Despicable you

Young Michael before and after she started living on Vulcan.

When she’s living on Vulcan, and trying to suppress her human self, she straightens her hair and has it in a Vulcan bob. When she’s been in Starfleet for awhile the bob disappears but she still straightens it.

When in prison she starts getting a more natural hairstyle, but still have it short and pretty practical. Then eventually we get to her season 4 look.

While in real life these changing looks can mean completely different things for different people, the changes here do have a clear connection to the narrative in Discovery. A narrative of self discovery, of becoming a more complete person if you embrace different parts of yourself. Of stop trying to be something others want you to be and forge your own path.

There’s no denying that before Michael there were vanishingly few instances of black women wearing their natural hair in Star Trek. So it’s worth pointing out the symbolism and also how Michael’s hair is used to signify the journey of her character.

It has felt almost meta at times when I’ve watched Discovery, since Star Trek itself has been so bad at letting the few black actors they’ve had to grow their hair in a way they want. Avery Brooks fought for years to be able to shave his head and grow a beard, which he thought was culturally and personally very important. The producers thought it was “Too street” (!).

Nichelle Nichols (RIP trailblazer space queen) had to fight to be able to wear an afro in The Motion Picture because the writers claimed it was “Too modern”:

Seriously, this is such a great way to go about organizing your home.

I really can’t express how much easier your life can be when you accept that there’s no objectively right way to do this kind of stuff, especially when you let go of the idea that it’s a moral failure when you can’t do something the “correct way” nor is it evidence of you being lazy.

letting rats fall into the rice pot violates the buddhist concept of nonviolence, ahimsa. and this is one of the more dauntingly advanced cookbooks i've ever seen

ingredients: 1 grain of dust.

I felt like I was keeping up here:

A rich buttery soup is not better as such than a broth of wild herbs. In handling and preparing wild herbs, do so as you would the ingredients for a rich feast, wholeheartedly, sincerely, clearly.

But then I realise the very next sentence that I’m not even remotely on their level:

When you serve the monastic assembly, they and you should taste only the flavour of the Ocean of Reality , the Ocean of unobscured Awake Awareness, not whether or not the soup is creamy or made only of wild herbs.

Smith College Girls for i-D magazine, 2004.