In what is considered one of the most sexist episodes of The Next Generation, the Enterprise crew looks for survivors of a freighter crash on the planet Angel One. On this non-Federation planet, only women were hunter, leading to their current positions of power, supposedly because they are larger and physically stronger than the men. The end result is a highly divided and sexist society in which women are regarded as superior and men are treated like dirt. When Commander Riker leads the away team on a diplomatic meeting to explain the nature of their mission, it is clear that he is a second class citizen. The survivors of the freighter crash are eventually found, all men, and they had set up a colony in which they had been thriving quite well on their own. Due to the roots they established between themselves and with the locals, they do not want to leave. If sufficiently contained, they should not have been a problem, however their beliefs and example have sown ideas of discontent and rebellion among the people of Angel One.
Through its cartoonishly exaggerated sexism, “Angel One” argues that any sexual dimorphism, meaning a physical difference between the male and female of a species, would naturally result in the bigger and stronger of the two being the more dominant socially. However, is this really the case? We are tempted to assume that might makes right, and bigger individuals will always be able to overpower any competitors, and provide for the tribe, but evolution is more complex. The traits which help a species best survive the environmental pressures at the time are not necessarily strength and size. Especially for social animals, complex behavioral strategies can lend themselves to completely different ‘gender roles’. Several species on Earth model this diversity, with lions, bonobos, and emperor penguins being just a few examples. Lionesses are the primary hunters, with their smaller size giving them advantages in stealth and ambush. Likewise, male chimpanzees and bonobos both tend to be larger than the females, but one species developed into a matriarchy, while the other is a patriarchy. This at least suggests that size and strength had little to do with the emergence of either social structure. Lastly, emperor penguins only have slightly larger males, but they are still doing most of the egg care while the females are hunting.
Earth is filled with examples of animals finding whatever creative solution helps them survive. Overall, there seems to be no clear indication that the larger or stronger of the group will be the hunters or socially dominant. This is why the rebellion brewing on Angel One is so threatening, their entire system is based on a lie. If the larger and stronger group is not naturally entitled to their power, said power must have originated from another circumstance. On Earth, patriarchal societies emerged when civilizations began to concern themselves with wealth accumulation and passing assets down familial lines. Since it was impossible for a man to know if a child was biologically his before the age of paternity testing, the reproductive capacity of women had to be tightly controlled. This was how women themselves became an asset, as well as the children and the wealth. If something similar happened on Angel One, it would stand to reason that the people in power would fight to protect a system from which they benefit.
When the marooned colonists are located, Riker makes a plea for them to not be executed in an attempt to stop the rebellion. His speech is reminiscent of George Orwell’s thesis in 1984, explaining why it is impossible to kill a martyr. The survivors on Angel One represent an idea, and killing them won’t kill the idea, which has now permeated society. Their sexist system was always doomed to fail, because the thesis it is based on is not rooted in nature. If it only takes one idea to collapse a system, then it was only a matter of time.
Hopeless Trekkie 