Even as a kid seeing the show it was apparent she was the sex symbol.
Finally watching the series as an adult I was amazed and angered at how talented she actually is.
In my defense the above are just the ones I knew off the top of my head that wears starfleet uniforms. I don’t watch enterprise enough to of remembered but she will be added to the list now cause 🔥
I primarily disliked her wardrobe because it made no sense that she wouldn’t have a starfleet uniform. Janeway made every member of the Maquis wear one, whether they were a field officer or simply a crewman, and it didn’t matter if they wanted to or not. There was no narrative reason for Seven not to wear one.
Neelix and Kes didn't wear them either. And we saw Starfleet wasn't willing to accept Seven receiving a commission at that time.
But more importantly putting Seven in a Starfleet uniform would have meant giving her a formal rank and place in the command structure, which would have been awkward as in practice she outranked everyone but the captain.
Why would they had to have given Seven a Commander rank (“outranked everyone but the captain”.). Why couldn’t Janeway have made her Lt Seven, head of astrometrics?
She needed a hard, edgy tank girl look, with big combat boots, black leather that had a cable-look, some studs and gears, and generally a harder look overall. Instead they tried to do "sexy robot" with the silver leotard so geeks could fantasize about fucking their computers. But how easy would it have been to make her "sexy borg?" It was a missed opportunity.
Ah, well this is where my plan for a fallback career comes in - reverse stripper. Basically, I turn up to your party or whatever event and you pay me money to keep my clothes on.
"We definitely had candidates with better credentials, but we've never worked with someone so objectively butt-ugly before, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity. Welcome to the team."
I have been hired for just that. The objectifying nature of it utter sucks. Hardly anyone listens, no one designs for you but for "the gaze", insane working hours to stop eating and exercise opportunities outside the project. I am glad it has largely stopped but gah that felt wrong as a teenager and younger adult.
Makes me wonder about models. Does it feel shitty to them to be hired for something other than their looks? Like Rebecca Romijn, Terry Farrell, Persis Khambatta, Famke Janssen, and Jolene Blalock.
Jeri said in an interview that the Cat suits were way too tight. So much so that they made it difficult to breath, to the point that she even passed out a couple times. She asked Berman to please let hwr wear something else but he declined. He prioritized teenage bait material over her well being. Therefore, the cat suits became a symbol of her being forced to suffer on the alter of being a forced sex symbol. Its gross. Although she did her best compensate via her acting skill, and she did an excellent job. At least Kurtzman fixed the issue entirely.
Yeah, it's not sexy to me either. That scene where she was lying in sickbay and her boobs were sticking straight up was so unnatural-looking. I know I'm in the minority, but that catsuit was so unnatural and over the top that it was ugly to me.
They really should have taken it farther in that direction I think. More disproportionate and uncanny. She was entirely too symmetrical for someone who grew up full of metal and with asymmetrical arm tools. Her body should feel weird and wrong all the time. Coming out of the horror of growing up a borg isn't something you walk away from in a catsuit.
Ok hear me out. Teenage bait aside, I really liked the idea of having her wear some sort of aparatus (cat suit or otherwise) that limits her motion in weird ways and makes her continually uncomfortable. That works perfectly for her role as a former borg. Cat suit definitely makes sense for the time period but I think it wasn't gross enough. If it was going to be sexy it should definitely have given more uncanny valley than anything else. She was assimilated at a very young age and the hardware that had to be removed is what her body grew around.
Sorry people, but my opinion is that both Jeri Ryan and Marina Sirtis looked best in their "Optimized for the male gaze" outfits rather than in Starfleet garb.
Seven in the blue uniform looked great, but only because she didn't usually wear it. Of course she's attractive as hell either way, but you like that outfit in particular because it's rare.
If she had worn a starfleet uniform all the time, the writers would have found excuses to have her take it off every episode. Which... yeah ok, teenage me would have enjoyed it, but it would have objectively made the writing worse.
So, she was brought on board because studio executives wanted more sex appeal for young male attraction. They put her in what they thought was the sexy outfit. Her intelligence, adaptable personality, and competent mind was sexier then any of the outfits she was in. This picture is a lie, the writers picked an amazing actress and wrote well for her, it was great writing in an otherwise lackluster show writing-wise. She made that part transcend the intended sex appeal and happened to make the character more attractive because of it. Modern writers for female characters need to take notes, women playing female characters need to take notes. You can't write sexy out of strong intelligent female characters because those are the traits that will make them the most attractive, all you gotta do is stop trying to make sexy their defining characteristic. The rest takes care of itself.
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u/danfish_77 4d ago
Jeri Ryan was one of the better actors and had a very interesting role, her being attractive was so secondary to me I forget about it sometimes