Janice Rand and Our Fear of the Feminine

As much as I love Star Trek, it was made in the sixties, which means... Well, there are problems.  And for me, a lot of these issues center around one person.

If you think "Wow, she really doesn't look into that," you are right.  This is from The Enemy Within, where Kirk gets split into two halves, and one of them tries to rape Yeoman Janice Rand.  There are actually a few times in TOS that something like this happens, but it's the only time that it's not something an enemy does to one of the crew.  This time, the assailant is Kirk (admitably, not Kirk-Kirk, but as far as Janice knows, this is the boss, her Captain).  "I didn't want to get you in trouble, but you were hurting me, you scared me." --She says afterward, while crying.  The 'good' Kirk is there, understandably baffled and insisting it wasn't him, and everyone else is questioning Yeoman Rand, trying to understand which one of them is lying.  It's... well, a little too real, and not the way I want to imagine the future dealing with these kinds of things.

But then, Technician Fisher steps in, and restores all of my faith in humanity.  He is an extremely minor character-- in fact, this is the only time we ever see him in the series.  He's just a geological technician who happened to be walking by Yeoman Rand's quarters when she needed help.  He helps her then, as I think most people would, but later he goes the extra mile.  When there is doubt that Yeoman Rand is telling the truth, he goes to bat for her.  "Do you know what you're saying?  This is the Captain!"  "I know what I'm saying.  And I know what I saw."

There he is, Geological Technician Fisher:  My current hero.

Janice Rand is the most sexualized woman on the show-- or at least, the most sexualized reoccurring character.  This is in spite of the fact that we never seem to see her romantically involved with anyone, in fact her main role seems to be having other people inflict their sexual desires on her.  Being Janice Rand seems to be a really scary thing.

I think this is why, despite being a reoccurring character who has as much or more screen time as any other woman on the show, we don't really care about Yeoman Rand.  She's just a sexy lamp, right?  Well, no, she has personality traits-- we know, for example, that she likes to paint.  We know she's a diligent crew member.  (Kirk initially didn't want a female Yeoman, but when he saw how efficient and professional Rand was, he changed his mind.)  So, why don't we like her?  Why don't we remember her?

I have searched several archives now, and have yet to find any works from her perspective that are longer than 1 chapter.  Yet Uhura, or Chapel, we are very ready to imbue with agency.  I think it's right up there with hating pink because it's a 'girl color'.  She is our disgust with the ideal of passive femininity.  We don't like Janice because we don't like the things she shows us about being a woman.

And I don't like what it says about us.  So today, I'm not going to give you something to read, I'm going to give you a promise.  I will include Janice Rand.  I will believe in her.  Whenever I write something in the Star Trek universe, I'm going to remember her.   (And Technician Fisher.)