Representation Matters

from Art Department Weekly | Issue 106 Vol. 13

At the Intersection of Police and Protect

Long before Nichelle Nichols took off on the USS Enterprise as Lt. Nyota Uhura in 1966, women were succeeding in science, but Nichols was the most visible Black woman on television during the Civil Rights era. When she planned to leave Star Trek for a role on Broadway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned her a blonde could be cast in her spot and it would be like she was never there. So she stayed as a beacon for fans and sang after the series ended. Dr. Mae Jemison says Nichols inspired her to become an astronaut.

Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) was a Linguistics Cryptographer Philologist on Star Trek. Dr. Mae Jemison appeared in an episode of The Next Generation in 1993. In Renegades: Ominara, Nichols plays the title character, a pirate and head of the underworld. Loren Lott plays the younger version of Ominara. Nichols tells her on TikTok she is also just here for the snacks.

Diana Trujillo who traveled to the U.S. with no English and just $300 in her pocket just put a rover on Mars. “As a little girl, I saw the women in my family give up a lot. It gave me the tenacity that I needed to say I’m not going to give up on my dream. I want to be out there looking back in, showing my family that women have value, that women matter.”

**1969: Margaret Hamilton stands next to the code that got us to the moon. Hamilton was the lead Apollo flight software designer.**

**2019: Dr. Katie Bouman poses with the 5 petabytes (5,000,000 gigabytes) of data that got us to the black hole. Dr. Bouman developed the algorithm to make the first picture of a black hole.**

Our gaming issue didn’t get into the abuse female gamers receive online, so an influencer ad for Tampax that emphasizes comfort caught my attention. Most posts from @krystalogytv feature sexy costumes, but this story emphasized all the ways to game and be comfortable—partly inclusive, partly fantasy.

At the Intersection of

RACISM AND SEXISM

1913 is not ancient history. The fact there’s a photograph of Harriet Tubman at all stopped my scrolling. As Shaun King says in his post, this is why our nation is still fighting over the legacy of slavery today. Nothing about Meghan Markle telling Oprah all the ways the royal family and British tabloids were racist struck me as interesting. Now This seemed to have a similar attitude, taking the opportunity to recap how 12-yearold Markle asked Proctor & Gamble to change its sexist ad for Ivory dish soap. Nick News covered the story and the ad changed. It doesn’t seem likely the current media environment will put as much pressure on the royal family to treat Prince Andrew’s possible child sex trafficking with as much scrutiny as they are treating claims of Markle bullying staff. —MV

History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.

—Marsha P. Johnson trans rights activist and key figure of the Stonewall Uprising

A reminder that transwomen are women and Black trans lives matter.

Two more women I would have included as illustrations if I had the time:

RENÉE RICHARDS - Richards had competed in the men’s U.S. Open about 15 years before transitioning. After completing her transition, she wanted to take to the court in the women’s U.S. Open. When various forces in tennis colluded to stop her, she sued the United States Tennis Association in court and won the right to compete as a woman.

MONICA ROBERTS - On her blog, TransGriot, she says, “At least five people have told me that reading my blog posts is what kept them from committing suicide. So every time I sit down and start writing a post, I keep that in mind— that what I’m writing may inspire someone who does not want to persevere.”