gay in the media, slash, and why trek fandom makes me wibble.

[betweenthebliss]

i'm quoting someone on my Dth reading page here, who said "some day i will write a post that's not about star trek, but it is not this day"-- really it's more like, some day i will not spend half my work day thinking about star trek, but it is not this day

Comments

[anivad]

There was a long thread about this on the IMDb Trek '09 boards, and lots of people basically said that by that time they had probably found a way to turn gay people straight and enforced it to encourage proliferation of the species or something.

[betweenthebliss]

.........wow, that's pretty special. i don't even know what to say to that. >.<;;;;;;;

[dragojustine]

Okay, you know, I *really* wish I hadn't just gone and sought that thread out.

I think I just became stupider for reading it. (Not to mention pissed off, but that was expected)

But as for the transformation to Kirk, Equal-Opportunity Slut? Yes. That is totally a change in us, not on the screen.

[anivad]

But if it's more a matter of ensuring that all offspring are heterosexual, rather than altering initially-gay folks, would that be as bad?

Although no problems with pre-natal cure for transsexuality.

possibly tl;dr

[dragojustine]

Well, first: The stupid in that thread was not limited to the speculations about a "cure." There was a great deal more stupid, of the "my brain is leaking out my ears just reading this" variety, including a round of "well, why do they have to FLAUNT it," the observation that gay people HAVE to be effeminate and lisp a lot or they'd never find other gay people, and the assertion that there are probably gay people in Starfleet but they'll never say anything because OBVIOUSLY Starfleet Officers don't want to be hit on by queers. Basically, that thread was way up there with YouTube comments on the "I weep for humanity" scale.

Second: Ensuring that no gay people are born is a slightly different sort of ethical dilemma from forcing any medical procedure (or however you technobabble it) on independent adults, and it may be less unethical, but it's certainly still problematic. I mean, for instance, even if you think that abortion is more or less morally neutral and a fetus is not in fact a person (let's make that assumption for now?), I

Re: possibly tl;dr

[anivad]

Allergic to verbs. :|

Basically I mean that I'm fine with the idea of 23rd century people having found a way to prevent transsexuality from occuring in the first place.

Re: possibly tl;dr

[azurelunatic]

Like, say, identifying in utero "okay, this is obviously a male brain in this developing fetus, and when he grows up he's going to be rather extraordinarily pissed about being in a female body, so let's treat that now while he's developing rather than having to have him go through invasive and uncomfortable surgery later"?

Re: possibly tl;dr

[betweenthebliss]

that's something that truly has never occurred to me, even in the context of a possible sci-fi story. it's really interesting, tbh, and sets my brain whirring on all sorts of ethical dilemmas. :3

Re: possibly tl;dr

[azurelunatic]

That doesn't really cover people who are genderqueer, however, as the gender binary just doesn't do it for them. I cannot imagine any of my genderqueer friends wanting to be "cured" into accepting their initial physical genetic lot in the gender binary, although I also imagine that future-standard medical procedures might help with individual personal irks about aligning one's body with one's desired presentation.

Re: possibly tl;dr

[betweenthebliss]

yeah, that's really a can of worms right there... it's really interesting, because i'm sure it's not uncommon to see being trans as something having gone 'wrong' in the sex selection process, but that's definitely not the way it's always viewed by people who *are* trans, or genderqueer.

Re: possibly tl;dr

[anivad]

Yeah, that.

[lady_ganesh]

IIRC, reading the IMDb boards is pretty much encouraging your brains to leak out through your ears.

[azurelunatic]

IMDb boards, Twitter trending topics, and YouTube comments.

[lady_ganesh]

There's a Firefox extension that hides/shows YouTube comments. I love it so much.

[sineala]

I read a TNG story, like, eight billion years ago, with this same point:

http://www.trekiverse.org/archive/2000/story/tng/OutThere

It really upset little didn't-know-I-was-queer me. A lot.

Anyway. Carry on.

[anivad]

Wow. Thanks for that fic; I love it.