Defiance.
Also, currently, Singh is the 6th most common surname in the world. It might not have stood out to her as a big deal initially and then it became a pride thing.
Pre-2009 Star Trek and LGBTQI+ representation: simple disinterest or active hostility?
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Also, currently, Singh is the 6th most common surname in the world. It might not have stood out to her as a big deal initially and then it became a pride thing.
And the folks with two brain cells to rub together wouldn't allow a TV show to dictate how they see people.
Of course, he has Generals & Subordinates helping him out.
He must do the important work of "Pro Creation", he has many off spring to create with countless women across the world.
He must spread his seeds far & wide.
90s Trek leaned way too hard into the "Space America" thing. Almost everything established about Starfleet was just ported over from the US Navy, even to the point that 90s Trek removed the rank of Commodore from Starfleet just because the US Navy no longer used it despite the fact that nearly every other navy on Earth still uses it to this day. But probably the worst case of 90s Trek's American-centrism was when the Bajorans were first introduced on TNG and everyone is so shocked to find out Bajoran names place the family name first that it's even established many Bajorans allow others to address them in the more "traditional" manner of first name being the individual name in order to fit in with the rest of the galaxy. I mean, WTF? There are cultures on Earth that place the family name first, among them the Chinese, Earth's culture with the largest population. There's no reason placing the family name first should be considered some weird alien thing the Bajorans must abandon in order to be accepted in the larger galaxy.
Though on a similar note, TNG really go unimaginative with its aliens and what would be considered "alien." Like to be on topic for this thread, in The Outcast, everyone marvels over the Ji'nai being a single gendered species as though that's some weird and exotic concept. Even though aliens with genders numbering something other than two should be normal as opposed to extremely unusual.
The likeliest explanation would be La'an's parents kept the full Noonian-Singh name so therefore La'an keeps it to honor them.
Agreed, that was pretty stupid. And because it was quickly abandoned (by DS9, all Bajorans [including Starfleet officers like Sito Jaxa] were using the conventional mode of address and no one thought it unusual), I usually log it off as a "world under construction" inconsistency.
No they weren't.
I can't remember all the Bajoran names (and there were a few were we only heard a single name, so it's ambiguous), but all the prominent Bajorans followed the "family name, personal name" structure IIRC.
I can't remember all the Bajoran names (and there were a few were we only heard a single name, so it's ambiguous), but all the prominent Bajorans followed the "family name, personal name" structure IIRC.
Isn't the entire episode which introduces Ro and the Bajorans structured around showing that Starfleet and the Federation are totally ignorant about both Bajoran culture and the dynamics of the Bajoran occupation all the way to the highest levels of government? I mean the point of the episode is based on how the hubris of Starfleet has limited their ability to understand what's going on.
Picard's ignorance about Bajoran surnames is just another example of Starfleet's arrogance in thinking they understand the situation with the Bajorans that goes all the way to the admiral in charge of the operation stupidly believing the Cardassian's claims of Bajoran terrorists being the problem, when they don't even have warp capable vessels.
I think the episode, and Picard, come around to acknowledging how out-of-their-depth they are by the end, and it's part of the reason how Ro goes from being someone cynical about Starfleet to trusting Picard when he's willing to listen and learn.
Apologies, I meant Bajoran convention, not our convention. All Bajorans that I know of, including Winn Adami, Shakaar Edon, Sito Jaxa, and or course Kira Nerys used the standard Bajoran format.
And don't forget the Japanese people too. It's weird, considering that they had an actual Japanese character on DS9, Keiko "O'Brien"
.Yeah, the all "America... IN SPACE!" has always irked me. About the surnames, virtually every character, alien or human, followed US traditions: you put it after your name, the wife takes her husband's and children their father's. But there are a lot of countries on the Earth's which don't follow these convention. For example in Spain the children take both surnames. In Iceland they use patronymics. In Europe almost everywhere wives keep theirs.
It is interesting that a clearly patriarchal and sexist convention has survived into the future but is NOW currently culturally a minority on Earth.
And when they had too depict some trial? It's always something evidently based on the common law, with "precedents", "objections", "creative" rulings" and so on. Even when there is a trial on alien planet is was always something which could have happened in a US court. The problem is the prevailing legal system in the world is Civil Law. From this point of view, the United States is a minority. Obviously the writers wanted to portray something that was familiar to viewers, but it's really annoying that they couldn't even imagine anything other than a bad copy of an episode of Law And Order, even for the aliens.
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Wow, there are tons on research how pop culture affects prejudices and personal opinions but ok, following your reasoning we can from now on represent all bisexuals as psychotics and black people as drug dealers, since the spectators know how things really are.
Maybe she shortened it from Noonien-Singh-Hitler-Bin Laden
And don't forget the Japanese people too. It's weird, considering that they had an actual Japanese character on DS9, Keiko "O'Brien"
Yeah, the all "America... IN SPACE!" has always irked me. About the surnames, virtually every character, alien or human, followed US traditions: you put it after your name, the wife takes her husband's and children their father's. But there are a lot of countries on the Earth's which don't follow these convention. For example in Spain the children take both surnames. In Iceland they use patronymics. In Europe almost everywhere wives keep theirs.
It is interesting that a clearly patriarchal and sexist convention has survived into the future but is NOW currently culturally a minority on Earth.
And when they had too depict some trial? It's always something evidently based on the common law, with "precedents", "objections", "creative" rulings" and so on. Even when there is a trial on alien planet is was always something which could have happened in a US court. The problem is the prevailing legal system in the world is Civil Law. From this point of view, the United States is a minority. Obviously the writers wanted to portray something that was familiar to viewers, but it's really annoying that they couldn't even imagine anything other than a bad copy of an episode of Law And Order, even for the aliens.
That's because Trek was a American made tv show made with a American audience in mind. The international market was not treated back then like it is today. Today shows are built knowing people all over the world can watch it at the same time if they want. Though they did have a United Nations approach to the governing system though Starfleet did operate with a military style chain of command structure. Granted with a Greenpeace covering. Of course that is also one of the issues in that you can imagine the Federation is built with many different planets and thus many different cultures but since we watch the show from the POV of Starfleet most of the time we sort of see their world from it's military structure. DS9 was a little different in that it was the first show to explore main characters who were not part of Starfleet.
Put like this it almost seems like a conscious choice. As if the authors knew traditions and customs from all over the world but knowing that their audiences were Americans they wrote specifically for them.
Instead I chalk it up to simple ignorance and classic American chauvinism (like the "World Series") and the inability to conceive that there is a way of doing things other than the US way. The case of Bajoran surnames is a clear example, because no one will ever convince me that in reality the authors knew that in other parts of the world different traditions were followed in this matter compared to the USA.
So, for the advertisers then.
It (the Bajoran name thing) does seem to mirror how Asian-born actors like Bruce Lee (Lee Jun-fan), Jackie Chan (Chan Kong-sang), etc, chose stage names that followed the given-last pattern 'in order to assimilate'* themselves into Hollywood. I find it hard to believe that people working in the same industry weren't aware of that.
*to quote Ensign Ro. The full quote: 'No, there's no reason you should. It's an old custom. Most Bajorans these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. I do not.'
Up until very recently, they pretty much drove the TV industry. If Solow and Justman’s book is any indication, advertisers were what changed Trek’s diversity between the two pilots.
Being ignorant is one thing, but in the episode everyone is shocked at the very idea there could be someone who places the family name first, and apparently this is quite the unusual concept across the entire galaxy given many Bajorans have abandoned this custom. That's the problem, why should the Enterprise crew consider it unusual for anyone to place the family name first given one of the largest cultures on Earth does so. And the rest of the galaxy finding this strange is really messed up. Logically, all kinds of aliens should have their own unique naming conventions that you wouldn't think anyone would blink about a culture placing the alien name first. But then in Star Trek, there are apparently only three naming conventions, the traditional western style of individual name first, family name last, the supposedly "unique Bajoran style" of family name first, individual name last, or only having one name that everyone else does.
All that's well and good, but maybe Star Trek should just stop trying to pretend it depicts a "United Earth" if "United Earth" is just going to mean a global United States.
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