Starfleet officer in the entire quadrant (and sometimes loses and makes poor decisions, which are usually acknowledged and questioned - unlike Kirk, who made poor decisions all the time but was always shown as being right).
I haven't lately sought out fandom stuff on the internet, and with Voyager, it aired so long ago that I don't come across it easily. I did look up one episode the other day, and what I found - I should have expected this - was a lot of criticism of Janeway as too cocky, too arrogant, too sentimental, a shameless self-insert of one of the writer-producers… people tore her apart, in ways they would never ever do to one of the male captains. It was so incredibly frustrating. There was one comment in particular that really made me angry: someone criticized her for, at one point, putting her arm around the shoulders of one of the younger officers. They said "Can you imagine Picard or Sisko doing that? Does she have to be so touchy-feely?"
Here's a newsflash, folks: Janeway is not Picard or Sisko. She's her own distinct character. She's extroverted, laid-back, and emotionally available. No, I can't imagine Picard acting like she does - because Picard has his own personality, one that's very different from Janeway's. All of the captains have their own style. That's why Star Trek is so awesome: it shows that people who are very different can command in their own ways and still all be effective. Every captain shouldn't have to be Picard or Sisko in order to be seen as a good captain.
Janeway's situation is also vastly different. She has responsibility for an isolated group of people who are so far away from home that they'll likely never get back in their lifetimes. She's the single authority responsible for making decisions about situations for which there are no regulations. For better or worse, she doesn't have Starfleet breathing down her neck. Of course she has to handle things a little differently.
I can't help but feel that this particular criticism of Janeway is especially rooted in her being a woman. Our society has taught us that women are (allowed to be) more openly affectionate and emotional. The validity of that aside, the problem here is the assumption that a captain can't be affectionate and emotionally open without compromising their authority and effectiveness. I really feel that Janeway's open affection for her crew and her emotional availability make her a better captain in her situation. It's generally "uncool" nowadays to say "Janeway's a bad captain because she's a woman," so people find ways to say the same thing and make it sound like a legitimate criticism of her character.
There's no mistaking that some episodes of Voyager are badly written, clunky, and sacrifice character continuity for ease of plot. But all Star Trek series have those episodes. If reading those criticisms have done anything for me, it's to convince me further not to seek out fandom stuff on the internet :\
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