Jessie Earl
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Star Trek Strange New Worlds Doesn't Understand Race (VIDEO ESSAY)
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 14:00:11 +0000 UTCStar Trek Strange New Worlds keeps doing biological essentialism and we need to talk about it.
Comments
Angela B. Sims
May I just say that how much I love you and how you parse and articulate these nuanced issues. You make both my logic and emotions tingle!
Arwen Spicer
Great video! I agree about Star Trek's/SNW's deep misunderstanding of culture vs. DNA, and you call it out well. I also wanted to note that aliens in ST can represent both other human races/cultures and other species with genetic traits that are different from humans'. (As you said, biology is a factor in our behavior.) As I understand it, Vulcans have the culture they do because they are (as a generalization) genetically prone to stronger emotions than humans (which made the Spock-is-human episode from SNW season 2 180 degrees backwards, if you ask me: he'd feel more chill as a human). So I just want to be a little careful about discounting biology in-universe. As to that clip, likewise, if it were purely a genetic change, I'd expect the opposite effect: the crew getting angry and upset by stronger emotions than they're used to.
