Trekkophilia Redux -- The Dark Side of Star Trek

A few months ago I noted a LA Times story that postulated a strong correlation between pedophilia and Star Trek fandom. [here] At the time I thought that it was a one-shot story based on a spurious correlation, but it has been revived in the pages of the Arianna Huffington blog and apparently there is something there. [read the article, "Pedophilia and Star Trek" here]. In her article Ellen Ladowsky links Star Trek fandom not only to pedophilia but to other forms of sexual deviancy and asks, "So why would sexual deviants be attracted to Star Trek?"

Her analysis is devastating:

After reviewing a bunch of episodes from the original Star Trek series, what became apparent is that sexuality on the Enterprise is pretty peculiar. At first blush, the crew might seem kind of sexy....but the features of their sexuality are exaggerated in the manner of a comic book, creating a hygienic distance from anything to do with real sexuality.

Despite the cartoonish trappings of sexiness, there are, in fact, no sexual or romantic relationships aboard the Enterprise. The male crew members demurely ignore the sexually enticing (if antiseptic) female crew members. There seems to be a tacit agreement that any sexual relationships would destroy the unity of the crew....

Despite...apparent promiscuity, Kirk's sexuality is anything but clear. His relationships are certainly never based on his own wants or desires. If he seduces a woman, it's usually in order to escape danger on behalf of his crew, or else he's overtaken by some alien power that makes him behave like a sex fiend....

There's a pervasive message that women are toxic. In an episode called Cat's Paw, there is an evil sorceress who separates the crew from each other and from the starship. The perpetually indignant Dr. McCoy cautions Kirk, "Don't let her touch your wand Jim, or you'll lose all your power!
....
The one longstanding attachment Kirk has is to Mr. Spock. In fact, their bond is so intense that there's an abundance of gay porn written about the two.....

For both Kirk and Spock, their true shared love object is the luminous Starship Enterprise, and it essentially serves the purpose of a fetish object – a non-human, inanimate detour for evading anxieties belonging to genuine intimacy.

And there's this:

There is another aspect of Star Trek that likely makes it irresistible to perverts. It is utopian, in the sense that all the differences and distinctions which create tensions here on earth have been eradicated. Despite their exaggerated sexual characteristics, for example, the crew members are citizens of a utopian interracial and interplanetary world where the usual conflicts associated with gender do not apply.

In perversion, there is an attempt to obliterate any distinctions that provoke unconscious anxiety. First and foremost, this entails a denial of the difference between the sexes and the difference between the generations. Pedophiles are, at the very least, attempting to deny the difference between the generations. The utopian fantasy here is to normalize sex between adults and children.
....

Think of Michael Jackson. He has attempted to eradicate just about every sexual, generational, and racial difference – and to construct an alternate utopian reality in Neverland.

I always suspected that there was a link between utopian enthusiasms and sexual deviancy..., what do you think, Dr. Freud?

Micky Kaus over at Slate notes, and generally approves, Ladowsky's analysis and wonders if the Trekkies' fetishizing the Enterprise is not unlike the left's fetishization of Cindy Sheehan. [here]

After many months' silence on the matter the Trekkophiles over at NRO's The Corner have finally spoken out. [here]

JPod [John Podhoretz] writes "STAR TREK BAD. VERY, VERY BAD."

Mark Krikorian notes a plethora of academic Star Trek scholarship. Hmmmm....

* To boldly go where no other has gone before: The construction of race and gender in 'Star Trek'.

* The best of both worlds? Examining bodies, technologies, gender and the Borg of 'Star Trek'.

* To boldly go: A hypermodern ethnography of 'Star Trek' fans' culture and communities of consumption.

* The wrath of whiteness: The meaning of race in the generation of 'Star Trek'.

* Teaching towards the twenty-fourth century: The social curriculum of Star Trek in the schools.

* Phenomenology of communication and culture: Michel Foucault's thematics in the televised popular discourse of 'Star Trek'.

* 'Star Trek' as cultural text: Proprietary audiences, interpretive grammars, and the myth of the resisting reader.

* Jung and Picard: Archetypes and the modern myth of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

These are all doctoral dissertations -- a sad commentary on today's scholarship. Apparently academic scholars have abandoned any hope of being taken seriously and are just indulging their fetishes. A sign of this increasing irrelevancy is the fact that fewer people are seeking Ph.D.s. Scripps Howard notes:

The number of Americans earning doctoral degrees has declined in recent years, renewing worries that the United States is losing its dominance in Ph.D.-level education to rapidly developing nations like China and India.

The National Center for Education Statistics recently reported that 44,160 Ph.D.s were awarded by U.S. universities in 2002, down from the high-water mark of 46,010 doctorates awarded in 1998.

Finally, uber-trekkophiliac Jonah Goldberg chimes in:

I hate to say this -- I really do -- but "to boldly go where no man has gone before" isn't a terrible motto for a pedophile.

Though do keep in mind, I still think a pretty good motto for the criminal justice system is "to boldly send pedophiles to the chair." Still, I just couldn't help myself (a more common motto of pedophiles today, come to think of it).

We're still waiting for comments from Lileks.

Stay tuned....

Parenthetically, if the Huffies think Star Trek is perverse, they should check out Robert Heinlein's later work.