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

[CmdrKing]

I think it IS important in this discussion to talk about Jadzia or Ezri as separate from Dax.

Like just to touch on sexuality since it's come up, I'd just assume that Trill society has slightly more fluid understanding of the matter than (21st century) humans: coexisting with another sapient race who live symbiotically with you mean that questions of past lives carrying forward to the present have surely come up, so I'd assume that "typically straight but not opposed to flirtation owing to symbiont experiences" is just a known and common sexuality amongst the Trill.

Anyway, I think that Trill as trans *allegory* is a potential storyline they might have done, but I don't think they well and truly dove into it. It's touched on: incompatible orientation upon gender shift is a real thing, and "how do I refer to you in your past life" was a question that was raised, so if folks want to read it that way it's not without merit. But in the main the sort of total shift of identity inherent for a symbiont moving from one host to another only really happened with the shift from Jadzia to Ezri, and they were both women so it didn't really come up in context of the show. It was backstory in all cases but the original introduction in TNG, and I hesitate to read much allegory (intentional or otherwise) into the on-screen depiction of the Trill without having a lead character shift gender.

Now, if they wanted to revisit the concept, there's two other paths that would sci-fi up the idea of being trans enough to explore it in a Trill context, one more abstract than the other.

1) The symbionts themselves, so far as has ever been revealed, lack gender and are assumed to reproduce asexually. However, they also have lived with the humanoid Trill for generations, and will bond with multiple individuals over their lifetime. So it's reasonable to suppose that the symbionts would culturally develop a concept of gender, even if they biologically have no use for it.
So for our allegorically trans Trill, you could just have a symbiont who did develop a clear gender identity. Basically they just make the jump from "get that gender exists" to "I prefer/have a gender", and so you have a symbiont who insists upon hosts of a specific gender. This character would basically be a way to explore the ways in which gender identity asserts itself outside of reproductive function, and get into the hows and whys of gender identity forming without the messy biological bits, and without necessarily having to delve into societal taboos and gender roles.

2) Or you could focus on the Trill, and how memories of life as other genders received from symbionts influence them. This would be more directly analogous to human gender concepts, and can still branch in one of two ways.
This could broadly manifest as exploration of the gender spectrum, and likely form a degree of non-binary identity. The Trill could see both sides of the fence, so to speak, and their story would include elements of questioning social roles and other aspects of gender, both shedding those of their assigned sex and adopting those of other genders.
Or.
Memories of life as another gender could prompt a Trill to reevaluate themselves and decide to adopt that gender identity. Now if you went this route, while there's still a sci-fi edge that lets the creators fudge things where they might not know some things, this is very explicitly trans, and indeed I'd want a trans actor in the role. It'd also surely run afoul of the "interacting with past life" taboo, so it'd carry its own form of prejudice if they didn't opt for heavy retcons, so it's an ambitious move but one that would fit with both the context of fleshing out an established alien race while also being clearly social allegory.

Mind, like I said, these are just the ways they could play with the idea that I'd say "yeah this is trans allegory" to. There's no particular obligation to use any of these concepts if another lead character was a Trill, but if Trill==Trans was a link writers wanted to make, these are probably the best routes for that.

[clearspira]

Tbf, and to play devil's advocate, a man can have a husband and wife too, and so can a woman nowadays. At least, one after the other.

That's pretty irrelevant though as we are talking about trans allegory in a mid 1990s show.

[Yukaphile]

@CmdrKing It's not just the sexual/gender identity stuff, though. You could really delve deep into the whole identity aspect, period, with a race like the Trills, they were just that well conceived.

[clearspira]

I think she would have been if Berman's homophobia hadn't gotten in the way. Ezri was, and she was a Trill. There's no reason to think Jadzia wouldn't. Though given Berman's views, that's clearly a "psycho lesbian" thing going on versus the "good girls hook up with guys" message.

Ezri was bi? Come off it, she barely had a character, and the one she did have was lusting after Worf and Bashir.

@CmdrKing It's not just the sexual/gender identity stuff, though. You could really delve deep into the whole identity aspect, period, with a race like the Trills, they were just that well conceived.

As much as I am a Trek fan, I don't think ''well conceived'' applies to any Trek alien. Every race is a monoculture except for named characters. they think the same, look the same, do the same. What you are doing is writing the script for them because what we actually have here is not actually that deep at all.

[Yukaphile]

In the Mirror Universe, she was, certainly. Remember Ezri/Kira and Ezri/Leeta?

If someone who's openly supportive of the LGBT community sees a trans/bi allegory in a race and member of said species, simply because it was subtle and they did their job well, that's quality entertainment.

[Mecha82]

We know that Trill have genders like humans but what about symbiote. Does symbiote have genders at all and how they see things based on living in several hosts and sharing memories with those hosts.

[Yukaphile]

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.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm thinking that the symbiote doesn't have gender.

Jadzia is very much just Jadzia but with memories of other hosts.

A potentially complicated issue that I think DS9 slid by on was queer baiting. I feel like a show that isn't Star Trek would have some sort of real life equivalent that would suggest that she has a history of bisexuality, but the sci-fi element here lets it be another person. It wasn't Jadzia that had 3 wives. Also however, when you're watching a show with a woman who is a woman talking about having wives while at the same time not herself being gay, it feels like they practically get away with having their cake and eating it too.

[Mecha82]

That's kinda interesting thing about Trills and symbiotes. Because symbiotes bring memories of they previous hosts with them to new host has those memories. In this case with had symbiote who used to be part of dirty old man becoming part of one young woman and then becoming part of another young woman after that when that first young woman died. Because of symbiote we see Sisko and Dax treating each other like old friends.

Over all for some strange reason this brought to my mind this one TNG comic book story were crew of Enterprise D was helping Governor of planet were there is three genders. All romantic couples on that planet aren't couples but have member of all three genders and that Governor was threatened because she dared to have only one romantic partner because it was against traditions of that planet.

[Yukaphile]

Well, imagine if a guy today was given memories of men and women, as well as the times those women had become mothers? Think it would change his perspective a little? I see Jadzia as the ultimate expression in identity, and that includes gender, just one aspect of it. And like a transgender person, she swaps sexes all the time when an old host dies. I mean, you basically got the lesbian episode that was very empowering for the LGBT community. I can't imagine how they snuck that past Rick Berman.