Watch: J.J. Abrams Equalizes Sexist Criticisms of "Star Trek" With Shirtless, Showering Cumberbatch Scene

By Dustin Rowles | Videos | May 23, 2013 |

By Dustin Rowles | Videos | May 23, 2013 |

When I woke up this morning, one of the first things I saw was a link to Felicia Day’s blog, where she was complaining about the lack of women in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek: Into Darkness. She writes:

Where are the women? The strong women? The women we’d like to see in 200 years? Where are they in this world? They certainly aren’t around the roundtable when the Starfleet are learning about Khan (there might have been one in that scene, if so that extra was not cut to in any significant manner to be notable.) In the scene where Kirk gets his ship back and the admiral is having a meeting with “important” people around a table later, I failed to see ONE WOMAN AROUND THAT TABLE, ALL MOSTLY WHITE MEN IMPLIED TO BE MAKING IMPORTANT DECISIONS TOGETHER. Yes, these are just scenes with extras, but seriously, in the future not one woman over 40 is in charge in this world?! How can that happen?

It’s not an unfair complaint, although I am a little baffled with the nascent criticism of Alice Eve in her underwear, although much of that seems to be coming from Damon Lindelof, the writer of the sequence, who admitted that its a little misogynistic. From the LA Times:

“Why is Alice Eve in her underwear, gratuitously and unnecessarily, without any real effort made as to why in God’s name she would undress in that circumstance? Well, there’s a very good answer for that. But I’m not telling you what it is. Because… uh… MYSTERY?,” Lindelof wrote.

He said there was a scene written for (Benedict Cumberbatch) to remove his shirt, but “I don’t think it ever got shot. You know why? Because getting actors to take their clothes off is DEMEANING AND HORRIBLE AND…”

Lindelof touted the MTV admission on Twitter, first saying, “I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress,” and then joking, “We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies. Do not want to make light of something that some construe as misogynistic.”

Well, how do you even the score, so to speak? Benedict Cumberbatch shirtless, of course. Last night on Conan, J.J. Abrams addressed the criticism and then unveiled the deleted scene from the movie, which features a shirtless Benedict Cumberbatch showering.

That’s all good and all, but maybe Abrams’ has pushed the pin the other way, too far. After all, Joanna is still upset with that other upsetting new trend.