William Shatner responded to the European Union’s European Institute for Gender Equality suggesting an iconic Star Trek line be changed over “gendered” language.
William Shatner speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In a 65-page document titled Toolkit on Gender-sensitive communication the sixth chapter suggests changing the iconic Star Trek line “To boldly go where no man has gone before.”
The phrase was popularized in the introduction to the original Star Trek series with the narrator stating, “Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
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The document shows the line as an example of gendered language with a red X next to it. It then offers the solution, “remove the gendered noun, use no-one.”
It then applies this solution with an alternative, “To boldly go where no-one has gone before.”
Toolkit on Gender-sensitive communication
Shatner responded to reporting on the toolkit from The Sun and wrote on X, “Presentism at work yet again. Why start at Trek? Isn’t it better to start at the beginning and redo foundation material such as the Magna Carta, religious writings, works of Shakespeare before worrying about a silly TV show opening that reflects social commentary of the time?”
He continued, “If people are offended by 6 seconds of dialogue recorded in 1966 without a modicum of understanding of the social issues at the time there’s bigger issues that they need to deal with first – like educating themselves.”
William Shatner on X
As you can see in the above screenshot, the toolkit does not just isolate Star Trek, but it also includes the quote “under the law, all men are equal” from To Kill a Mockingbird.
It suggests using “women and men or people.” It then offers two alternatives: “Under the law, all women and men are equal” and “Under the law, all people are equal.”
To Kill a Mockingbird (2002), Harper Perennial
These types of actions are being put into action by major corporations such as The Walt Disney Company. Vivian Ware, the Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts admitted the company was removing “gendered” language in its greetings and audio recordings throughout its parks.
She said, “Last summer we removed all of the gendered greetings in relationship to our live spiels.”
“So we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.’ We provided training for all of our cast members in relationship to that. So now they know it’s, ‘Hello, everyone’ or ‘Hello, friends,’” she explained.
SCOOP: Disney diversity and inclusion manager Vivian Ware says the company has eliminated all mentions of “ladies,” “gentlemen,” “boys,” and “girls” in its theme parks in order to create “that magical moment” for children who do not identify with traditional gender roles. pic.twitter.com/OWsGTUoeCA
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
She admitted, “We’re in the process of changing over those recorded messages, and so many of you are probably familiar when we brought the fireworks back to the Magic Kingdom, we no longer say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ We say, ‘Dreamers of all ages.’”
“So I love the fact that it’s opened up the creativity, the opportunity for our cast members to look at that. We have our cast members working with merchandise, working with food and beverage, working with all of our guest-facing areas, where perhaps we want to create that magical moment with our cast members, with our guests,” she said.
Ware concluded, “And we don’t want to just assume because someone might be, in our interpretation, may be presenting as female, that they may not want to be called ‘princess.’ So, let’s think differently about how do we really engage with our guests in a meaningful and inclusive way that makes it magical and memorable for everyone.”
Djovi Resmia in Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures
Classic novels are also being edited with these mandates. The Telegraph reported that a number of novels written by Agatha Christie saw their texts altered by “sensitivity readers.”
Craig Simpson at The Telegraph shared that Christie’s Poirot novel removed the term “Oriental.” He also noted, ” Other descriptions have been altered in some instances, with a black servant, originally described as grinning as he understands the need to stay silent about an incident, described as neither black nor smiling but simply as “nodding.'”
Furthermore, he shared that Death on the Nile removed “references to the Nubian people – an ethnic group that has lived in Egypt for millennia.”
Death on the Nile (2022), William Morrow Paperbacks
This ideology that the European Union and other state entities like the United States’ federal government push do want to fundamentally change foundational material. They will not be satisfied with Star Trek or To Kill a Mockingbird.
William Shatner speaking at the 2018 Phoenix Comic Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
What do you make of Shatner’s response?
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