Andorian Gender Discussion??

[USS Triumphant]

What is reverse polygamous?

Polygamy, but with, like, a lot of butt stuff?

Or Andorian pairs can breed like most Earth mammals, but have low birth rates. Added the second pair or types causes some sort of biochemical difference that increase the number of young produced at any once time.

I actually have a personal anecdote related to this, but I'm next to certain it isn't board-appropriate.

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't want to derail this thread or anything, but with all the attention transgendered bathrooms have been getting here lately, that got me thinking. If Andorians do in fact have four genders as the novels go with, does that mean Andorian public places have four different bathrooms? Or is co-ed the way on Andoria? For that matter, what about when they are among species with only two genders, how do they decide which bathroom to use? I know the novels depict the four genders as being two "masculine" and two "feminine" but how does an Andorian know if their particular gender matches another race's definition of masculine or feminine?

 

[Mysterion]

Andorians having four genders is not canonical, there's nothing in the canon that states that.

Yup. Just that the andorians have four people in a marriage. The rest way open to interpretation.

Personally I like the take Leslie Fish had back in the 1970's:

http://andorfiles.blogspot.com/2009/09/summary-of-physiological-roots-of.html

Alien and interesting, but a lot more workable than the four gender model currently being used in the novels.

 

[TwoJakes]

but how does an Andorian know if their particular gender matches another race's definition of masculine or feminine?

How would a Human know this when we visit other peoples worlds?

And would the culture in "Outcast" have separate facilities?

Andorians having four genders is not canonical, there's nothing in the canon that states that.

From my observations, it borders on the amazing how much stuff trek fans hold onto that isn't canon. We do tend to take small isolated details and expand them into complete internally consistant theories on the trek world.

All in good fun, of course.

 

[borgboy]

Actually, none of that has anything to do with the reproduction system I described in my post. Regardless of the different terminology, it still boils down to it requiring two males and two females to produce offspring. Now, one could come up with a totally different system that doesn't involve any male or female analogues though...



It may be just that Andorians think in terms of quartets rather than couples. Four's company, five's a crowd...

It never occurred to me that gay Andorians might still form relationships in a quartet. That's an interesting option.