Can Jadzia Dax be read as transgender?
Jadzia Dax Transgender?
- Thread starter JeffOakland
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In a very generous sense, yes.
Perhaps a better way of looking at it is that Dax allows the show to talk about experiences of a being that switches between genders rather frequently. Dax is perhaps less like the contemporary understanding of someone who is transgender, someone who more often than not experiences gender dysphoria, and more of a Tiresias, shifting sexes out of circumstance rather than either as a choice or a correction.
Dax can be regarded as a positive model for transgenderism, where the process of transitioning is depicted as positive. Dax only gains knowledge, not just going from life to life, but gender to gender.
Perhaps a better way of looking at it is that Dax allows the show to talk about experiences of a being that switches between genders rather frequently. Dax is perhaps less like the contemporary understanding of someone who is transgender, someone who more often than not experiences gender dysphoria, and more of a Tiresias, shifting sexes out of circumstance rather than either as a choice or a correction.
Dax can be regarded as a positive model for transgenderism, where the process of transitioning is depicted as positive. Dax only gains knowledge, not just going from life to life, but gender to gender.
Do you think the ST creators knew this at the time or do you think they just thought the idea of an organism switching hosts was a cool sci-fi gimmick?
I would argue no-ish
Jadzia identifies as a woman, having all the woman signature physical traits and thus her identity matches her body.
Dax I am less sure about but I would say the symbiont is probably a-gender or maybe gender fluid. For all we know the symbionts don’t have gender characteristics on their own.
And it seems typical that the joined Trill takes on the gender identity of the host based on the samples we have seen.
it is conceivable that joined Trill could become transgender in cases where previous host’s gender identity becomes somewhat dominant?
Gray was possibly trans (the actor certainly is), but we don’t know if he was before the joining or after.
Adira was non-binary, but that was the identity of them before they joined and they retained that after the joining.
Jadzia identifies as a woman, having all the woman signature physical traits and thus her identity matches her body.
Dax I am less sure about but I would say the symbiont is probably a-gender or maybe gender fluid. For all we know the symbionts don’t have gender characteristics on their own.
And it seems typical that the joined Trill takes on the gender identity of the host based on the samples we have seen.
it is conceivable that joined Trill could become transgender in cases where previous host’s gender identity becomes somewhat dominant?
Gray was possibly trans (the actor certainly is), but we don’t know if he was before the joining or after.
Adira was non-binary, but that was the identity of them before they joined and they retained that after the joining.
I'd think the latter.
Though, of course, they may have had this in the back of their mind, given that such issues existed back in the 90's as well, just with less media coverage. Or perhaps they just thought it was interesting to bring in an alien that wasn't either 100% male or 100% female in its identity without directly associating it with transgenderism.
Yes. Also Data? Autistic.
That reminds me of one of my favorite Jadzia lines...I forget which episode it was, but O'Brien was having difficulties with Keiko, and Jadzia picked up on it. She said something like "I've been a husband, and I've been a wife, and I know that look from both sides."
That actually exemplifies what I was saying: Dax can identify with both genders she has experienced, whereas many trans persons currently feel that they can't identify with their former selves, seeing them as being "dead."That reminds me of one of my favorite Jadzia lines...I forget which episode it was, but O'Brien was having difficulties with Keiko, and Jadzia picked up on it. She said something like "I've been a husband, and I've been a wife, and I know that look from both sides."
I see Dax as a bisexual person, but with no gender identity whatsoever. Dax (the slug) identifies as the same gender as the host it is paired with. Curzon identified as a man, so Curzon Dax identified as a man. Jadzia and Ezri identified as women, so they continued to do so with Dax inside them.
"No gender identity" is not non-binary, incidentally. Non-binary is claiming an identity different from your physical sex. Dax claimed her identity based on her physical sex.
"No gender identity" is not non-binary, incidentally. Non-binary is claiming an identity different from your physical sex. Dax claimed her identity based on her physical sex.
I think the closest human description would be two-spirited.
Though not without controversy itself, it was a term coined to differentiate a gender paradigm unique in context to certain Indigenous cultures that didn't translate to any of the LGBT+ labels that were available. I've heard it described as being impossible to interpret outside of a cultural context.
That sounds more like Dax to me. To be a joined Trill is a unique phenomenon no other species can relate to. They possess both current and past identities blended harmoniously (when the correct host is selected and prepared, as was the case for Jadzia), which entails multiple aspects of identity - gender and otherwise.
I suppose if humans can be two-spirited, that would make Jadzia eight-spirited. Not something that can be directly translated to our gender paradigm.
Though not without controversy itself, it was a term coined to differentiate a gender paradigm unique in context to certain Indigenous cultures that didn't translate to any of the LGBT+ labels that were available. I've heard it described as being impossible to interpret outside of a cultural context.
That sounds more like Dax to me. To be a joined Trill is a unique phenomenon no other species can relate to. They possess both current and past identities blended harmoniously (when the correct host is selected and prepared, as was the case for Jadzia), which entails multiple aspects of identity - gender and otherwise.
I suppose if humans can be two-spirited, that would make Jadzia eight-spirited. Not something that can be directly translated to our gender paradigm.
I liked her take when Ben asked her about Kasidy Yates: "If I were still Curzon, I'd have stolen her from you by now!"That reminds me of one of my favorite Jadzia lines...I forget which episode it was, but O'Brien was having difficulties with Keiko, and Jadzia picked up on it. She said something like "I've been a husband, and I've been a wife, and I know that look from both sides."
For jadzia I'd say no, she's not trans.
Is she on one of the Lgbt+ labels id say yes. Pan or Bi sexual. Probably. Attracted to whomever they take fancy to.
However by that time it wouldn't be any big deal and most would just like whomever they like and it not matter.
Is she on one of the Lgbt+ labels id say yes. Pan or Bi sexual. Probably. Attracted to whomever they take fancy to.
However by that time it wouldn't be any big deal and most would just like whomever they like and it not matter.
Right.
To take it a step further, I'm unaware of any assertions in canon that Dax's hosts were selected in order to alleviate gender dysphoria, and for that reason alone, I'd have to say, "No."
Initially, the Trill were written so that the symbiont was the dominant personality. I think it was with the episode "Playing God" that they decided to have the host be dominant. And that really makes more sense anyway... why would the Trill want to be joined if it meant ceasing to be who they were?
It did not take until Playing God, season 1's Dax was quite clear that a joined Trill is a blending of host and symbiont.
I always considered Jadzia Dax's situation as being representative of reincarnation. Jadzia is a woman who remembers living many lives, some of them as men and some as women, but in this life she is 100% female. So the symbiont is like the soul going from body to body having experiences in each body and carrying them with them to the next body. The soul itself has no gender and adopts the gender of the body it is in.
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I always just thought of Jadzia as a woman and Dax was just a random hitchhiker that she found by the side of the road and took around on adventures. It's a USB stick in the shape of a worm.
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