Failing Femininity @sissikuk - Tumblr Blog

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH YAAYYYY

to fight my artblock i decided to redraw some gerard p donelan comics as ds9. but once i started i could not stop....

so heres all deep space 9 of them. lol. again the poses and captions are lifted straight from his comics all i did was put space guys on there! please enjoy

(id in alt text btw!)

pussyhoundspock

it's actually SO crazy that quark and odo have been playing homoerotic psychosexual cop and robber hornygames through THREE regime changes on deep space nine. when u takeover that space station in that corner of the galaxy the unpleasant and offputting gay couple STAYS on.

woofsonofmoog

Modern Star Trek needs to stop being so concerned with looking cool and return to its roots of being about horny nerds doing diplomacy in pajamas.

vbartilucci

Don't let anyone tell you that seeing someone like you on television isn't important.

sesamestreep

DS9 as a show dares to ask the important questions, like for example “would Star Trek still be good if it was set at the food court at the mall??” and the answer to that is “yes, and actually it will somehow be better”

mooniicorn

“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”

We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”

iamthethunder

Or “little Jonathan doesn’t talk but does a good job herding the sheep, contributes to the community in his own way, and is, all around, a decent guy.” That happened a lot, too, especially before the 19th century.

rosslynpaladin

Or, backing up FURTHER

and lots of people think this very likely,

“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”

The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.

To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science) indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.

Given this evidence, and how common we now know autism actually is, the Changeling myth is almost definitely the result of people’s confusion at the development of autistic children.

vicecommanderhijikata

Weirdly enough, that legend is now comforting to me.

neddythestylish

I think it’s worth noting that many like me, who are diagnosed with ASD now, would probably have been seen as just a bit odd in centuries past. I’m only a little bit autistic; I can pass for neurotypical for short periods if I work really hard at it. I have a lack of talent in social situations, and I’m prone to sensory overload or you might notice me stimming.

But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.

I’m not trying to romanticise the past because I know it was hard, dirty work with a constant risk of premature death. I don’t actually want to be a 16th century farmer! What I’m saying is that disability exists in the context of the environment. Our environment isn’t making people autistic in the sense of some chemical causing brain damage. But we have created a modern environment which is hostile to autistic people in many ways, which effectively makes us more disabled. When you make people more disabled, you start to see more people struggling, failing at school because they’re overwhelmed, freaking out at the sound of electric hand dryers and so on. And suddenly it looks like there’s millions more autistic people than existed before.

grace-and-ace

“…disability exists in the context of the environment.”

coldalbion

Reblog for disability commentary.

oockitty

That last paragraph is absolutely important.

hazeldomain

“How come nobody ever heard of ‘dyslexia’ until widespread literacy became a thing?”

yesterdaysprint

Life magazine, February 1916

apolesen

Fixing the Changeling Bashir Timeline. Or: Uniform Changes and Bedside Manner

Common wisdom is that Bashir was kidnapped and replaced by a Changeling between The Ascent and Rapture, as when he appears in the prison-camp, he is wearing the old uniform.

However, I would like to propose that that is not the case. Christopher L. Bennett, who writes tie-in novels, has pointed out that the timeline does not add up. Consider:

The Begotten takes place at least three weeks after The Darkness and the Light (in the latter Kira says that she is due in three weeks, and she gives birth in The Begotten)

The Begotten takes place during at least one week (Bennett says two, but I can only find that the baby Changeling has been with Odo for a week, so let’s say a week)

Kirayoshi was born “less than a month” before Purgatory’s Shadow.

Bashir says in Purgatory’s Shadow that he was captured “over a month ago”.

Let’s draw up a timeline based on this. This counts weeks from the end of The Darkness and the Light.

START - The Darkness and the Light

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4 - The Begotten

Week 5

Week 6 - (For the Uniform somewhere here)

Week 7

Week 8 ~ In Purgatory’s Shadow

We don’t know the gap between Rapture and The Darkness and the Light. Even if there is virtually no time in between, the timeline doesn’t add up if Bashir was impersonated by a Changeling for four weeks (as Bashir says in Purgatory’s Shadow) but this started before Rapture.

What is it that dates Bashir’s abduction to before Rapture? The fact that he’s in the old uniform. That is all.

So, let us say that Bashir was not abducted before Rapture, but sometime before The Begotten. Why is he in the old uniform? Bennett calls this “a paradox”. I do not agree. For this we have to look at how uniform changes in Starfleet happen.

For this part, I will be referring to uniform by numbers in the order they were rolled out (as terms like “TNG uniform” and “DS9/VOY uniform” are often confusing and feel odd when discussing things in-verse):

Uniform type I - the uniform seen in TNG. Black shoulders, division colour beneath, no visible undershirt.

Uniform type II - the uniform seen in Voyager and DS9 series 1-4. Division colours on shoulders, the rest black, grey undershirt.

Uniform type III - the uniform seen in DS9 series 5-7 and the TNG films. Grey shoulders, the rest black, division colours on undershirt.

The Emissary, Way of the Warrior and TNG Birth Right part 1 show that uniform changes are not done all at once. In The Emissary, we see Bashir and Dax in Uniform type I when they first arrive, and then change into Uniform type II. The same goes for Sisko.

In Birth Right, Bashir wears a type II uniform at the same time as the Enterprise crew wear type I.

In Way of the Warrior, when Worf turns up, he is still in Uniform type I, while the Deep Space Nine crew are in Uniform type II.

I propose that uniform changes happen gradually, not all at once. Deep Space Nine (the station not the show) undergoes uniform changes earlier than the Enterprise. If you stationed on Deep Space Nine, you are supposed to wear Uniform type II, and if you work on the Enterprise, you wear Uniform type I. If you are visiting, like when Worf and Geordi go over to Deep Space Nine or Bashir goes onboard the Enterprise, you don’t change your uniform for that short time.

So why would Bashir change from Uniform type III to Uniform type II?

We can find the answer in Homefront. Here is Sisko when he is acting head of Starfleet Security:

Like Captain Benteen (who is stationed on Earth), Sisko is in Uniform type I. Earlier in this episode, when Sisko is on Deep Space Nine, he is in Uniform type II. However, as soon as he comes to Earth, he changes into Uniform type I. This implies that it is about maintaining uniformity and making things like ranks easier to tell. The difference between this and the other cases when people do not change is that when Sisko goes to Earth, is a longer stay and a much more official one.

So my suggestion is this. At the time around The Begotten, Deep Space Nine has already changed to Uniform type III, but other parts of Starfleet are still wearing Uniform type II. Therefore, when Bashir goes to the burn treatment conference on Meezan IV, he changes from Uniform type III to type II. It is an official occasion, he is on duty and there is probably going to be a lot of Starfleet people. Deep Space Nine seems to be one of the first places where new uniforms are introduced, so it is plausible that many other participants will still be in Uniform type II. This explains how Bashir would be in his old uniform despite having left after the uniform change.

What is more, it makes much more sense that Bashir is not abducted until just before The Begotten. Let’s consider what he is up to and how he acts during the first four episodes after the uniform change.

In Rapture, he treats Sisko, eventually performing brain surgery. In The Darkness and the Light, he examines Kira and he treats her for a placental laceration and a haemorrhage. In The Begotten, Bashir treats Odo for a bad back - he also mentions treating Odo a week earlier for stomach trouble. He treats the baby Changeling too, first putting it through a electrophoretic diffuser to purge the radiation that was making it ill, and then later trying to save it when it is dying. Also, he briefly examines Kira (but he does not deliver Kirayoshi, as many claim, including Memory Alpha - that is the midwife Y’Pora who does). In For The Uniform, Bashir does not appear at all.

If we compare what Bashir does in Rapture and The Darkness and the Light to what he does in The Begotten, there is a noticeable difference. The stuff he does in the first two episodes are complex. Furthermore, throughout these episodes he is gentle and reassuring to his patients. In The Begotten, we do not see that kindness. He jokes around with Odo, but in retrospect, there seems to be an edge to it. When he tells Odo the baby Changeling is dying, there is none of the vulnerability we see when he breaks similar bad news to Kira in Life Support or the crew in Tears of the Prophets. The most of the medicine he does is Changeling-related, either the baby or Odo. He only sees Kira briefly, and when he leaves it is abrupt, saying that he is very busy. When he leaves, we see O’Brien give him a surprised, maybe even hurt look. Perhaps he wanted his best friend around for this. As for his absence in For the Uniform, this too might be an attempt not to have to interact with people very much, as it could give him away.

Bashir in The Begotten does not act like the Bashir we know. He removes himself from emotional and/or social situations quickly, leaving other medical personnel (Y’Pora) in charge. Overall, his bedside manner is lacking. Not only does he not act like the Bashir we know - he does not act like the Bashir in the previous two episodes. In those, he feels much more himself.

Based on this - the chronology based on dialogue, Starfleet uniform customs and how Bashir acts like himself in two episodes but not the third - we can make the following timeline:

Uniform change on Deep Space Nine occurs

Rapture (Actual Bashir)

The Darkness and the Light (Actual Bashir)

Circa three weeks later: Actual Bashir is abducted from a conference. Changeling Bashir returns to Deep Space Nine.

Circa one week later: The Begotten (Changeling Bashir)

Circa four weeks pass. For the Uniform happens during this time. (Changeling Bashir, but not seen on screen.)

Circa four weeks after The Begotten: In Purgatory’s Shadow (Changeling Bashir on the station, Actual Bashir in Gamma Quadrant.)

This means that it is the real Julian Bashir who we see in Rapture and The Darkness and The Light. The Changeling posing as Bashir does not turn up until The Begotten.

Sources:

Screenshots: Trekcore

Opinions and quotes of Christopher L. Bennett: Memory Alpha, article “Julian Bashir (Changeling)”.

sigynpenniman

Okay let’s talk about changeling Bashir. I despise changeling Bashir. Good plot? Yes. Extremely uncomfortable watching? also yes. Y’all know how I feel about Julian (I mean if you’re following this blog you can’t not). I have a pretty serious trust relationship with this (completely fictional) character and I cannot even EXPLAIN how much changeling Bashir made me want to crawl out of my skin. Just knowing that that Julian is also not!Julian…ew. I wish I had a camera on my face when real Bashir turned back up in Purgatory’s because I sorta squeaked. I can’t remember the last time I was so happy to see a character turn back up.

I like this timeline, and I think it makes perfect sense. To be clear, I already knew about the changeling plotline - it wasn’t a surprise or anything, I knew exactly where the changeling episodes started (hence why watching them so wildly uncomfortable - I already knew Julian wasn’t Julian). I had the thought that Begotten Bashir is a little…cold, somehow, (especially when dealing with the infant changeling - there’s almost no way real!Julian would have been so disaffected by that whole incident) and actually while watching that I already knew that was explicitly because he ISN’T actually Julian. Compare also what Julian’s like when we see him again in Purgatory’s - if you’ve just watched Begotten it’s like night and day. As soon as we see him in Purgatory’s he starts comforting everyone and taking care of everyone - THAT’S our boy right there. I think something untwisted in my heart when he started fussing over everybody.

I think this timeline makes more sense than the MemoryAlpha timeline because 1. the numbers add up 2. I agree that Begotten Bashir is different from the previous two episodes and most importantly 3. Something which isn’t mentioned here - changelings don’t copy skills.

Nowhere is it explained or stated that the changelings can automatically do everything the people they’re copying can do. They can copy personalities sort of okayish, but I don’t think skills, especially extremely complex and trained ones, are things they automatically gain. I almost do not believe that a changeling could’ve done that brain surgery on the Captain. They make it very clear that it’s extremely complex and risky and that only a very skilled surgeon would be able to pull it off. Let’s not forget Julian’s genetically enhanced hand-eye coordination here, which is also relevant. Not only do I not think a changeling could have done that surgery, I’m not sure many - if any - other humans could have. So you’ve got an incredibly complex and delicate surgical procedure, which could only be attempted by a human with years and years of training and knowledge, and on top of that in this case the person who would be attempting it has an edge over even equally trained humans. The surgery goes off without a hitch - imo, there’s just no way a changeling could have done this. So I agree - I totally support this timeline where Rapture Julian is Real!Julian - it makes more sense than the alternative.