Even after the tribunal ruled in favor of the surgery I was expecting Klyden to have a change of heart.
That’s what I’m thinking too; the Moclans are a race of hermaphrodites; the overwhelming majority have what other species consider masculine characteristics, and the even the pronouns and words male & female are just a translation convention. Still it’s odd that they went so far as to have Heveena were a dress. :dubious:
I agree with everything.
MacFarlane also reference the replicating center; which appeared in 1 scene of 1 episode of TNG (& yes immediately recognized it). I think intersexuality would be a better analogy that female genital mutilation. The parallels are pretty obvious when you think about it.
“Femalehood” is an extremely rare condition (though possibly not as rare as people think) that the entirety of the medical & legal establishment are in agreement that it must be “corrected” for the child to have any chance at a normal life. It’s a big enough emergency that the Moclans government was willing to divert a starship in order for 2 of it’s citizens to have it done on their child.
Male circumcision is an even worse analogy; plus by the 25th century human medical science is probably going to be advanced enough that it could be reversed as easily as getting your ears pierced.
Highly unlikely. I can’t say for sure what the writers were thinking about, but aside from the comparison to circumcision, which invariably comes up in discussions of FGM, it doesn’t actually fit that.
‘Correction’ of intersex children is closest. It’s not even merely analogous - aside from the ‘single sex species’ aspect, it’s exactly the same situation.
It also hits most of the tropes of science-fictional trans analogies.
Actually, it just occurred to me that I’m slightly wrong on this point - Klyden having been altered, and insisting the child has to, also connects to FGM.
As an aside, I’d just like to note that the scene in the Holodeck with the bandito dancing to “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” was probably the best laugh-out-loud moment of the series so far.
I didn’t think it was a send-up so much as demonstration that they’re not going to be the usual Sci-Fi TV show, which ignores the easy and obvious use of their technology to solve a problem. After all, how hard is it to come up with the plan, “Make the big rock into smaller rocks so it’s easier to move”?
I’m not sure that he does. It’s possible he knows the expression about Compton without actually knowing any of the moving parts; when I was a kid, I came across the phrase “bringing coals to Newcastle” – and made ignorant but correct use of it by missing the reference while treating BringingCoalsToNewcastle as a single concept.
“Send-up” wasn’t the word I wanted to use, but I couldn’t think of the word I wanted to use, so that’s what I settled on… It’s still on the tip of my tongue.
I liked the episode but I think the defense’s strategy of trying to prove girls are capable too was a bit misguided. The prosecutor’s main point was that, as a woman, the baby would be shunned by Moclan society. What the defense should have pointed out is that Moclans are now part of The Union and as such the members of their species don’t necessarily need to abide by local prejudices and customs to live meaningful lives anymore. Speaking of The Union: Union laws were brought up when Bortus demanded the captain to force the doctor to perform the operation. Surely The Union has applicable laws for the situation. Some kind of universal right of bodily integrity for sentient beings, or something? Though it was never explicitly stated on Star Trek, I always got the notion that for Federation citizens it was Federation law first and individual-member-of the-federation-culture-law second.
