ENT - Stigma

[9ansean]

One other thing that's troubling on top of everything else about Stigma. T'Pol says she won't revel her assault because it would do nothing to help those in the minority. Now this is noble in concept. Saying those who contracted AIDS through forces beyond the control (rape or blood transfusing) shouldn't be consider a worthy exception to a discriminatory policy by concept of innocence (not that it would stop Archer for using that same kind of exception argument in Observation Effect, but never mind.) She's not denying what's being done to her is unfair. Only that her case shouldn't automatically considered worse than anyone else's

That being said there is no denying she was assaulted and there is another perfectly good reason she wouldn't want to say this. IT'S NOBODIES DAMN BUSINESS BUT HER'S! Nobody wants to be forced to describe their medical or relationship history to public panel, especially if it involves being violated! If they want to talk about with a doctor or lawyer who can assure them confidentially that should be their decision. Though oddly enough Phlox (actually showing medical ethics for once) does bring up patient confidentially at first. I don't know maybe there are some places than can make an except if certain people are highly symptomatic, but like with quarantine I'd prefer that would be an exception rather than a rule. Yet this issue of the right to avoid reliving a potentially traumatic event is never addressed. Whether this was because Berman and Braga decided audiences could figured it out for themselves or because they never thought of it who really knows, but given their track record I suspect very much the later.

[Aotrs Commander]

I haven't watched Supergirl at all so I can't relate...but the oldest take on Superman was a pro-immigration take. He was escaping a dire fate from another planet and came here, raised to embraces the best of American values. All he wanted was to give back to his new home and do what he could to improve it. It works best when it's just a subtext, though-people can either pay attention to it or not.

The problem with this particular season has been, it's been excruiatingly obviously trying to have something to say on current US politics on immigration (speaking from the UK) and it has been subtext, past actual text, to, like, super-text.

(I will have to elaborate later, I have to rush off out now, sorry!)

[Karha of Honor]

(Another example, Supergirl's current season with the tedious ham-handed immigration strife allogory. I just think that, maybe, a show about an alien superhero living among humans is largely going to be watched by the people who kind of don't need that message, because they are like, fans of an alien superhero living among humans. But perhaps I am once again, giving people more credit than they are due in assuming that there are very few people who will watch something like that and go "my goodness, Supergirl is right, I better stop being a Richard the Third to my neighbour chap from [some other cultural background/country/whatever]!"

(Notably, the moment they actually got to the "Russain Supergirl clone plot that has been teased for the first, like two-thirds of the season, everything improved markedly...)

This is not to say "don't do it," but rather "don't do it fracking WRONG."

Because nice progressives cannot be bigoted towards people who don't think the right way?

[FaxModem1]

I could believe that Vulcan leaders would want to discourage their people for doing something contrary to logic (indeed the group in Fusion were admitted rebels) or even that would be reluctant to support research on a disease that only effective those undesirables especially if they though other matters were more pressing (they were still battling the Andorians at this time). What's ludicrous is they'd find it necessary to holt medical research so said undesirables could be killed off completely! Even in the worst days of Government incompetence with the AIDS, I don't now of any elected official in America who publicly advocated such a vile policy. They were many debates about the risk to civil liberties in certain methods advocated to keep people safer and some pretty demeaning judgement to be sure, but only the lunatic fringed were calling AIDS "a cure for the disease of homosexuality."

Sigh, Reagan's official response was, "Look pretty, and do as little as possible."

https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/5594cmk5684

[clearspira]

One other thing that's troubling on top of everything else about Stigma. T'Pol says she won't revel her assault because it would do nothing to help those in the minority. Now this is noble in concept. Saying those who contracted AIDS through forces beyond the control (rape or blood transfusing) shouldn't be consider a worthy exception to a discriminatory policy by concept of innocence (not that it would stop Archer for using that same kind of exception argument in Observation Effect, but never mind.) She's not denying what's being done to her is unfair. Only that her case shouldn't automatically considered worse than anyone else's

That being said there is no denying she was assaulted and there is another perfectly good reason she wouldn't want to say this. IT'S NOBODIES DAMN BUSINESS BUT HER'S! Nobody wants to be forced to describe their medical or relationship history to public panel, especially if it involves being violated! If they want to talk about with a doctor or lawyer who can assure them confidentially that should be their decision. Though oddly enough Phlox (actually showing medical ethics for once) does bring up patient confidentially at first. I don't know maybe there are some places than can make an except if certain people are highly symptomatic, but like with quarantine I'd prefer that would be an exception rather than a rule. Yet this issue of the right to avoid reliving a potentially traumatic event is never addressed. Whether this was because Berman and Braga decided audiences could figured it out for themselves or because they never thought of it who really knows, but given their track record I suspect very much the later.

Isn't this the one place the Vulcans are in character though? They believe in suppressing emotions therefore NOTHING should be a traumatic experience in their eyes - not even rape. ''Keep your lip stiff and think of England'' would be the Vulcan way of looking at it.

[Trinary]

The Denobulan woman is a good example of the ''its funny when it happens to men'' attitude that ENT had. Reverse the genders on how sexually uncomfortable she was making Trip and see if the ''their culture is different'' argument sticks.

That also raises the events of "Unexpected," you might remember that one: it was where an alien tricked Trip into playing a "game" that turned out to be the alien's version of sex and Trip ended up pregnant. And it's played for comedy?! Between this and Flox's wife, Trip should be the star of half-a-dozen sexual harassment in the work place videos.

Now take the juvenile mindset that gave us -that- episode and now plug in an attempt to talk about HIV/AIDS and factor in B&B's apparent fetish for Vulcan-bashing ... is it any wonder this episode turned out as badly as it did?

[FaxModem1]

So, the one alien woman Trip wants to get with, T'pol, can't because they both have too many issues, while every other alien woman is trying to get into his pants, by force if necessary?

[clearspira]

So, the one alien woman Trip wants to get with, T'pol, can't because they both have too many issues, while every other alien woman is trying to get into his pants, by force if necessary?

Weird, innit?
Trip shares that trait with Troi funnily enough. The one man she wants - Riker - she can't have because of baggage they don't resolve until Nemesis. In the meantime, every man of the week wants her, and indeed, at least two had no problem with mind raping her. Given this, I always wondered how that relationship with Worf went down. It had clearly ended by ''Generations'' (which in-universe is only a few months after ''All Good Things'' at most) and tbh my dirty mind wonders if he was just a little bit too hardcore for her. We saw with Jadzia how bone-breaking he likes his sex and I cannot imagine Troi being of the same mind.

[Darth Wedgius]

I haven't watched Supergirl at all so I can't relate...but the oldest take on Superman was a pro-immigration take. He was escaping a dire fate from another planet and came here, raised to embraces the best of American values. All he wanted was to give back to his new home and do what he could to improve it. It works best when it's just a subtext, though-people can either pay attention to it or not.

Since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both sons of immigrants, I'd say that might have been their intent.

J.S. and J.S. were probably both sons of legal immigrants. I don't think there's been a major movement toward open borders until pretty recently.

[Darth Wedgius]

I could believe that Vulcan leaders would want to discourage their people for doing something contrary to logic (indeed the group in Fusion were admitted rebels) or even that would be reluctant to support research on a disease that only effective those undesirables especially if they though other matters were more pressing (they were still battling the Andorians at this time). What's ludicrous is they'd find it necessary to holt medical research so said undesirables could be killed off completely! Even in the worst days of Government incompetence with the AIDS, I don't now of any elected official in America who publicly advocated such a vile policy. They were many debates about the risk to civil liberties in certain methods advocated to keep people safer and some pretty demeaning judgement to be sure, but only the lunatic fringed were calling AIDS "a cure for the disease of homosexuality."

Sigh, Reagan's official response was, "Look pretty, and do as little as possible."

https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/5594cmk5684

Something which the source of that reported was due to a belief in limited government, not "AIDS is God's Wrath" kind of thinking.