Unexpected Controversy

[Lady Conqueror]

I started this thread because I didn't want to derail tomalak301's thread revisiting Enterprise eps with something that's bound to be a controversial post. From tomalak's thread:

What is wrong with "Unexpected"? Well, let's imagine this:

Hoshi, while communicating with a race of aliens the ENT has met, becomes friendly and flirts with a male alien; she doesn't go any further - or so she thinks - because she considers it unprofessional and dangerous, but the alien convinces her to participate in a telepathic activity that involves playing in the sand with her hands. A little later, after they part ways with the aliens, she finds out, to her shock, that she is pregnant, even though she has no idea how this could have happened. It turns out that the alien impregnated her - the telepathic ritual was actually the aliens version of reproductive process, even though he never told her what it really was. Everyone on ENT finds it hilarious, Archer has to work hard to stop himself from laughing, while Reed throws a couple of remarks to the effect that Hoshi should have, um, controlled herself a bit more. The episode is a lighthearted comedy.

How do you like this story? Or do you find it creepy? If you do, then you should ask yourself why you didn't feel so before I changed the genders and substituted Hoshi for Trip. And that's what's really wrong with this episode.

It's amazing that Berman and Braga never realized they wrote rape into the episode and treated it as a comedy. But of course, rape is OK when it's female on male.

While I can see DevilEyes point (and it certainly would have been more controversial with Hoshi in the lead rather than Trip) and after much thought about why it doesn't bother me, I'm going to have to disagree that it's a rape analogy.
Deep BreathHere goes:

Rape is not just about sex but about power and control. While Ah'Lenn didn't reveal the true nature of what they were doing (and she most definitely should have), there was no dominating of wills about the matter. Despite the lack of actual touching, it is quite clear that what Trip and Ah'Lenn is doing is an intimate act - how could reading minds not be - and the minute Trip realises this Ah'Lenn does clearly care and it is apparant she would have stopped had Trip asked.

Compare with Tolaris in Fusion, again an intimate act of mind reading, but once T'Pol expresses discomfort and a wish to stop he forces her to keep going and she has to wrench to break free. There is none of that menace and danger about Trip and Ah'Lenn's encounter.

Yes Trip didn't have a full picture of what he was getting into or possible consequences (but then Ah'Lenn didn't exactly put much thought into it either) but there was no pressure and I think that is where it falls short of a rape analogy for me. I think I would have come to the same end conclusion about Hoshi though it would have had me examining it a lot closer at the time.

Anyway, regardless it should open up a good discussion (or a stoning of me ).

Fire away ducks for cover

 

[DonIago]

Well, according to dictionary.com, rape doesn't technically involve power/control. The term itself refers only to the physical aspects, not the psychology behind them.

Given that Trip would have objected, and Ah'Lenn would have respected his objections, perhaps the best phrase in this case is "unintentional rape", or...given there isn't a good non-plot reason for her not to have asked, "rape via stupidity".

 

[JiNX-01]

I will admit that I liked Unexpected and found Trip's predicament funny when it first aired.

But I have to admit that ever since I started seeing these arguments that he was assaulted, I have taken away a different viewpoint.

I don't know that I would charge Ahlen with rape, so much as I would say she took advantage of Trip. When he asked about the box of pebbles, Ahlen told him it was a game. She essentially treated Trip like a child in the hands of a molester.

At the end of the episode, Ahlen tells Trip she didn't think he'd get pregnant. She clearly knew that she was engaging in a sex game with an alien who had no comprehension of what he was getting into. Trip should have expressed outrage when he learned that she knew what she was doing with him was Xyrillians sex.

 

[Shatinator]

Well, according to dictionary.com, rape doesn't technically involve power/control. The term itself refers only to the physical aspects, not the psychology behind them.

Given that Trip would have objected, and Ah'Lenn would have respected his objections, perhaps the best phrase in this case is "unintentional rape", or...given there isn't a good non-plot reason for her not to have asked, "rape via stupidity".

Your dictionary "defense" if I may is intresting when you take into the light that a phyical domination of one to another has nothing to do with power / control, when clearly it must since one is using power to control another through their phyical actions.

Do you not agree?

The Shatinator

 

[DonIago]

(blinks) Ooookay...

I wasn't using the dictionary as a defense, I was using the strict definition of rape. I thought my original post made that clear. Why one engages in rape isn't explicitly linked with the term itself. Unlike, say, "guilt trip".

Given your tone I'm not particularly inclined to agree or disagree, since I'm frankly also not sure exactly what you're getting at.

 

[Admiral Shran]

It's amazing that Berman and Braga never realized they wrote rape into the episode and treated it as a comedy. But of course, rape is OK when it's female on male.

I'm honestly not surprised that Berman and Braga put it in there. Like DevilEyes said, as far as the film/television industry is concerned rape is OK when it's female on male.

It's not like this was the first time something like this appeared in Trek to begin with either. It happened at least once on TNG and somewhat once on DS9.

In TNG: First Contact, Riker is made to have sex with an alien doctor in order to escape his hospital-prison and escape the possible discovery that he's an alien. It's all played for laughs. Now imagine if it were Troi or Crusher in that situation and not Riker. Would you find it humorous if a male doctor forced himself onto Troi or Crusher and made her have sex with him in order to gain her freedom? Or, would you consider it rape? If you consider it rape, how is it any different when Riker is forced to do the same thing.

To a lesser extent Odo had to face something like this in DS9: The Forsaken. Lwaxana Troi comes on to him VERY heavily, even though Odo makes it abundantly clear that it makes him uncomfortable. Sisko refuses to do anything about it, and even treats it like a joke. Now imagine if something like this happened to Kira or Dax and Sisko laughingly told her to just "let him catch you." Would it be funny if they were sexually harassed like this?

Heck, ENT did it again in the episode Stigma. As TheGodBen noted in his review a while ago....

If you're writing an episode which is supposed to serve as an allegory for a woman who contracted HIV after being raped by a gay man, how do you have a comedic b-story where a woman attempts to force herself upon a man who is clearly made uncomfortable by her advances? I mean, if I saw a man making a woman uncomfortable with his advances, and even though he knew he was making her uncomfortable he upped the ante, I would be disgusted by his behaviour. So why am I expected to laugh when it is a woman doing it to a man? The idea of a human being innocent and confused about Denobulan matrimonial customs is fine, but this was the wrong way to do it in an episode about rape and AIDS.

So, again, I'm not surprised by Unexpected's rape story.

 

[DevilEyes]

Rape is not just about sex but about power and control. While Ah'Lenn didn't reveal the true nature of what they were doing (and she most definitely should have), there was no dominating of wills about the matter. Despite the lack of actual touching, it is quite clear that what Trip and Ah'Lenn is doing is an intimate act - how could reading minds not be - and the minute Trip realises this Ah'Lenn does clearly care and it is apparant she would have stopped had Trip asked.

Compare with Tolaris in Fusion, again an intimate act of mind reading, but once T'Pol expresses discomfort and a wish to stop he forces her to keep going and she has to wrench to break free. There is none of that menace and danger about Trip and Ah'Lenn's encounter.

Yes Trip didn't have a full picture of what he was getting into or possible consequences (but then Ah'Lenn didn't exactly put much thought into it either) but there was no pressure and I think that is where it falls short of a rape analogy for me. I think I would have come to the same end conclusion about Hoshi though it would have had me examining it a lot closer at the time.

If an adult asks a child or a mentally deficient person to "play a little game" with them, using the fact that they're unaware of what sex i, that's considered rape. And that's analogous to the "Unexpected " situation. (It reminds me of a Law and Order: SVU episode where the detectives investigated a rape of a 20-something girl with Down Syndrome who was pregnant, and who - as it turns out - was impregnated by her boss who asked her to "do exercise" with him.)

 

[DonIago]

My only issue with the above example is that I don't think the alien intended to be malicious. As I said in my OP though, I think the term "rape" would still apply but in this case should be clarified to avoid assumptions.

 

[Aikiweezie]

I would use the word "violation" more than "rape." Same goes for what Tolaris did to T'Pol, Also, we have no idea what Ahlen's culture thinks about this kind of thing. Maybe that's normal for them, to be kind of obtuse when it comes to sex games.

If it were Hoshi or another female, based on OUR cultural norms, it would certainly be considered a form of rape and it would NOT have been humorous.

I found the respect for the little lifeform and the protection of it to be refreshing.

 

[Solarbaby]

I think Ahlen motives were 1- to get intimate with Trip and show her feelings. She is an alien and is being judged by human emotions

2- she wanted to show another species an experience thats regarded as highly pleasurable in her society.

There was absolutely no malice intended. Rape is not the issue of this story. Its about first contact. I find it absurd that week after week the crew shake hands of new races without knowing if they have dangerous antibodies that could kill the crew.

There must be one GIANT hypospray to innoculate the crew from every future species. Hardly ever has the crews of any franchise been infected by a humnaoid race just becuase of their biology rather than they're carrying a plague. TNG's Identity Crisis is a good example.

Unexpected was my favourite episode because for the first time ever in Trek the whole scenario of meting an extra terrestrial species was alien! The way Trip had to go in the decompression chamber was really cool. The ship had food growing on its decks. Obviously they couldn't do this every episode as it would become boring.

The episode was a fun way at looking at consequneces of first contact.

Another way to look at is
Imagine if someone came along and used a hypospray to get you pregnant without your consent or knowledge. Is that rape? Its certainly a crime, but I wouldn't define it as rape. The Victim didn't knowingly suffer the offence and experience of the brutality and vicious anger often associated with rape. Of course there would be feelings of violation and a whole bunch of feelings no one can know for sure unless it were to happen.

This was just a fun episode in my opinion and the way it is perceived by the indivdual is the only true answer to the OP question

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I agree that the point of "Unexpected," at least the first half, was to demonstrate that being immersed in another species' world could be bewildering and disorienting. It was an effective way to show that the Enterprise crew wasn't in Kansas anymore, that humanity was truly embarking on journeys to strange new worlds. I loved the weirdness of the alien environment, and Trip's reaction to it-- considering he was often hassling Archer to go on away missions and see new things. "Be careful what you wish for," and all that.

I also agree that judging Ah'len's culture (or any alien culture) by human standards isn't the way to understand them and interact effectively with them. From "Broken Bow" onward, we see humans misinterpret alien cultures by applying human standards to them, and they often get into trouble for it -- from the Kreetassans to the Cogenitor's race. The point of interacting with alien races, I would think, is for humanity to widen its horizons and accept other cultures for what they are, rather than judge them.

As for the question of rape...contemporary society looks at rape as an act of domination and anger, with the victim being forced against his/her will to submit. That scenario doesn't seem to fit "Unexpected." (Or "Stigma," for that matter.) As previously said, Ah'len might actually consider the pebbles thing -- and procreation -- to be a pleasurable game, which Trip agreed to participate in. And if she did not expect it was possible for Trip to get pregnant (logical, since they were alien species), it doesn't seem to me that she was committing a deliberate, forcible violation with intent to humiliate/dominate the victim.

Trip's pregnancy seemed more like a surrogate pregnancy. He didn't participate genetically in the conception, which was akin to in-vitro fertilization, and his DNA isn't part of the baby. A storyline like the one in Voyager, when Chakotay's old flame steals his DNA without his consent to create a baby -- now that's more of a violation, because he would be the biological father. I think it turns out that she was lying and it wasn't his baby, but the point is, he felt violated.

It doesn't seem credible that the writers would knowingly set out to do a humorous story about rape. It seems more likely that they were looking at this story as an exploration of a clash of vastly different cultures. But look at the way Trek writers have handled sex and romance...not a great track record.

And Enterprise was written by male writers in a culture long dominated by males. Treatment of men vs. women has been lopsided forever.

"Stigma" is, for me, another example of a human being freaked out by an alien culture, in this case Denobulans. It looks like sexual harassment to us, but to Denobulans, it's normal and perfectly acceptable behavior. And I think that was the point.

As for female-on-male rape being "OK"...consider "Bound." Navaar forces herself on an unwilling Archer, who has been compromised by a drug (her pheromones). That was creepy and disturbing to me, not acceptable. I can see why the aftermath of the Enterprise men (and the Orion men too) being drugged and sexually manipulated/assaulted was not explored; by the tone of the Sickbay scene at the end, the writers were going for a "happy ending." And there might have been a perception that a roll in the hay with a hot Orion babe is a desirable thing no matter what the circumstances, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. But it's a dark underbelly of the episode that would have been compelling to explore.

 

[cylkoth]

"Stigma" is, for me, another example of a human being freaked out by an alien culture, in this case Denobulans. It looks like sexual harassment to us, but to Denobulans, it's normal and perfectly acceptable behavior. And I think that was the point.

It's normal for Denobulans, but not for humans, which makes that B plot even more agravating. The Denobs are familiar enough with human customs and behavior-at least Phlox is/should've been, to know that it wouldn't be acceptable from a human standpoint to pursue someone else's mate, and to stand back and allow Trip to be harassed, and find his discomfort amusing was wrong.
You're not in Bon Temps doctor, this is the freakin' starship Enterprise...

Bon Temps -True Blood ref...

 

[DonIago]

OTOH, perhaps by ENT's time human customs have changed in these kinds of cases.

 

[JiNX-01]

OTOH, perhaps by ENT's time human customs have changed in these kinds of cases.

Well, whatever happened to human customs, apparently the definition of "game" didn't change.

Trip was certainly nonplussed when he learned he had been playing a sex game in Unexpected. Ahlen's use of the term left Trip with an entirely different take on what was happening. And since she could read his mind without having him focus on a particular subject ("your favorite food is catfish") she should have realized his lack of understanding, stopped the game, explained its significance, and then asked whether he wished to proceed.

As for Stigma, Trip clearly states that some customs are still around, including the one where you don't get involved with a married woman, even with her husband's consent.

 

[scotpens]

I think everyone is forgetting one basic fact here: The idea of a man being pregnant is FUNNY. Always has been. Always will be.

. . . there might have been a perception that a roll in the hay with a hot Orion babe is a desirable thing no matter what the circumstances, wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

Damn right!

You know what they say: Once you've had green, anything else is routine!

 

[TheGodBen]

Given that Trip would have objected, and Ah'Lenn would have respected his objections, perhaps the best phrase in this case is "unintentional rape", or...given there isn't a good non-plot reason for her not to have asked, "rape via stupidity".

Unintentional rape? Okay, let's look at it like this:

Ah'Lenn is on Enterprise helping to fix the warp core. She and Trip become friends. Trip invites her back to his quarters, tells her to take her clothes off and lay on the bed, then he takes his clothes off and lays on top of her. It is at this point that he "accidentally" has sex with her.

Sure, Trip may not have gone into that encounter intending to have sexual relations, but he never should have put her into that situation no matter how much fun it is. Conversely, Ah'Lenn knew that the "game" was her species' method of procreation and that there was a small chance that Trip would be impregnated, but she still brought him to the holodeck and told him to stick his hands in the bucket.

I think everyone is forgetting one basic fact here: The idea of a man being pregnant is FUNNY. Always has been. Always will be.

Which makes it all the more astounding that the episode didn't make me laugh.

 

[DonIago]

You're imposing our understanding of procreation onto an alien species there. Given Ah'Lenn's apparent attitudes about her species form of procreation, for all we know she'd be just as blase about human sex.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I get the OP's point and it's a good one. But for this ep we just don't have enough information. How do we know this is a sexual game in their culture? How do we know it's not done between friends or family? Perhaps the trigger necessary to cause pregnancy via the game is something other than the game itself.

 

[DevilEyes]

I also agree that judging Ah'len's culture (or any alien culture) by human standards isn't the way to understand them and interact effectively with them. From "Broken Bow" onward, we see humans misinterpret alien cultures by applying human standards to them, and they often get into trouble for it -- from the Kreetassans to the Cogenitor's race. The point of interacting with alien races, I would think, is for humanity to widen its horizons and accept other cultures for what they are, rather than judge them.

It's not an issue of judging an alien culture by human standards. The aliens in question might have very different laws and cultural beliefs and might not see anything wrong with tricking an alien into having sex (i.e. what sex is for their species) with them. But it's violation, and yes, it's rape by human standards (Tricking someone who doesn't know better into having sex with you, and impregnating them in the process, how else would you call that?) so the issue is: why was it treated as a joke in the episode? As I said, would it be treated that way if happened to a female? No, I didn't think so.

As for the question of rape...contemporary society looks at rape as an act of domination and anger, with the victim being forced against his/her will to submit. That scenario doesn't seem to fit "Unexpected." (Or "Stigma," for that matter.)

Neither does the example I provided before, tricking an underage or mentally deficient person into performing a sexual act by calling it a "game", "exercise" etc. You don't think that's rape?

It doesn't matter one bit if the rapist is motivated by anger and a will for power or if they just want sex, it's still rape.

Trip's pregnancy seemed more like a surrogate pregnancy. He didn't participate genetically in the conception, which was akin to in-vitro fertilization, and his DNA isn't part of the baby. A storyline like the one in Voyager, when Chakotay's old flame steals his DNA without his consent to create a baby -- now that's more of a violation, because he would be the biological father. I think it turns out that she was lying and it wasn't his baby, but the point is, he felt violated.

Wait, you think that it's a violation to use someone's DNA, but it's not a violation to force someone to have another being growing inside their body? I would think that the latter is far more of a violation of one's body.

So would that also mean that a sperm donor has a lot more right to decide what happens to his child than a woman has the right to decide if she is going to give birth to a baby growing in her stomach or not?

It doesn't seem credible that the writers would knowingly set out to do a humorous story about rape. It seems more likely that they were looking at this story as an exploration of a clash of vastly different cultures. .

Of course not. They were clueless and stupid. That's the point.

They might want to show a "clash of different cultures", but they are unable from getting away from their own cultural prejudices.

"Stigma" is, for me, another example of a human being freaked out by an alien culture, in this case Denobulans. It looks like sexual harassment to us, but to Denobulans, it's normal and perfectly acceptable behavior. And I think that was the point.

Ah yes, 'Stigma'. Let's use another gender-flip scenario. I'm sure that would have worked just as wonderfully if this is what had happened:

Dr Phloxina, ship's Denobulan doctor, is visited by Feezal, one of her three husbands (each of whom have three wives in turn, according to the Denobulan customs). The lively, charming man is completely open about the fact that he finds Hoshi very attractive. He keeps making overt sexual innuendo at her all the time. She is extremely uncomfortable, and tries to avoid him, then she tries to politely let him know that she can't have any kind of relationship with a married man - not to mention that this is someone married to her co-worker. Feezal, however, just smiles and continues with the same behavior. Hoshi worries about Phloxina's reaction, but when she finally comes clean to her, the doctor asks her why she is rejecting her husband's advances, if she dislikes him for some reason or finds him unattractive, then encourages her to go for it. Hoshi is uncomfortable, and explains that she has been brought up to stay away from married men. Phloxina and her husband laugh at the silliness of human sexual morality. This is a comic B-plot.

"Stigma" is, for me, another example of a human being freaked out by an alien culture, in this case Denobulans. It looks like sexual harassment to us, but to Denobulans, it's normal and perfectly acceptable behavior. And I think that was the point.

It's normal for Denobulans, but not for humans, which makes that B plot even more agravating. The Denobs are familiar enough with human customs and behavior-at least Phlox is/should've been, to know that it wouldn't be acceptable from a human standpoint to pursue someone else's mate, and to stand back and allow Trip to be harassed, and find his discomfort amusing was wrong.
You're not in Bon Temps doctor, this is the freakin' starship Enterprise...

Bon Temps -True Blood ref...

Exactly. Once again, it seems that Trek writers can't find a way to show a clash of cultures without making the aliens seem like insensitive jerks with no respect for Human culture (also one of my pet peeves with TNG season 1 - every alien they meet seems determined to offend the Enterprise crew right away by calling them 'ugly', 'barbaric' etc. )

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I can see why there are a variety of legal terms for illegal sexual acts... "rape," "sexual assault," "sexual battery," "sexual abuse," etc.

Clearly, different people have different opinions about this episode, and different points of view are irrelevant to them. That's fine. People have different definitions of rape. (See legal terminology above.) That's fine too. I would think it depends on one's own personal experience, gender, moral values, etc.

My perspective is colored by what I define as rape, by what I see as the writers' intentions (however effective or not), by the characters' reactions we are shown. I didn't see Ah'len force Trip to do anything; I didn't perceive that he was unwilling, or that he saw himself as the victim of a savage act of dominance or hatred.

If Hoshi willingly played what she was told was a game by a male alien, which was strange but not physically or emotionally painful...and she later finds out that she has become the surrogate mother for an alien baby, but she isn't the biological parent, and appears to have had nothing to do with its conception...sure, maybe she might feel she has been taken advantage of, used, tricked, sexually assaulted. Or maybe she'll react like Troi in TNG, and think it's wondrous. (Was Troi the biological mother in that case? I don't recall.) And if the male alien confesses that he didn't think it was a sexual act for her, and he didn't expect a pregnancy to result...

There are just so many ways that this can be interpreted. Trip does not react as if he has been sexually abused or assaulted or humiliated in the most personal and intimate way imaginable. I remember him being freaked out that he's a pregnant man, and that he's going through what a pregnant woman goes through. His crewmates tease him, and he's annoyed, but not reacting as if he thinks they are making fun of a horrific situation. I don't recall him regarding Ah'len as evil because of what happened. I assume the writers hoped the viewers would take their cues from Trip's reaction, rather than be outraged on his behalf, since he is not seen to suffer in the same way a rape victim suffers. Some viewers reacted the way the writers hoped, and some didn't.

I still don't see anyone screeching over Archer's sexual assault (I would characterize it as rape) in "Bound." Or Rostov being sexually manipulated while drugged, and whoever else was compromised. Reverse the genders there and see what you come up with. But I realize the writers weren't trying to do an icky sexual assault episode, even though Orion women are all about domination and control through sex, and we find that Orion men have been sexually victimized en masse. The cues we are given in that last sickbay scene indicate we're not supposed to think our Enterprise boys suffered in any substantive way that can't be dismissed by the story's end. The subtext of "Bound" disturbed me far more than "Unexpected," and I knew how the writers wanted me to react.

As someone said upthread, a pregnant guy is funny. Sex with an Orion female under any circumstance is great.

Or not. It's all a matter of perception.