This Year's Model of Humanity

On one hand I feel slightly bad for Warren because he doesn't realise how messed up he actually is, then you see what April experiences, the lack of choice she has in her actions and the fact that she is incapable of seeing the cruelty in her situation. This episode was painful to watch - although the actors did great work.

Did you see the ST:TNG episode where there was this race of people where once every hundred years or so, a female is born who is telepathic and genetically predisposed to meld or form herself to the men or man around her? The point is, she can change who she is, adapting as necessary, until she reaches a certain age, and then she permanently "becomes" the perfect woman to one specific man. It's important that she has already met her intended by then, so that it is him she melds to.

In the episode, one such woman was to be given to the king of a race that had been feuding with them for decades, as a peace-offering, but through an accident, she came out of stasis early. She spends the first half of the episode wandering around the Enterprise reading the males' thoughts, discovering what they want in a female, and becoming exactly that. Like, when she walks by Worf, she growls. Of course, she doesn't have to do anything to get Reiker interested, but I think she catches Geordi's eye by being brilliant in general. Anyway, the Captain realizes how volitile this is, and takes her in seclusion. She finds herself melding to him, but because Picard is so bound to duty, honor, and "doing the right thing", she ends up going to the king, knowing she must please him to end the war between their peoples.

I remember the episode got a lot of flack, for obvious reasons, but in this universe, the woman was truly happy to please her man. She did not feel trapped. And since the man did not mistreat her (it was made clear that the king would appreciate and cherish her), where's the bad?

It makes a "compare and contrast" to this Buffy episode. In both of these episodes, we have women shaping themselves to be the perfect woman for a man, but with two very different outcomes. At first, I was thinking it was a matter of choice: April was programmed to be the was she was, whereas the woman in ST:TNG was acting of her own choice. But then, if her behavior is genetic, isn't that similar to being "programmed"?

Perhaps it has more to do with the men in question. Warren was a slime (less so in this ep than in others, but still ultimately selfish). Picard, and to a lesser extent the king, were generous and had this young woman's well-being at heart as well. So the whole "giving of oneself" that we women tend to do only works if our SO is also giving of themselves.

Ok, I've rambled enough in your space. Yes, it's a brilliant episode. Thanks for sharing.

Ugh - there are so many great Buffy eps that I'd kind of forgotten that one. Just thinking about Warren still makes my skin crawl.

ETA: I should specify that ITA this was a fantastic ep, but wow did they push every button for feminist disgust in that arc.