ST:TNG The Offspring
Oct. 16th, 2010 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI have watched ten minutes of this episode and have to stop and be annoyed.
They've just created Lal, and what's its first lesson in how to be a person?
How many assumptions packed in to there?
They take Lal to the holodeck and choose between several thousand different appearances, from multiple species, but what is not an option? Being an android shaped neuter being. Cannot just exist, must imitate, within a binary structure where the first most important thing is gender.
And then that gender is for life?
Why?
It's terrible science fiction and deeply annoying on the level of unexamined assumptions. They have the technology to change every aspect of their appearance as often as they wish, Lal more than anyone, but they start Lal off by saying to pick one fixed appearance for life, off a set menu. Gah!
First time I watched it none of this even vaguely occurred to me. I grew up with the same 'of course' sets. It's just wrong.
They've just created Lal, and what's its first lesson in how to be a person?
LAL: Gender female.
TROI: That's right, Lal. Just like me.
LAL: Gender male.
DATA: Correct.
LAL: I am gender neuter. Inadequate.
DATA: That is why you must choose a gender, Lal, to complete your appearance.
How many assumptions packed in to there?
They take Lal to the holodeck and choose between several thousand different appearances, from multiple species, but what is not an option? Being an android shaped neuter being. Cannot just exist, must imitate, within a binary structure where the first most important thing is gender.
And then that gender is for life?
Why?
It's terrible science fiction and deeply annoying on the level of unexamined assumptions. They have the technology to change every aspect of their appearance as often as they wish, Lal more than anyone, but they start Lal off by saying to pick one fixed appearance for life, off a set menu. Gah!
First time I watched it none of this even vaguely occurred to me. I grew up with the same 'of course' sets. It's just wrong.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-17 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-17 01:37 pm (UTC)