Enoch's Vision wrote:
> Dax was the worst example that TVGuide could have given. I like her but
> that is probably just visceral and shallow of me. However, she is male in
> gender, or perhaps 'mental sex' is a better phrase. She is very nearly a
> satire. Captain Sisko still addresses her as "Old Man" to remind us of her
> nature. Is the message that a woman has to be guided by an internal and
> worldly wise male to be truly strong? Or is she a parody, mixed message, or
> simply a badly-conceived character?
How about that sex is a function of the body you are currently
inhabiting, and that percieved "gendered" behaviors are cultural
add-ons. The Dax part of Jadzia Dax has been both male and female. She
refers to having given birth and raising children in past "lives" as
well as the military background that is more relevant to her current
job.
As for her "mental sex" being male, I cannot remember any behavior that
I might not have done myself in similar situations. Does that make my
"brain sex" male, even though I am most definitely ans happily Female?
As for Starship Troopers I am the opposite of many who have posted in
that I know the book quite well; I use it in one of my classes, but I
have not seen the movie (though I intend to). Heilein most certainly
did not intend to satirize the military. He was an Annapolis graduate
who left the Navy only because he was retired on a disability pension
due to TB. He had the greatest respect for those willing to risk
themselves to protect the larger society. (Read "The Pragmatics of
Patriotism" in Expanded Universe.)
He answers the charges of fascism in Starship Troopers himself in an
afterward, also in Expanded Universe, where he points out that most of
the rights we hold sacred--freedom of speech religion etc--are protected
for everyone, and that the only thing you earn through Federal Service,
which is not necessarily military service, is the right to vote, run for
political office and hold a few protected jobs. Furthermore, you are
not a citizen, able to vote, until after you have completed your
service, so the government is not being run by the military.
I do not agree with all of his positions in ST but the charge of fascism
is unfair and inaccurate. His point, which he explains in essay form in
Expanded Universe, was that our current "18 and alive" (for the US)
voting rights invites stupidity, unreason, and irresonsibility, and
while the Federal Service requirement for voting would not guarantee
intelligence, reason or responsibility, it would assure that people
valued the right to vote, having had to sacrifice to get it, and that
they had at least at sometime in the past been able to put long term
goals and/or the good of the group above their immediate personal
comfort or safety.
Peggy Hamilton
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:14 PDT