Was SEVEN of Nine a dominatrix?

[Jayson1]

Oviously she wasn't literally a dominatrix but am I the only one who thinks that was part of the subtext of the character. She was oviously brought in for sex appeal and I think this was aproach they were going for. Just look at the character. I super skintight outfit unlike any we have ever saw before. The silver one they started with was especially over the top. Plus the personality they gave her was very dominatrix like. She was very stern with people and looked down at them as almost being inferior. She was very demanding and her Borg nanoprobes were sort of the equilivent of being a whip or some other sex toy. Even the phrase like 'You will be assimilated" or 'You must comply" also sort of play into this concept.


Jason

 

[Voth commando1]

She only used Borg phraseology in a sexual sense in Waking Moments-in Harry's dreams to be exact.

When she says "You must comply" usually in context that means she urgently wants something done.

She wasn't dominatrix like at all-she had no social skills, no sex life, and more often than not did as Janeway told her.

 

[φ of π]

Only if it's possible to be both a dominatrix and an innocent virgin at the same time.

 

[Jayson1]

I know they didn't write her as being overly sexual in her behavior. I was thinking more in how here behavior would be seen from the fans perspective. It's not not that hard to look at how she acts and to not to start conjuring up dominatrix style fantasies with the character. I know some of the stuff isn't sexy such as loosing her parents and being assimilated as a child and eventually even becoming something of a mother figure to the borg children. that though is something that comes with all fictional characters. You begin to start moving away somewhat from the initial idea and start giving him or her more depth.

Jason

 

[F. King Daniel]

Her look was intentionally hypersexualized. Her character was entirely innocent.

 

[Ghost]

Darn it, now I got the mental picture of Seven of Nine in a sm outfit.
But regarding her personality, yeah she did have this inherent "I am superior to you regular human monkeys" attitude, but that is probably the result of being among the Borg for so long.
In a sense she was also innocent because she did not know much about the complexities of human interaction but she also had no interest in actually learning about it because her Borg "raising" gave her a view point that basic social behavior was irrelevant and not worth pursuing.

I got the idea that she felt that actually learning these would make her weak on the long term.

But for her looks, yep, the producers went with the whole sexual eye candy things with the actress.

edit done because it may come over nasty to the TC despite that it was meant as comedic

 

[Jayson1]

the thing though is when you going with sexual eye candy you do have options. You can go for the kick -ass chick or the girl next door or the dumb blonde or many other options. I find it intresting that they went with what I would call the dominatrix look. Not only that but they then did it again on "Enterprise" with T'pol.

I wonder if they did some kind of study that factored in what type of women, sci-fi nerds like us tend to prefer.

Jason

 

[Sophie74656]

The one piece suit wasn't new. Diana wore one in TNG and Kes even wore on before Seven came around. Also even though it wasn't a one piece suit look at Kira's Bajoran uniform. It was so form fitting it may as well have been a catsuit

 

[Jayson1]

I agree that Troi and Kira(at least in season 4 and later) were put in tight catsuits for sexual eye candy. They were though going for something different with those characters. Troi had the exotic and sensual thing going on and Kira was the kick-ass chick. Different kind of eye candy though I do think there suits weren't quite as ovious as it was with Seven's especially the silver one. Troi's suit didn't seem quite as tight as the others and Kira's at least sort of looked like the typical Bajorian outfit other Bajorian officers were wearing.

Jason

 

[Prax]

She was oviously brought in for sex appeal and I think this was aproach they were going for

Only aesthetically, maybe. There's one early scene with Harry Kim, but basically 4 seasons worth of Seven where she's almost never shown in any kind of sexually provocative light, when they easily could have.

Almost the opposite of Counsellor Troy, who was notoriously called "Counsellor Cleavage." Marina Sirtis has said that she was basically a pretty potted plant that sat on the bridge for decoration. And said that when she finally got a uniform, the writers gave her a brain. I don't think they ever showed Seven-cleavage, but I could be wrong.

She does tend to order people around, including Janeway, but it's depicted as she just doesn't know common courtesies. She later comes to learn patience and how to fit in, and her season 4 attitude largely is gone.

 

[Prax]

The one piece suit wasn't new. Diana wore one in TNG and Kes even wore on before Seven came around. Also even though it wasn't a one piece suit look at Kira's Bajoran uniform. It was so form fitting it may as well have been a catsuit

I think her later uniforms were catsuits. All other Bajoran's continued to wear the season 1 uniform, but hers kept changing. The one she wore while pregnant was not a catsuit, but she still wore the high heels during the pregnancy.

 

[Sakonna]

the thing though is when you going with sexual eye candy you do have options. You can go for the kick -ass chick or the girl next door or the dumb blonde or many other options. I find it intresting that they went with what I would call the dominatrix look. Not only that but they then did it again on "Enterprise" with T'pol.

Watching an Enterprise recently, I was struck by how it was only great casting that saved them -- these catsuits would have defeated lesser actresses. But Jeri Ryan's (and Jolene Blalock's etc) performances are so fully committed and fleshed out, it does a lot to counter the gross ideas behind their wardrobes.

 

[Sophie74656]

Watching an Enterprise recently, I was struck by how it was only great casting that saved them -- these catsuits would have defeated lesser actresses. But Jeri Ryan's (and Jolene Blalock's etc) performances are so fully committed and fleshed out, it does a lot to counter the gross ideas behind their wardrobes.

Agreed. I haven't watched much of Enterprise but Jeri Ryan showed over and over that she wasn't just T&A she could ACT

 

[Refuge]

Obviously if she had been ugly her acting wouldn't have factored. Seven is remembered for those looks more than anything else. It was her role, defined her meaning. I can imagine the other actors resenting the cheap attention she received. It's always nice to see the pretty one getting the credit. I especially felt sorry for the character and actress who played Kes. What a slap in the face. I think BOTH characters could have co-existed on the show. Seven was very one note but it was an in your face note. Kes was wasted potential.

 

[Voth commando1]

Kira's later blue uniforms were very tight fitting. And I don't think anybody's needs reminding regarding the Intendant.

Troi always wore tight dresses that were lose on the legs with a low neckline.

As for Sci fi nerds we like looking at sexy women because we often struggle in that department in RL.

As a Star Wars fan I can't help but ogle over Darth Talon and Deliah Blue.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Well, I'd say that though Seven(s look was intentionally hypersexualized -, what was really regrettable as seeing as a large part of male viewers were only attached to her very revealing cat suit -, her personnality was so much more attractive, mixing innocence, courage, strength of character and a certain presence.
-> IF she was a dominatrix, she wasn't conscious of it at the beginning of her journey on Voyager and later, after to have decided to rediscover her humanity, she didn't even care because the look was just insignificant for her ...and she wasn't more in poor shape there, right?!

 

[Triskelion]

I don't think Seven was for fans. Seven was for non-fans.

 

[Jayson1]

I was thinking more along the lines of what the writers and Berman's main attempt were when they created the character. Why did they give her the personality they did. they could have just as easy made her more human like and put her in a catsuit or they could have created any number of female characters that are also sexy. We could have gotten someone more like Jadzia or Troi or any number of options.
What i'm curious about isn't that they brought in eye candy and tried to create a sexy character but they decided this type of character was going to be the type of sexy character they wanted.

Jason

 

[Six of Twelve]

I was thinking more along the lines of what the writers and Berman's main attempt were when they created the character. Why did they give her the personality they did. they could have just as easy made her more human like and put her in a catsuit or they could have created any number of female characters that are also sexy. We could have gotten someone more like Jadzia or Troi or any number of options.
What i'm curious about isn't that they brought in eye candy and tried to create a sexy character but they decided this type of character was going to be the type of sexy character they wanted.

Jason

Seven had the personality she did because she's been a Borg drone for the last eighteen years and during her crucial formative years. As she told Janeway in "Collective", after being assimilated as a young child, the Borg restructured her neural pathways while she was in the maturation chamber - for FIVE years -- which brought order to chaos, and that this order remained a source of strength for her and allowed her to adapt to living among humans again.

And, also, her personality is what made her a unique character. If she'd had a "more human" personality, she'd have lost her individuality and just been a boring "everybody else" type of character.

Nor did she - or any other female character , for that matter - exist solely to be "sexy" or how they personally related to men. They were all individual human beings (Klingons, Bajorans, etc) before they were anything else.

 

[Jayson1]

Seven had the personality she did because she's been a Borg drone for the last eighteen years and during her crucial formative years. As she told Janeway in "Collective", after being assimilated as a young child, the Borg restructured her neural pathways while she was in the maturation chamber - for FIVE years -- which brought order to chaos, and that this order remained a source of strength for her and allowed her to adapt to living among humans again.

And, also, her personality is what made her a unique character. If she'd had a "more human" personality, she'd have lost her individuality and just been a boring "everybody else" type of character.

Nor did she - or any other female character , for that matter - exist solely to be "sexy" or how they personally related to men. They were all individual human beings (Klingons, Bajorans, etc) before they were anything else.

The Borg history though is just stuff invented by writers. I mean the personality makes sense with that kind of backstory and i'm not even saying it's wrong. I am just saying that the writers were trying to include a dominatrix subtext to the character because they know guys would enjoy the character on that level as well as other levels such as acting and conflict that would come between her and other characters. It's kind of like how there was a lesbian subtext to Xenia warrior princess years ago on that show even though the character was never ever offically made a lesbian on the show. There are usually more things to characters than just the surface details.

Jason