"The Outcast"

[carcinoGeneticist]

I really like this episode! I liked the representation in it even though it was under the commentary of an alien with only one sex/gender. While the ending was pretty unhappy I think it was pretty good at showing how awful conversion therapy is.

I think it works well as a scathing criticism of those who seek to force "normal" cishet behavior on others, especially those who don't want to be "fixed". Conversion therapy may have been debunked as snake oil in this day and age, but it was far more prevalent back then.

^ so this.

I showed the episode to a friend and the friend in question really liked it. As a matter of fact it was one of the first I had showed them and they continued to want to watch more TNG!

iirc the species in question *had* genders before this period where they decided to start forcibly suppressing them, and i don't think indicated that they were one *sex* , but it's been a few years since i saw it. i vaguely recall something about arranged marriages, or arranged parentages...

Not that they forcibly supressed them, IIRC they evolved to be an asexual species and then found the concept of sex/gender "offensive" because they thought it was primitive and that they'd evolved past it. They did indicate that they were one sex. (unless what you meant by forcibly repressed it was what they did to the J'naii that identified as a gender, in which case ignore this lol)

 

[korblborp]

I really like this episode! I liked the representation in it even though it was under the commentary of an alien with only one sex/gender. While the ending was pretty unhappy I think it was pretty good at showing how awful conversion therapy is.

^ so this.

I showed the episode to a friend and the friend in question really liked it. As a matter of fact it was one of the first I had showed them and they continued to want to watch more TNG!


Not that they forcibly supressed them, IIRC they evolved to be an asexual species and then found the concept of sex/gender "offensive" because they thought it was primitive and that they'd evolved past it. They did indicate that they were one sex. (unless what you meant by forcibly repressed it was what they did to the J'naii that identified as a gender, in which case ignore this lol)

"evolved" in the sense that, like Earth in the time of the show, some people had had ideas on how to be "better"; in this case, believing that gender/sex friction was the root cause of strife and eliminating it. only instead of convincing the rest through word and deed, like earth/the federation, when the ones with said ideas got in power, they forced everyone into the new paradigm whether they wanted it or not. and also unlike future Earth/the Federation, refuses to allow anyone who finds themself with gender to leave the system, even to go far away and make a colony. because of curse the control is the important part, now.

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

"evolved" in the sense that, like Earth in the time of the show, some people had had ideas on how to be "better"; in this case, believing that gender/sex friction was the root cause of strife and eliminating it. only instead of convincing the rest through word and deed, like earth/the federation, when the ones with said ideas got in power, they forced everyone into the new paradigm whether they wanted it or not. and also unlike future Earth/the Federation, refuses to allow anyone who finds themself with gender to leave the system, even to go far away and make a colony. because of curse the control is the important part, now.

Oh okay I didn't realise that. I thought that the race had literally just naturally evolved to only have one sex. Perhaps I need to rewatch the episode.