Well, Hollywood would stop making them if we stopped watching them, and as a Black woman, I don't plan to stop watching Star Trek anytime soon, (although I am getting a bit short on Star Wars). I love Star Trek, but I don't watch every single movie or series in a franchise either, , so I rarely get as fatigued as some people who will watch every single production. Its okay to skip stuff sometimes. I skipped out on Enterprise, and most of Voyager and Picard.
I have established standards and criteria for whether or not I will watch anything in a franchise. If its not compelling enough to keep my attention, then I don't give it. I'm also not tired of these franchises, since people who look like me are just starting to get some representation, and if these types of media do well with PoC, and women lead characters, that means that Hollywood will not only make more of it, but will take chances on a break-out PoC star, as a lead character in a brand new franchise! That's something that can't happen unless these franchises you're so tired of watching, are actually successful.
Its just suspicious to me that calls for Hollywood to stop making certain types of films, or cutting loose from certain franchises, only ever seem to occur after women and PoC have become heavily involved in them. (I make a special circumstance for Fast and Furious, because wtf?) I know its uncharitable of me to think this, but I've sent the past five years watching straight white men show their whole, full-moon asses, all over social media, whenever a woman or poc gets cast in a lead role, and I came to the conclusion that a lot of white guys (the only ones I ever hear making these arguments) will emotionally dis-invest in these properties after they can no longer see themselves reflected in them, and hence no longer care about them. I hope I'm wrong, but the timing of these types of articles and essays, is always suspicious to me, and I don't like it. Why do these types of articles only ever show up after marginalized people get cast as the leads?
