While I was reading this book my wife (who I’m near the end of a DS9 rewatch with) kept asking me how I found it. I kept replying ‘I don’t disagree with what it’s saying but…’

And I don’t disagree with the broad strokes of the arguments. Deep Space Nine contains a lot of progressive, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, queer themes that have been overlooked.

It’s still relevant in today’s political climate and watching it I genuinely I have to remind myself it was made pre 9/11.

But.

To make its point I feel like it often glosses over criticisms. For me that’s most obvious when it comes to feminism.

The book has a great analysis of the two parter Past Tense. Making a point that Dax, an attractive white woman, is able to leverage the damsel in distress trope to get help while Bashir and Sisko are detained.

Which is true. Not being white they would have a worse time of it. Not disputing that. But it doesn’t examine what it means to be a damsel in distress. The risk of SA and other violence a woman in that situation might face.

At another point the genetically engineered character Lauren is described as ‘hysterical’. She’s written poorly from a feminist standpoint. But if we’re going to use an old school misogynistic psychology word to describe her it would be nymphomaniac. In reality she’s smart, institutionalised and horny on main, but the episode plays it off like it’s a big deal. I just don’t like hysterical being used to describe a very rational woman who has been kept in an institution most of her life.

I feel like I’m nitpicking. Like I said at the beginning I agreed with the broad strokes of the analysis. But.

I’m never very confident reading poetry, never mind reviewing it, but this felt special to me.

For one thing I felt like I could almost hear them. The voice was so strong.

It’s great for an existential crisis. In this collection power is hollow, life is full of wandering, not fitting in. And then, of course, we all die.