Outdated by today's understanding of identity but this '90s show banged out many subversive pro-trans messages.

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[–] 154 points 2 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 61 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Kor, Dahar Master and Trans Ally 🏳️‍⚧️

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  • [–] 41 points 2 months ago

    When one of my best friends from childhood came out to me, he texted me after a few years of not having spoken (life stuff, not intentional on either side). This is basically how it went.

    Him: hey, man

    Me: [dead name]! I've missed you, what's up?

    Him: Actually, it's [new, male name] now. I'm transitioning.

    Me: [new, male name]! I've missed you, what's up?

    Totally unintentional to the star trek reference, but he got a real kick it out of it, and reference ds9 after lol

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  • [–] 40 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    male, female, or anywhere in between — the spots go all the way down

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    "the spots go all the way down" can this be the universal code for acceptance?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I think it is what past Rutherford would have said to an attractive trill trying to get in their pants.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    After this show, I always wanted to name my future daughter Esri but then I wound up working with the IRL geo mapping software company which goes by the same name and now I just can't seem to bother.

    That and I'm still a burnt out virgin still living with parents. lmao

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago (18 children)

    Does anyone know the background of this character? Is she some being that changes sex randomly every night?

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  • [–] 48 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    She's a symbiotic species with a slug-like creature in her. The humanoid part only lives about as long as a human, but the slug lives for many centuries and when one host body dies, the slug is moved to another. It contains memories from previous hosts. This scene was from shortly after one host died and the slug was moved into a new one, who wasn't quite as prepared for the transition.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Brain memories and muscle memory. Ezir was able to do backflips because a previous host was a gymnast

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Also worth mentioning that while memories are retained in the slug, each host/slug combination is considered to be a unique being and not necessarily exactly the same person as past incarnations. They deliberately play with the boundary of this to show how having different body or gender is part of who we are but doesn’t totally define us.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Ok, it was mentioned that she is a Trill with a symbiote that moves from host to host, BUT a couple relevant points.

    1 - The worm (symbiote) that lives in them merges with the host, combining personalities. This symbiote has been joined to eight hosts at this point, which means there's about that meany people's lives in there.

    2 - Not all trill get a symbiote, they typically go to a special academy and need to be in an elite group to get one. Once you merge, you can't unmerge without killing the host.

    3 - this host, Ezri, was untrained and would not normally get a symbiote, but the previous host was killed and she was the closest available host, so she was assigned this symbiote without being properly prepared.

    4 - two of the previous hosts - Curzon (a male host) and Jadzia (a female host) were extremely popular and well respected, which put a lot of extra pressure on the current host, leading to a lot of self doubt and personal identity confusion.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago*

    A note on point 2: the merging doesn’t become “permanent” per se immediately. There’s a brief window of a few days or so when the symbyote can be removed from the host, undoing the blending, but it’s quite psychologically traumatic for the host the be separated once the blending has begun and physically traumatic for the symbyote.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago

    This is Ezri Dax.. She is a Trill. Some trill host symbiotes. The symbiotes live longer than their hosts. During hosting memories and personalities blend, and the symbiote will carry that blending into the next host.

    Her symbiote is named Dax and was previously hosted by both another female, Jadzia, and a male Curzon, and several others.

    Jazdia Dax was the name of Jadzia hosting Dax. Curzon Dax was the name of Curzon hosting Dax.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

    If you're gonna hang out in a Star Trek fedicomm you're probably gonna wanna watch TOS (The Original Series), TNG (The Next Generation) and DS9 (Deep Space Nine) at a minimum. They're quite good, but fair warning: the special effects are pretty dated, especially in TOS. The writing and acting hold up terrifically, though.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    *with caveats. Some episodes are best left skipped.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Or specifically-watched to see just how BAD Star Trek could be at its lowest points. Looking at you, Code of Honor...

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago

    Another example of this subversion was in one of the first few episodes of DS9 when someone refers to Jadzia "before she was a woman."

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Definetely feel this... dont feel comfortable, myself.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago

    If trans, never stop looking for the supportive people to surround yourself with. They had to be subversive in the 90s and they may have to again in the future. But they will always be there.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    I believe DS9 showed two women kissing for the first time on TV.

    Edit: Correction, it was not in fact the first kiss between women on TV.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (19 children)

    Outdated by today’s understanding of identity

    Because she's talking about being a Trill host to a symbiote, not being transgender. They are two entirely different things.

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  • [–] [S] 42 points 2 months ago (14 children)

    Animal Farm was just about farm animals

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Being a Joined Trill is a lot more like being genderfluid than trans. For example Jadzia didn't look back on her time as the male Curzon as "wrong" or dysphoric. She WAS happy as a man and IS happy as a woman.

    Ezri was a lot more confused, but only because she hadn't been prepared for the joining like Curzon or Jadzia had been, and was thus more overwhelmed by all the new and unexpected memories. It didn't last, and Illa seemed far more comfortable in her own skin.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (12 children)

    Trill don't seem to suffer much from social stigma or body dysphoria. Their "transition" is deeply rooted in their culture. TNG S05E17 "The Outcast" feels much more representative.

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    The Trill aren't a stand-in for trans people. The show used their experience to occasionally send a message. They had to be subversive enough in this era that the majority of middle America that had no appetite for it wouldn't even notice.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    You're ignoring my point but don't bother. Let's call it progress that you didn't call Ezri ugly in this post.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    call Ezri ugly

    Does that actually happen? If anything, I see posts fawning over her. Maybe I'm just thinking about my own posts, though...

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago* (5 children)
  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    I knew that would be it before I clicked. You're batshit.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Isn't the joke that Dax went from ugly to not ugly by going from Ezri to Jadzia?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Dax went from Curzon (Sisko’s friend he called “old man”) to Jadzia to Ezri.

    Who’s hotter is a master of taste but Ezri was a young girl and Jadzia was a woman. Both good characters but Jadzia best girl and Ezri was just a good girl.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I wasn't talking about lore, I was talking about what OP posted a few days ago. In my opinion they implied that Ezri is ugly. OP says I'm batshit but hasn't bothered to explain. I genuinely don't see their point ¯\(ツ)/¯

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Oh. I didn't see what happened in that other thread.

    I'll be the first to agree that Jadzia was more beautiful, but a woman is more than just her looks, and Ezri is more than just a pretty face (and she is absolutely beautiful in her own right). I just wish we got more than one season of her. Jadzia didn't really have six seasons of content, but also, Worf was not present for the first two, and I think they were married in season 5? Going from memory here. So they couldn't really cut her arc short. And, she only left the show because the actress wanted more money, or something — so she had to be replaced. (Not taking sides there, just saying what I remember from back then.) Anyway, Ezri absolutely deserved more time to grow.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    Is it outdated, or just substantially different?
    Human ideas of identity don't incorporate a person literally moving from one aged body to another youthful one, several times over hundreds of years.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    The outdated part is the notion of needing to see under the covers to figure out gender. We know now that gender expression is not constrained by physical body features.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (7 children)

    In humans that's true.
    But what of alien body hopping slugs, who are half themselves and half their host? It doesn't seem right to assume the blending of consciousness and frequent body swapping wouldn't change that notion.

    As I said, it's substantially different.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    [sigh]... Animal Farm is just about farm animals

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    Of course not. But this is about opening up people to more broad ways of thinking. You seem to be ignoring anything broader than humans. Not all people are humans.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago (4 children)

    All people watching this television show in the 1990s were in fact human.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    That's an assumption.
    But even if true, it's immaterial to my point.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    That's an assumption?? Bro. Request new instructions.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Except they should uphold the reassociation taboo. That episode always didn't quite work for me. That norm is more an anti-monopoly regulation than a system of oppression lol

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