A large number of reviews of The Orville episode "About a Girl" have been so off-base that I felt I needed to offer my perspective on the episode. This is as good of a place as any to do that.
First up, this episode is not about gender identity or gender preference. Most, if not all, of the negative reviews of this episode have objected to the tone-deaf handling of gender identity and gender preference, but this is like judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree. It may be a hot topic at the moment, but it's not what this episode is about.
It's about gender inequality.
To get some perspective on the issues in this episode, there are two big societal topics you need to be familiar with. Female genital mutilation (FGM)-- warning, potentially not safe for work and upsetting -- and the "Missing women of China". Once you are aware that not every gender issue is about what gender you identify as or what gender you prefer, you can shake off the mis-aligned perspective and enjoy the deft handling of gender inequality.
FGM is not something I'll go into detail about here. It's a non-medical modification akin to circumcision, but significantly more disruptive to the person's life. It's a highly charged issue, mixing up non- consensual body modification with religious freedom and gender inequality. The show, quite understandably, doesn't mention it directly, just the more common and less controversial male circumcision.
Missing women of China is a side effect of China's one-child policy and, again, a gender inequality issue that leads parents to wanting that one child to be a boy. For every 100 female births recorded, there are 113.5 male births. This is done by a variety of methods including sex-selective abortion and infanticide, the latter of which is touched on in the show.
Go Google these things. I'll wait.
Now that we have the actual issues nailed down, and we're not judging the show on the handling of an issue it wasn't about, we can look at the flow of the show itself. It followed a series of beats common in old-school Trek, particularly Next Generation. A holodeck scene where they actually acknowledge they're just playing a game that can be as silly as anyone wants. A medical scene poking fun at inter-species sex with the most human-sounding and least human-looking crew member. The change of heart of a single crew member through arguably the dumbest metaphor you could come up with, which is a satire of all the dumb ways Trek (and sci-fi in general) has changed the mind of an alien (see the scene about sneezing in My Step-Mother Is An Alien). A showdown in space that turns into a court drama -- and people criticising the court drama need to understand that the arguments are very rarely persuasive in this genre. The courtroom is a place for questions, not answers and the resolution of it is always through some big reveal.
To the show's credit, the human perspective does not win and there's no last-minute intervention that resolves it in the favour of the side you would expect. It's an alien culture that doesn't change its mind after one court drama or one small shock.
This was an episode worthy of Star Trek and has made me sad that a great show set in the future got stuck in the past. I hope The Orville gets a long run, not only because it scratches an itch for me that I'd long given up on, but because if half the reviews of this episode are any example, the world needs another perspective.
First up, this episode is not about gender identity or gender preference. Most, if not all, of the negative reviews of this episode have objected to the tone-deaf handling of gender identity and gender preference, but this is like judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree. It may be a hot topic at the moment, but it's not what this episode is about.
It's about gender inequality.
To get some perspective on the issues in this episode, there are two big societal topics you need to be familiar with. Female genital mutilation (FGM)-- warning, potentially not safe for work and upsetting -- and the "Missing women of China". Once you are aware that not every gender issue is about what gender you identify as or what gender you prefer, you can shake off the mis-aligned perspective and enjoy the deft handling of gender inequality.
FGM is not something I'll go into detail about here. It's a non-medical modification akin to circumcision, but significantly more disruptive to the person's life. It's a highly charged issue, mixing up non- consensual body modification with religious freedom and gender inequality. The show, quite understandably, doesn't mention it directly, just the more common and less controversial male circumcision.
Missing women of China is a side effect of China's one-child policy and, again, a gender inequality issue that leads parents to wanting that one child to be a boy. For every 100 female births recorded, there are 113.5 male births. This is done by a variety of methods including sex-selective abortion and infanticide, the latter of which is touched on in the show.
Go Google these things. I'll wait.
Now that we have the actual issues nailed down, and we're not judging the show on the handling of an issue it wasn't about, we can look at the flow of the show itself. It followed a series of beats common in old-school Trek, particularly Next Generation. A holodeck scene where they actually acknowledge they're just playing a game that can be as silly as anyone wants. A medical scene poking fun at inter-species sex with the most human-sounding and least human-looking crew member. The change of heart of a single crew member through arguably the dumbest metaphor you could come up with, which is a satire of all the dumb ways Trek (and sci-fi in general) has changed the mind of an alien (see the scene about sneezing in My Step-Mother Is An Alien). A showdown in space that turns into a court drama -- and people criticising the court drama need to understand that the arguments are very rarely persuasive in this genre. The courtroom is a place for questions, not answers and the resolution of it is always through some big reveal.
To the show's credit, the human perspective does not win and there's no last-minute intervention that resolves it in the favour of the side you would expect. It's an alien culture that doesn't change its mind after one court drama or one small shock.
This was an episode worthy of Star Trek and has made me sad that a great show set in the future got stuck in the past. I hope The Orville gets a long run, not only because it scratches an itch for me that I'd long given up on, but because if half the reviews of this episode are any example, the world needs another perspective.