First and foremost, men and women are different. We relate to things differently, entertainment resonates differently between the sexes. I don't think it's sexist to acknowledge these differences and think it's fine to want to explore them.
That said, I think at one point, someone at Paramount decided that Voyager should be aimed more towards women, and DS9 more towards men. It wasn't like that at first. The first year and a half, two years of Voyager is very standard Star Trek fare. But somewhere alogn the lines the creative team split. Michael Pillar and Ira Steven Behr took over Deep Space Nine, and Rick Berman took over Voyager with Jeri Taylor. It was around t his time I started noticing that Voyager felt more aimed at a female audience. It's not the obvious things like the women in command (we've seen that as far back as Star Trek 3 and it was a common theme in TNG), something about the storytelling had a slightly Lifetime Channel feel to it, an empathy that resonated with more with the female audience than the male viewers. There was a backlash against DS9 at the time, Voyager fans - particularly women would routinely trash it calling it misogynistic and claiming that the women in it were just walking props. It's something not really recorded in Star Trek history but having lived through it I remember I vividly. I also remember feeling it was a ridiculous claim, some middle child syndrome going on.
I've been in Sci-Fi a long time. I started attending convention in the 80's, around 12 or 13. As big a Trek fan as I am, I've always felt that in terms of storytelling, Doctor Who was superior. Harlan Ellison agrees with me on this by the way. I've noticed that even before the advent of the hottie doctors like Tennant and Smith, Who always seemed to have more women in it's fandom than Trek did. Perhaps it speaks a more universal language. Perhaps it's the ability of Who to tell wildy different stories each episode that gives it an ability to speak to a more diverse audience, each taking away something different.
That said, I think at one point, someone at Paramount decided that Voyager should be aimed more towards women, and DS9 more towards men. It wasn't like that at first. The first year and a half, two years of Voyager is very standard Star Trek fare. But somewhere alogn the lines the creative team split. Michael Pillar and Ira Steven Behr took over Deep Space Nine, and Rick Berman took over Voyager with Jeri Taylor. It was around t his time I started noticing that Voyager felt more aimed at a female audience. It's not the obvious things like the women in command (we've seen that as far back as Star Trek 3 and it was a common theme in TNG), something about the storytelling had a slightly Lifetime Channel feel to it, an empathy that resonated with more with the female audience than the male viewers. There was a backlash against DS9 at the time, Voyager fans - particularly women would routinely trash it calling it misogynistic and claiming that the women in it were just walking props. It's something not really recorded in Star Trek history but having lived through it I remember I vividly. I also remember feeling it was a ridiculous claim, some middle child syndrome going on.
I've been in Sci-Fi a long time. I started attending convention in the 80's, around 12 or 13. As big a Trek fan as I am, I've always felt that in terms of storytelling, Doctor Who was superior. Harlan Ellison agrees with me on this by the way. I've noticed that even before the advent of the hottie doctors like Tennant and Smith, Who always seemed to have more women in it's fandom than Trek did. Perhaps it speaks a more universal language. Perhaps it's the ability of Who to tell wildy different stories each episode that gives it an ability to speak to a more diverse audience, each taking away something different.
It's certainly an idea worth exploring further.