----- Original Message ----- From: Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net
Fiona said:
The point of the exercise, in "Duel," was to place the life of somebody Blake cared about in danger, so that should he fail in his responsibility for this person, it would hurt him badly. Since Jenna was chosen over Avon, it's safe to assume that his feelings for the former were stronger than for the latter...
Or then again, that Sinofar and Giroc's gaydar wasn't tripped...or that they were so happy together that they couldn't stand breaking up anybody's partnership.
1) Being supernatural beings, I'd imagine they'd have a better way than gaydar to work out who likes whom.
2) I reiterate that the point of the exercise was to put someone Blake cared about at risk, so that, should they be hurt, Blake would also be hurt badly. If you want to take that message across, and you have a choice of five people, of varying degrees of emotional closeness, to put at risk, it doesn't make sense not to pick the one whose pain would cause the duelist the most distress. I.e., the person whom they care about the most. Otherwise, they might just as well have put Zen down on the planet with him...
Travis ends up with a mutoid, it's true, but there's not a lot of choice on his ship... and interestingly it seems to be a mutoid whom he knew (or at least knew of) in her prior existance, so who knows.
I'd point out that bisexuals I know tend to express their straight side when in an opposite-sex relationship, and their gay side when in a same-sex relationship,
Are you sure that we have two different sides?
<HUGE SIGH>
OK. Bisexuals I know tend to express the *straight end of their sexual continuum* when in an opposite sex relationship, and the *gay end of their sexual continuum* when in a same-sex relationship. It still reads.
way or the other for homophobia in the Federation,
It's such a vile place that I figure they have the lot-- homophobia, racism, chocolate rationing...
Not racism, surely? According to the episode "Traitor," there existed the "stock equalization act," a Federation law which ensured that when a planet was colonized, each race from Earth had to be fully represented in order to give a complete racial mix. Furthermore, Dayna's skin colour is never commented on in a racist way (and seldom remarked upon at all) in the series; interestingly, though, I have seen this done in fanfic...
Anyway, dictatorships tend to be a bit varied as to what they consider repressable and what not; the Ottoman Empire was actually very religiously tolerant for the time, after all, and not all of the fascist regimes in Europe in the mid-century were antisemitic.
regardless of the situation. If they are in a same-sex relationship and in a situation of intolerance, they will conceal this fact, but they won't suddenly switch to the other team just because of the environment.
A lot of biphobia is due to a belief that we will-- there are always issues of who to come out to, for what reason, but certainly the easier it is to pass the more tempting it can become.
But, if I've read you correctly, then you should know that it is just that: biphobia.
But this does raise a more valid point about the series. If the Federation is homophobic, then, if Blake is gay, why is he not showing it? He hates the Federation, after all, and he is on his own ship, in the company of other people with an equal amount of contempt for the Federation. Surely, if he has gay feelings, he not only has no reason to conceal these, but he has every reason to express them. Making it all the more telling that he doesn't...
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
_________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com