The Outcast and the limits of metaphors

[Skipper]

Everybody knows the story: after after a lot of pressure they decided to write an episode which was intended to address the contemporary issue of LGBT rights.

But in the episode obviously the aliens did not correspond exaclty to the society of the time where it was (is?) believed that the division in cisgender heterosexual men and women must be the norm and anything that deviates from this is ostracized. The aliens are uni-gender and they persecute everyone who feels "male" of "female". The viewer was left with the task of connecting the dots and making a comparison with the society in which s/he lived.

But talking to a friend, he made me notice that, absurdly, the message of the episode could also be interpreted in another way. A right-wing extremist might say that alien planet society is a wet dream of woke/sjws people where sexes no longer exist, everyone is not-binary, and anyone who dares to claim that there is a rightful division between males and females is persecuted.

Obviously it wasn't the authors' thinking I doubt anyone would have thought something like this, but this shows the limits of metaphors when you want to convey a message. What is made even more absurd is that when Star Trek wanted to tackle social issues, it didn't have to resort to analogies where the viewer had to ask himself for a moment what they were talking about. When they talked about racism, it was clearly racism. The drugs were drugs. There were no multiple transitions from the story's subject to the real-life subject it was talking about. Of course there was a bit of sci-fi dressing, but even the characters clearly used the words "racism" and "drugs", while also making endless speeches about the fact that these things were BAD and had disappeared from the evolved society of the future.

But when they faced the issue of LGBT rights, they got cold feet and resorted to something that if you squint your eyes enough can seem like an episodes on LBGTQI issues.

But if they had used the same pattern as all previous similar episodes, the story would have written itself. The Enterprise arrives on a planet where the inhabitants are similar to humans (with a division into two genders etc) and where anyone who is not a straight cissexual is persecuted. Captain Picard is disgusted by this situation and gives a brave speech where he says "Even once on Earth we thought so but we have evolved, and we consider the LBQGTQI people equal to everyone else! Now release the lieutenant A-gay-guy-we-have-only-seen-this-episode-and-never-again and make up for your mistakes!"

So people, Could it have been possible? Or in 1992 was it still too early to say, "You know, you shouldn't be mean to anyone who doesn't match your ideals of gender and sexuality"?

 

[Trekker09]

I get your point that it is quite an indirect approach to LGBT issues, but to me the writers were probably doing the best they could within the limits of the network “Suits” position at the time. Script writer Jeri Taylor said--“I am not a gay person, but …..as a woman, I identify with the disenfranchised and the powerless of our world. So I really wanted to make a statement for tolerance, broad-mindedness, and acceptance."
It’s unfortunate the costumes were so drab and unattractive. And, 2 lines were cut from the end: Noor explaining to Riker that the J'naii are an enlightened race and Riker asking, "Then how is it that Soren has no choice about her sexual orientation?" But still it seemed obvious that the stance the episode took was clearly supportive and sympathetic to the gay community.

 

[Skipper]

I get your point that it is quite an indirect approach to LGBT issues, but to me the writers were probably doing the best they could within the limits of the network “Suits” position at the time. I agree with what the writer Jeri Taylor said--“I am not a gay person, but …..I identify with the disenfranchised and the powerless of our world. So I really wanted to make a statement for tolerance, broad-mindedness, and acceptance of those who are disenfranchised."

Put in these terms, it is a bit too much indirect approach. It risks being just a generic condemnation of any kind of intolerance. If you can't say clearly what you are talking about, then why do it? You won't make anyone happy. Neither the people you support, because they will think you have been too cowardly, nor those you attack.

 

[DonIago]

I thought it was pretty darned obvious what the episode was alluding to even when I first watched it, if perhaps not quite as obvious as people with their faces being half black and half white....

I also think the episode was an attempt to be supportive of and sympathetic to the gay community but was a failure. Among other things, it pushes the message that gay people -can- be "cured". Having Soren played by a woman was a cowardly move as well, and it's my understanding that the consensus is that the actress did a poor job of it. Much of the episode also reinforces gender stereotypes rather than challenging them. Even Picard's opening captain's log is problematic because he feels the need to identify the J'naii as an androgynous race, which suggests that's somehow extraordinary (how often do captain's logs call out a race in this manner?).

 

[suarezguy]

Everybody knows the story: after after a lot of pressure they decided to write an episode which was intended to address the contemporary issue of LGBT rights.

But in the episode obviously the aliens did not correspond exaclty to the society of the time where it was (is?) believed that the division in cisgender heterosexual men and women must be the norm and anything that deviates from this is ostracized. The aliens are uni-gender and they persecute everyone who feels "male" of "female". The viewer was left with the task of connecting the dots and making a comparison with the society in which s/he lived.

But talking to a friend, he made me notice that, absurdly, the message of the episode could also be interpreted in another way. A right-wing extremist might say that alien planet society is a wet dream of woke/sjws people where sexes no longer exist, everyone is not-binary, and anyone who dares to claim that there is a rightful division between males and females is persecuted.

To me it was always, and clearly, the intent to try to appeal to more conservative people's existing feelings of they wouldn't like that, them being persecuted, to make them feel more empathetic, to try to get them to feel that discrimination, persecution is bad either way. And though I've never been really socially conservative I think it did that pretty effectively.

Well that was one of the intents, another was to just reaffirm people who already agreed and that's fine, fine to try to do both. It was openly arguing against forced conformity, for individual rights, personal determination period.

this shows the limits of metaphors when you want to convey a message. What is made even more absurd is that when Star Trek wanted to tackle social issues, it didn't have to resort to analogies where the viewer had to ask himself for a moment what they were talking about. When they talked about racism, it was clearly racism. The drugs were drugs. There were no multiple transitions from the story's subject to the real-life subject it was talking about. Of course there was a bit of sci-fi dressing, but even the characters clearly used the words "racism" and "drugs", while also making endless speeches about the fact that these things were BAD and had disappeared from the evolved society of the future.

The line between metaphor and sci-fi dressing seems very ambiguous, Gene Roddenberry and Majel claimed that he did sci-fi in order to by being less directly direct, a little removed, get to be more direct than he otherwise could be.

With racism "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is obviously about skin color yet also very fantastical (two skin colors on different sides, which skin color is on the right side) and with, some would consider offensive or offputting, both conflicting groups shown to be wrong, and is definitely a love it or hate it episode though I liked it. With drugs though I liked "Symbiosis" I think most people disliked it as far too direct and preachy.

Captain Picard is disgusted by this situation and gives a brave speech where he says "Even once on Earth we thought so but we have evolved, and we consider the LBQGTQI people equal to everyone else! Now release the lieutenant A-gay-guy-we-have-only-seen-this-episode-and-never-again and make up for your mistakes!"

Picard though sometimes righteously speechifying was pretty more consistent on non-interference or minimal interference, here he was private about any of his feelings but understanding to Riker wanting to get involved. The episode does have the flaw, though, that Riker could have, should have at least admitted that discrimination, suppression had happened with humans in the past too (instead Riker and Beverly do come close to suggesting that for humans gender is very binary and sexuality based on two sexes).

But when they faced the issue of LGBT rights, they got cold feet and resorted to something that if you squint your eyes enough can seem like an episodes on LBGTQI issues.

in 1992 was it still too early to say, "You know, you shouldn't be mean to anyone who doesn't match your ideals of gender and sexuality"?

I think the episode still did still convey that pretty directly and clearly.

On our world these feelings are forbidden. Those who are discovered are shamed and ridiculed, and only by undergoing psychotectic therapy and having all elements of gender eliminated can they become accepted into society again. Those of us who have these urges live secret and guarded lives. We seek each other out, always hiding, always terrified of being discovered.

I have had those feelings, those longings, all of my life. It is not unnatural. I am not sick because I feel this way. I do not need to be helped. I do not need to be cured. What I need, and what all of those who are like me need, is your understanding and your compassion. We have not injured you in any way. And yet, we are scorned and attacked. And all because we are different. What we do is no different from what you do.

 

[Skipper]

Among other things, it pushes the message that gay people -can- be "cured".

Perhaps I misremember, tt gave me more the impression that Soren had been practically brainwashed/lobotomized with some sci-fi hitech procedure. Maybe I should watch the episode again.

 

[DonIago]

^That's my point though. If one is sufficiently homophobic then that's still preferable to being an abomination (Bojack Horseman would later use this same riff to ghastly effect). IIRC we also only see Soren for about ten seconds after the procedure, so hard to say how much of their original personality remained (I'm resisting taking a cheap shot here, heh).

A bolder course would have been to demonstrate that you can't "cure" non-heteronormativity because it's not an illness.

 

[Trekker09]

Jonathan Frakes said “Soren should have been more obviously male– if they were trying to do what they call a gay episode." However, Rick Berman argued that “having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers.” It would have been tricky having Riker continue afterward as the ladies’ man he’d been portrayed as all along.

Watching Soren after the brainwashing makes us feel deeply the pathos and unfairness of her/his situation. I can’t imagine anyone thought the writers were advocating that cruel treatment. The ending of “The Host” in Season 4 gave the audience a similar feeling of sympathy and regret at lost intimacy….when Beverly confesses she can’t relate to the Dax symbiont transferred into a woman’s body.

 

[DonIago]

I don't think you're looking at this from the perspective of someone who'd consider submitting their child to conversion therapy though. From that standpoint, this could be construed as saying, "Hey, it may not be pleasant for the 'sick' person, but it works in the end."

Sadly we also don't see Soren subjected to anything, we just see the aftermath. For all we know it was a one-and-done hypospray.

Berman's rationalization sounds ridiculous to me, and IIRC Beverly's word choice in "The Host" pissed me off as well.

 

[NCC-73515]

I thought it was pretty darned obvious what the episode was alluding to even when I first watched it, if perhaps not quite as obvious as people with their faces being half black and half white....

I also think the episode was an attempt to be supportive of and sympathetic to the gay community but was a failure. Among other things, it pushes the message that gay people -can- be "cured". Having Soren played by a woman was a cowardly move as well, and it's my understanding that the consensus is that the actress did a poor job of it. Much of the episode also reinforces gender stereotypes rather than challenging them. Even Picard's opening captain's log is problematic because he feels the need to identify the J'naii as an androgynous race, which suggests that's somehow extraordinary (how often do captain's logs call out a race in this manner?).

A lobotomy can change a lot of things. There was a famous "physician" who messed around free-hand in kids' brains for show, and he was praised for "curing" unwanted traits in kids. Parents sent their kids to him cause he was so good at messing their brains up! And it wasn't that long ago. One victim died because he was distracted while taking a photo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jackson_Freeman_II

Most cultures in-universe are not androgynous, so why not mention it in the log.

 

[DonIago]

As KRAD said in his review of the episode: "Hell, even the opening captain’s log is problematic. Yes, the purpose of those logs is more to provide the viewer with exposition than to actually be a true captain’s log, but dammit, identifying them as “an androgynous race” in the log? He never would say, “We’ve taken on a delegation of Vulcans, a pointy-eared species,” so why’s he pointing it out here?"

 

[Skipper]

But there was at least ONE LBGTQI+ person involved in this episode?

 

[NCC-73515]

As KRAD said in his review of the episode: "Hell, even the opening captain’s log is problematic. Yes, the purpose of those logs is more to provide the viewer with exposition than to actually be a true captain’s log, but dammit, identifying them as “an androgynous race” in the log? He never would say, “We’ve taken on a delegation of Vulcans, a pointy-eared species,” so why’s he pointing it out here?"

Captain's log, stardate 47254.1. A delegation of the Cairn have just come on board. This telepathic species has no concept of spoken language, and is being instructed in its use by an old friend.

 

[Guy Gardener]

1. No vagina. They make a husk and pour dna into it. Maybe there's a fiber spinner between their legs which of itself is not a sexual organ? Although Riker can touch it, and she can spin a little husk for Riker to put his seed into.

2. IRL Gay Conversion therapy is torture and brainwashing, that does not work. Fear of excommunication from the church, community and family however is a strong incentive to fake conversion. Suicide also happens a lot.

3. Soren only became female after being electrocuted and suffering a head injury.

4. Chemically reversing Soren's decision to be female would have been hard. Chemically deleting the last week of memory would have been easy.

5. This story is not about Lgbtqia+, this story was strictly about Gay men. From an 80s standard of "ordinary uninformed boring people" a man deciding he wants to live as a woman is not trans if there is no surgery. It's just gay. Identity or affirmation is not even part of their basic universe.

6. As a modern society (like us today, not like the 80s) maybe the fertility rates and sex drive of your average J'naii were falling. Or a fear from the intelligentsia that smart people are breeding slower than all the trash in the trailer parks, was a problem worth solving?

7. Riker needed to go to Beverly and get a medical pass before he could boff Soren. The only reason that Riker didn't need a medical pass is if some one in the Federation had already sought medical permission to boff a J'naii and they were already on the approved list.

8. Riker is an asshole. Soren was upside down in a point of transition willing to do sex acts that will trigger a state sanctioned execution. Riker could have helped her without trying to stick his dick in her, unless we truly believed that he was completely in love with her, after a few hours, and then forgot that she existed a few hours after that. Riker is an asshole.

9. In the 80s, I thought Melinda Culea was so cool on the A-team.

10. Every time I type "J'Naii" I think of the "Genii" from Stargate Atlantis.

11. The Orville redid this story over the course of several episodes. An all male, all gay species. The first female child to an all male species. The first female child is reassigned. More females are discovered and they are armed and willing to kill to stop reassignment. Men from the all gay all male race start trying to have sex with alien females, and are hunted by an inquisition to keep the species gay. Nuanced and on point, by today's standards. Tomorrow will call us bigots.

 

[DonIago]

But there was at least ONE LBGTQI+ person involved in this episode?

Was there? Asking seriously, as this is the first I've heard of it.

 

[Skipper]

Was there? Asking seriously, as this is the first I've heard of it.

It wasn't a rhetorical question, I was really asking.

 

[McCoy's Disco Collar]

Jonathan Frakes said “Soren should have been more obviously male– if they were trying to do what they call a gay episode." However, Rick Berman said “having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers.” It would have been tricky having Riker continue afterward as the ladies’ man he’d been portrayed as all along.

Watching Soren be forced to undergo brainwashing makes us feel deeply the pathos and unfairness of her/his situation. I can’t imagine anyone thought the writers were advocating that cruel treatment. The ending of “The Host” in Season 4 gave the audience a similar feeling of sympathy and regret at lost sexual intimacy….when Beverly sadly confesses she can’t relate to the Dax symbiont transferred into a woman’s body.

All of which speaks to Berman's homophobia. He projected his own prejudices onto the audience.

I remember that "The Outcast" was derided at the time as being a halfway measure, afraid to actually take on the issue of the day. The cast knew it, and the audience did as well.

But there was at least ONE LBGTQI+ person involved in this episode?

Involved? Of course. In a position of authority to say something? Don't know, but sadly doubtful.

 

[DonIago]

Yeah, if the episode was in any way shaped in any significant manner by anyone who was non-heteronormative, that would be news to me.

Not quite TL;DR and not quite serious, but this was straight people writing what they thought LGBTQ+ people would want to see in a TNG episode while also hobbling how far they were willing to go with the premise.

We could ask women how much they've appreciated it when a bunch of male writers have tried to write a pro-feminist episode of TV without any input from women...

 

[DonIago]

Captain's log, stardate 47254.1. A delegation of the Cairn have just come on board. This telepathic species has no concept of spoken language, and is being instructed in its use by an old friend.

Arguably a race with no concept of spoken language really is more extraordinary than an androgynous race though, especially if one subscribes to the notion that Picard was already aware of multi-gender races.

 

[Skipper]

We could ask women how much they've appreciated it when a bunch of male writers have tried to write a pro-feminist episode of TV without any input from women...

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