Star Trek: Enterprise. "Culture Shock" by roadstergal
Title: Culture Shock
Author: roadstergal
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing/characters: Sato, Phlox; Reed/Archer implied.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They do not belong to me, and I make no money off of them.
Prompt: 745: So what's the attitude to LGBT Starfleet personnel?
Summary: We never see openly gay characters in Starfleet. Why?
Author's notes: My thanks to my lovely beta kahvi.
Without the atmosphere of a planet in the way, the stars did not twinkle. They shone with a clear and steady light, sharp dots of color like permanent glints off of the most perfectly cut jewels ever made.
Hoshi snorted gently. Jewels - the wrong metaphor for this crowd. Laser blasts, maybe; something macho and strong. An attitude she was getting just a little tired of. She sipped at her tea and looked around the room. It was sparsely inhabited; she had taken the late lunch shift. Reed sat two tables away, but the look on his face as he stared at his PADD indicated that conversation was not in the cards. Hoshi did not really feel like talking about the finer points of blowing things up, anyway. She jabbed, without much appetite, at the rubbery, reconstituted fish on her plate. What she wouldn't give for real sushi.
"Is something amiss, my dear Ensign?" a polite voice asked. Hoshi looked up at Phlox's gently smiling face as she waved at the seat across from her. He sat, setting down a tray of something that made her feel a little better about her fish.
"I'm all right," she sighed. She sipped at her tea again. All tea is made out of dry leaves, she thought to herself - which meant that there is no reason that this particular tea should taste dessicated. But it did.
"If you'll forgive me saying so," Phlox said, looking at her with a slight furrow in his brow, "you do not seem to be. You look - tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Oh, yes, yes," she said, forcing a smile. "I've been sleeping perfectly well. More than I did back on Earth. I've been hitting the gym more often than I did back on Earth, too. I bet I'm in better shape."
"One's health is not all physical," said Phlox, pausing to take a bite and chew it with gusto. "Your mental state is a significant factor," he added after swallowing. "You seem... down, for lack of a better word."
"Yes," Hoshi sighed, putting her tea down and leaning back. "This ship, this mission, these people - it's a culture shock. I mean, they're lovely people," she added, hastily, "but it's just not the way I normally work. I'm a civilian."
"You're not used to military action? Being exposed to bodily harm? It's quite natural to feel discomfited."
"It's not that." Hoshi paused. "Well, not only that. It's the whole culture. This is a military ship, so I know I should have been expecting this macho... ness, but it's still a bit of a shock."
"Macho," Phlox said, then took a bite of the strange yellow mash on one side of his plate, appearing to chew on the word as he chewed on the food. "I think I've heard that word, but I could not quite pull the meaning from the context. Could you enlighten me?" He smiled almost apologetically.
"Macho? It's... well..." Hoshi was surprised to find that she did not have a clear definition at hand. "It's a way of thinking. It's - male, but very stereotypically so, and very excessively so. It's like one aspect of man-ness taken to an extreme. It's the idealization of a lack of feeling and empathy, and a love of destruction. There's quite a bit of homophobia and sexism in there, too." She laughed ruefully. "It's hard to define, I think."
Phlox had listened attentively, nodding. "Hm, interesting. Homophobia - I have come across that concept, strange though it is. It seems to accompany a sense that being penetrated is somehow a weak or submissive act - and in that sense, the association with misogyny is not surprising." He looked vaguely startled at the whole idea.
Hoshi found Phlox's point of view intriguing. "You know - I think you're right. It's this idea that womanliness is somehow weakness, and that homosexuality is womanly, and that any admission of weakness is not to be tolerated."
Phlox shook his head. "The inability to admit weakness is, in itself, a weakness. You cannot improve if you cannot admit to room for improvement."
Hoshi nodded, feeling words that had been pent-up rushing to get out of her. "And - the things that the whole 'macho' culture decry - it's a whole part of being human - or," she looked at Phlox apologetically, "sentient - that one is really not complete without. It's part of what I do, after all. Communication. Empathy. Caring, too." She sighed, then laughed a little. "I'm sorry to unload all of this on you, Doctor. I'm just sick of it, is all."
Phlox reached out and patted her hand, gently. "Don't worry, my dear - it's all part of the job, after all! Please, tell me more. I'd..."
The rest of Phlox's sentence was cut off by the sound of someone clearing his throat overly loudly. Hoshi looked up, right into the impatient face of Reed. "Ensign Sato," he snapped, "taking rather a long lunch, aren't you?"
Hoshi looked at her watch (she was damned if she was going to call it a chronometer). "Sorry - I think this is a little longer than I had meant to take. I was talking to Phlox..."
"I don't care if you were talking to the President of some damned Interplanetary Council. Get to work!" Reed spun on his heel and strode out of the mess, taking his scowl with him.
Hoshi looked at Phlox, and his startled expression mirrored hers. What on Earth - or Denobula - had gotten into Reed? The place was quiet - they hadn't had contact with any other beings for weeks. There was surely nothing for her to do on the bridge. "Sorry," Hoshi sighed, "I have to go."
Reed stormed up the corridor, his boots ringing on the floor. His mood was thoroughly shot. It was too much, listening to Hoshi complain. She thought it was hard living in this 'macho' culture? After only a few months, she was sick of it? Reed sneered internally. What tosh. She should try living it. Growing up with it. Having your life saturated with it. Having the lads give you a good beating after your drunken night with Gaz - when he told them you were a poof who got boys drunk to take advantage of them. Having to control yourself from then on, all men being friends and no more.
Hoshi would leave after this mission was done, and she would be back in her civilian life - where she could dress as she wished, act as she wished, live as she wished and have it be nobody's business but her own. Reed - well, he had grown up with the military in his family, in his life. It was in his veins, now, inescapable. Even with Captain Archer's 'loose' command structure, he could still tell, from the way the Starfleet personnel acted, that there were boundaries and lines that were simply not to be crossed. Hoshi was right about the culture, and that was the way it should be. A Starfleet was about combat readiness, being prepared for the unknown, 24/7 - and you weren't ready when you were thinking about communications, and emotion, and all of that other rot that Hoshi had been on about.
Certainly, you could not be an effective officer when you could not get thoughts of certain highly unacceptable practices with a certain starship captain out of your head.
A revised targeting system for the fore phaser banks, Reed thought, desperately. That was just what this ship needed.
He headed for the plasma banks, hoping for a good, clean, straightforward war.
Author: roadstergal
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing/characters: Sato, Phlox; Reed/Archer implied.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They do not belong to me, and I make no money off of them.
Prompt: 745: So what's the attitude to LGBT Starfleet personnel?
Summary: We never see openly gay characters in Starfleet. Why?
Author's notes: My thanks to my lovely beta kahvi.
Without the atmosphere of a planet in the way, the stars did not twinkle. They shone with a clear and steady light, sharp dots of color like permanent glints off of the most perfectly cut jewels ever made.
Hoshi snorted gently. Jewels - the wrong metaphor for this crowd. Laser blasts, maybe; something macho and strong. An attitude she was getting just a little tired of. She sipped at her tea and looked around the room. It was sparsely inhabited; she had taken the late lunch shift. Reed sat two tables away, but the look on his face as he stared at his PADD indicated that conversation was not in the cards. Hoshi did not really feel like talking about the finer points of blowing things up, anyway. She jabbed, without much appetite, at the rubbery, reconstituted fish on her plate. What she wouldn't give for real sushi.
"Is something amiss, my dear Ensign?" a polite voice asked. Hoshi looked up at Phlox's gently smiling face as she waved at the seat across from her. He sat, setting down a tray of something that made her feel a little better about her fish.
"I'm all right," she sighed. She sipped at her tea again. All tea is made out of dry leaves, she thought to herself - which meant that there is no reason that this particular tea should taste dessicated. But it did.
"If you'll forgive me saying so," Phlox said, looking at her with a slight furrow in his brow, "you do not seem to be. You look - tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Oh, yes, yes," she said, forcing a smile. "I've been sleeping perfectly well. More than I did back on Earth. I've been hitting the gym more often than I did back on Earth, too. I bet I'm in better shape."
"One's health is not all physical," said Phlox, pausing to take a bite and chew it with gusto. "Your mental state is a significant factor," he added after swallowing. "You seem... down, for lack of a better word."
"Yes," Hoshi sighed, putting her tea down and leaning back. "This ship, this mission, these people - it's a culture shock. I mean, they're lovely people," she added, hastily, "but it's just not the way I normally work. I'm a civilian."
"You're not used to military action? Being exposed to bodily harm? It's quite natural to feel discomfited."
"It's not that." Hoshi paused. "Well, not only that. It's the whole culture. This is a military ship, so I know I should have been expecting this macho... ness, but it's still a bit of a shock."
"Macho," Phlox said, then took a bite of the strange yellow mash on one side of his plate, appearing to chew on the word as he chewed on the food. "I think I've heard that word, but I could not quite pull the meaning from the context. Could you enlighten me?" He smiled almost apologetically.
"Macho? It's... well..." Hoshi was surprised to find that she did not have a clear definition at hand. "It's a way of thinking. It's - male, but very stereotypically so, and very excessively so. It's like one aspect of man-ness taken to an extreme. It's the idealization of a lack of feeling and empathy, and a love of destruction. There's quite a bit of homophobia and sexism in there, too." She laughed ruefully. "It's hard to define, I think."
Phlox had listened attentively, nodding. "Hm, interesting. Homophobia - I have come across that concept, strange though it is. It seems to accompany a sense that being penetrated is somehow a weak or submissive act - and in that sense, the association with misogyny is not surprising." He looked vaguely startled at the whole idea.
Hoshi found Phlox's point of view intriguing. "You know - I think you're right. It's this idea that womanliness is somehow weakness, and that homosexuality is womanly, and that any admission of weakness is not to be tolerated."
Phlox shook his head. "The inability to admit weakness is, in itself, a weakness. You cannot improve if you cannot admit to room for improvement."
Hoshi nodded, feeling words that had been pent-up rushing to get out of her. "And - the things that the whole 'macho' culture decry - it's a whole part of being human - or," she looked at Phlox apologetically, "sentient - that one is really not complete without. It's part of what I do, after all. Communication. Empathy. Caring, too." She sighed, then laughed a little. "I'm sorry to unload all of this on you, Doctor. I'm just sick of it, is all."
Phlox reached out and patted her hand, gently. "Don't worry, my dear - it's all part of the job, after all! Please, tell me more. I'd..."
The rest of Phlox's sentence was cut off by the sound of someone clearing his throat overly loudly. Hoshi looked up, right into the impatient face of Reed. "Ensign Sato," he snapped, "taking rather a long lunch, aren't you?"
Hoshi looked at her watch (she was damned if she was going to call it a chronometer). "Sorry - I think this is a little longer than I had meant to take. I was talking to Phlox..."
"I don't care if you were talking to the President of some damned Interplanetary Council. Get to work!" Reed spun on his heel and strode out of the mess, taking his scowl with him.
Hoshi looked at Phlox, and his startled expression mirrored hers. What on Earth - or Denobula - had gotten into Reed? The place was quiet - they hadn't had contact with any other beings for weeks. There was surely nothing for her to do on the bridge. "Sorry," Hoshi sighed, "I have to go."
Reed stormed up the corridor, his boots ringing on the floor. His mood was thoroughly shot. It was too much, listening to Hoshi complain. She thought it was hard living in this 'macho' culture? After only a few months, she was sick of it? Reed sneered internally. What tosh. She should try living it. Growing up with it. Having your life saturated with it. Having the lads give you a good beating after your drunken night with Gaz - when he told them you were a poof who got boys drunk to take advantage of them. Having to control yourself from then on, all men being friends and no more.
Hoshi would leave after this mission was done, and she would be back in her civilian life - where she could dress as she wished, act as she wished, live as she wished and have it be nobody's business but her own. Reed - well, he had grown up with the military in his family, in his life. It was in his veins, now, inescapable. Even with Captain Archer's 'loose' command structure, he could still tell, from the way the Starfleet personnel acted, that there were boundaries and lines that were simply not to be crossed. Hoshi was right about the culture, and that was the way it should be. A Starfleet was about combat readiness, being prepared for the unknown, 24/7 - and you weren't ready when you were thinking about communications, and emotion, and all of that other rot that Hoshi had been on about.
Certainly, you could not be an effective officer when you could not get thoughts of certain highly unacceptable practices with a certain starship captain out of your head.
A revised targeting system for the fore phaser banks, Reed thought, desperately. That was just what this ship needed.
He headed for the plasma banks, hoping for a good, clean, straightforward war.