the once and future fangirl

NATALIERSO'S FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION

We know of no former partners for which his lack of commitment or investment in the relationship or depth of feeling was actually the problem. On the contrary, when we meet Kirk's former girlfriends, they give every indication that having the Jim Kirk concentrated intensity beam trained on them in the context of a serious, ongoing, mutually voluntary and heartfelt romantic relationship was an incredibly heady experience that was difficult to give up, and remains difficult not to try for again.

It's also repeatedly suggested that, if anything, he was more committed in his past relationships than his partners were, though his girlfriends' feelings and motives were by no means casual either. We know of multiple times he's remained in obviously doomed relationships longer than was wise, trying to make them work anyway.

I actually do get that a 30-something male protagonist who, onscreen, has a revolving door of "love interests" (though ranging from ex-girlfriends to people he actually falls in love with to people he seductively flirts with as a tactic of survival to people sexually threatening, coercing, or outright assaulting him) is easy in some respects to assume must be averse to commitment or never all that seriously in love. But his ruthlessly utilitarian relationship with his own sex appeal when trapped or endangered + occasional harassment and/or assault is not the same thing as a small number of uncomplicatedly voluntary, heartfelt romantic relationships over the course of some 15 years, and his behavior when he's using his wiles "on the clock" is conspicuously very unlike how he behaves in his uncomplicatedly spontaneous, heartfelt romantic relationships.

He often reacts with disdain, alarm, exasperation, or some other form of near-moral distaste to other men pursuing the gratification of their libidos for no other reason than a good time and with no serious relationships involved. He all but calls Bones a dumb slut multiple times, he gets exasperated/disappointed with Chekov's indiscriminate youthful horniness (but not when it involves deeper relationships, like with Irina), he finds Scotty's infatuations distinctly cringe and pointedly compensates by treating Scotty's love interests with cool professional respect. His weirdness about shore leave is repeatedly (not always, but repeatedly) linked to shore leave flings. Kirk lives in a universe with literal sex pheromones and they bounce off his bubble of judgmental annoyance (overwhelmingly at other men) like rain off a windshield:

dr. ryland grace + crying

PROJECT HAIL MARY (2026) dir. by Christopher Miller & Phil Lord

+ bonus happy tears

Doctor Who (2005—)

Imagine you're Some Guy and every morning when you show up to work you're faced with Uhura and Kirk and their immaculate eyeliner/mascara/foundation routine:

Behold:

Meanwhile, the guy who's always at the navigators' left:

And over at the science station:

dr. ryland grace + being brave

Kate's face after being kissed by Sawyer.

I’ll crawl home to her

~~