There’s that DS9 episode where Jadzia risks exile from Trill society to revisit an old relationship, and, if not necessarily trans, it reads pretty obviously as a queer allegory.
Oh, queer, sure. Star Trek has had plenty of queer relationships; she wasn’t the first. Trans is a whole different thing, though; queer is who you’re attracted to; trans is a self-identity topic. Trans says nothing about who you’re attracted to; you can be a gay trans person, a hetero trans person, a bi or asexual trans person. Trans(sexual) is about what plumbing you feel you should have, not whether you’re hetero or homo.
That’s the episode. It got a fair bit of press when it aired due to the “lesbian kiss”, which probably sounds ridiculous now, but that was like…wow, literally two generations ago. It was a wild time, it was just a year earlier that the U.S. military released its official policy on sexual orientation, which basically amounted to pretending that nobody is gay. On a personal note, I remember crying like a baby at the end of this episode when I first saw it and not understanding why it affected me so deeply. And holy crap, I’m now realizing it was my subconscious screaming “That’s you, dummy!!”
There’s that DS9 episode where Jadzia risks exile from Trill society to revisit an old relationship, and, if not necessarily trans, it reads pretty obviously as a queer allegory.
Oh, queer, sure. Star Trek has had plenty of queer relationships; she wasn’t the first. Trans is a whole different thing, though; queer is who you’re attracted to; trans is a self-identity topic. Trans says nothing about who you’re attracted to; you can be a gay trans person, a hetero trans person, a bi or asexual trans person. Trans(sexual) is about what plumbing you feel you should have, not whether you’re hetero or homo.
I still wouldn’t say that one reads as a trans allegory. The conflict arises from failing to meet social expectations, not from changes in gender.
But yeah, it definitely reads as a queer allegory.
What episode?
I think they are talking about “Rejoined” s4e5? https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0708588/?ref_=tt_mv_close
That’s the episode. It got a fair bit of press when it aired due to the “lesbian kiss”, which probably sounds ridiculous now, but that was like…wow, literally two generations ago. It was a wild time, it was just a year earlier that the U.S. military released its official policy on sexual orientation, which basically amounted to pretending that nobody is gay. On a personal note, I remember crying like a baby at the end of this episode when I first saw it and not understanding why it affected me so deeply. And holy crap, I’m now realizing it was my subconscious screaming “That’s you, dummy!!”