Title: Mission Statement
Author: Saavant
Contact: saavaant @ yahoo . com
Rating: [All Audiences]
Codes: K, double drabble
Series: TOS
Part: 1/1
Summary: Why do they say "where no *man* has gone before"? A weird explanation.
Archive: Sure.
Disclaimer: I disclaim Star Trek characters. I disclaim having invented them. I disclaim to be profiting monetarily from writing about them. I am not Roddenberry. I am not Paramount/Viacom. I am Saavant. So There.
*****
"Captain," said the new yeoman, "why is our mission 'to boldly go where no man has gone before'? Isn't that somewhat sexist? Maybe it should be changed to 'where no one has gone before.'"
"That would be much worse," replied Kirk. "Wherever we go, we meet aliens. Saying that would imply that aliens aren't 'someone.' And the phrase 'no man' is quite accurate, when 'man' refers to a human male."
"Certainly human males haven't been to all these places before. But why doesn't the statement take human females into account?"
"Because," Kirk explained patiently, "human females *have* been here before."
"Huh?"
"Long before our mission, the organization that became Starfleet was an all-female division of the military. It was their idea to make regular exploratory space journeys. Many worlds we visit have already been discovered by woman-run starships. If we were to use a phrase like 'no human,' these women and their descendants would be outraged."
"Oh," said the yeoman. "I'm sorry. I guess I was the one being sexist, then."
"Well, it's good you asked, so that piece of information could be passed on. Years from now, there will be Starship Enterprises that will have forgotten it."
END