To what extent are Trills/Jadzia & Ezri Dax bisexual/transgender metaphors/allegories?

[Deledrius]

This is really testament to the power of the work. Liberals who want more representation see a trans/bi allegory in the character, and love her for that, and those right of center who are apathetic to that don't see it, and in the end, because she has a good character, neither side can complain. That's rare storytelling. Really wish they had the DS9 writers back today.

Good writing? IMO this was one of the weaker aspects of DS9. What we have here isn't some well-developed story that people are able to see themselves in regardless of background, it's that the elements are so vague and ill-defined that people can impose whatever view they want onto it. Kinda opposite.

We barely learn anything about the symbionts in seven years. I only just realized this a few years ago, but most of what we learn about Dax is about Curzon. We still know next to nothing about Jadzia's life except in how it was related to Curzon. We learned more about Ezri Tigan in a single episode than in six seasons of Jadzia. When Jadzia would talk about "herself" it was almost always telling us something about a previous host.

It sounds like Jadzia was a total blank who let herself be consumed by the joining, but that was clearly not the intent.

We were given very little. It's no surprise that people fill in the blanks with their own worldview.

[Yukaphile]

Well, that's what Trek should be, which is more subtle in its storytelling. She might not have been conceived that way, but others in the creative process clearly saw it. Again, space lesbians.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

We did learn about the emotional complication that assumed Jadzia. True though about Curzon being brought up a lot.

[Worffan101]

They absolutely can be and should be used as such, but it's not an exact 1:1 parallel.

[Actarus]

Female hosts are shown to assume a female gender role. Male hosts are shown to assume a male gender role. It's hard to see transgenderism here. As for the symbionts, they are not even humanoids, we don't know much about their biology. They might be hermaphrodite, but I doubt such a concept as "gender" might be a thing for hermaphrodite species. The same may apply for bisexuality, for obvious reasons.

As for the Trills being a metaphor for bisexuality? Well, you have that first trill, Odan, that wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with Beverly Crusher even after being joined to a female host. However, that has been retconned by DS9 when they decided that Trills were forbidden to pursue relationships with their previous host's mates and that symbionts did not take over their hosts' personalities (Odan did).

Other than Dax hosts, we don't know much about other Trills:

• Lela (female host) had a son. You could say she has adopted him, or used artificial reproduction, but since it's not told, people would imply a father.

• Tobin (male host) had a minimal and unimaginative sex life, but had many children.

• Emony (female) had also several children and had sex with Leonard McCoy.

• Audrid was defined by her motherhood.

• Torias (male host) had a relation with a joined female Trill named Nilani Khan (it's with Lenara, Khan's next host, that Jadzia has flirt with).

• Joran's sex life is unknown.

• Curzon was in love with Jadzia, Enina Tandro, Arandis, Tavana's mother (Tavana was Martok's engineering officer), all women. According to Jadzia he had several others but we are not told if any of them were male.

• Ezri is shown as heterosexual.

None of Dax's hosts before and after Jadzia show any evidence of homosexual or bisexual behaviour. Therefore, the episode "Rejoined" tells us more about Jadzia than the Trill has a whole. Jadzia might have been open to bisexuality, but that doesn't mean that the Trills were created to be an allegory for bisexuality.

If you want a metaphor for transgenderism in Star Trek, you have to look at the J'naii.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Rejoined seems like a don't ask don't tell allegory.