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Questions Raised about Memory Alpha

Discussion about the non-binary character, Adira Tal, rasied questions on Memory Alpha.

By Three of Seven Sat 09 Jan, 2021 1:51 PM
Star Trek has often been a series which has pushed boundries, from the very start, there were people, and ideas introduced that went against the social norms of the day. Many of these issues raised in the past, we might not question as much today, but with the newer Star Treks, whether you like them or not, they do still raise ideas against social norms.

Last year, Discovery was set to introduce their first transgender character, and non-binary character, the latter has caused a discussion to erupt on the Memory Alpha wiki. Many will know of Memory Alpha, as it has often been a trusted source to go to for Star Trek information, find canon information, yet in the case of the character Adira Tal, you wouldn't know they were non-binary unless you went all the way down to "Background Information".

On Twitter, Dean Jones commented that the admins of Memory Alpha were "refusing to remove Gender: Female from the page of a non-binary character", as you can see from the Tweet on the right. With a number of images attached, showing a lack of professionalism in discussions, in one image, you see an admin saying "You could also learn to indent properly so the adults here don't have to keep cleaning up after you like the child you're acting like.", even if this discussion is frustrating for the admins, some level of professionalism should be kept.

At one point in the Twitter thread, Anthony Rapp got involved, after being called in, to say that he sent a DM, and a little later, Wilson Cruz responded to ask if he had heard back, or if a follow up was needed. Sometime between these comments, the page for Adira Tal was updated to include a reference to being non-binary in the background information, and it also led to the admin team changing the infoboxes.

As a solution, rather than allowing the use of "Non-binary" in the sidebar, the decision was made to remove gender altogether, perhaps because the idea was too far against the current social norms, and has resulted in such a heated debate. The policy employed in this specific case overall however, was inconsistent, as we can see if we look at the Soren page. Before the gender part was removed from the side panel, Soren had the following "[[Female]] (assigned at birth as [[androgynous]])", as we know, the J'naii species is androgynous, but in the episode of TNG, The Outcast, Soren identified as female, and fell in love with Riker. This poses the question of why non-binary seemed so difficult to put in.

This whole situation has left a bad taste in the mouths of many, it's not just the debate on gender, it's how it has also exposed the lack of professionalism by those running Memory Alpha, but moving forward from this, there are lessons that can be learnt, and it's always a good idea to keep an open mind. In the wise words of Captain Disillusion, "Love with your heart. Use your head for everything else"!

WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
11 Comments
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 3:09 PM
When it shows up as blatantly as this, you know that the same attitude has pervaded any decision that wasn't as noticeable by these same people.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 3:22 PM
I'm genuinely surprised to read about that. I hope that they take this incident to heart and do some serious soul searching
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 3:43 PM
I saw this tweet circulating on twitter and I have to say I’m appalled at the behaviour at the Memory Alpha admins, its just unacceptable in the modern world. I feel like removing the gender section from all wiki entries was the wrong way to handle this. I’m sorry but the character of Adira Tal is non-binary and played by a trans actor, that information should be prominently shown because its a fact.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 3:47 PM
They should have changed it to avoid all the drama, but that's what it is unnecessary drama.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 4:12 PM
I saw this tweet circulating on twitter and I have to say I’m appalled at the behaviour at the Memory Alpha admins, its just unacceptable in the modern world. I feel like removing the gender section from all wiki entries was the wrong way to handle this. I’m sorry but the character of Adira Tal is non-binary and played by a trans actor, that information should be prominently shown because its a fact.
Small correction, Blu del Barrio is non-binary themselves. Ian Alexander (who played Gray) is transgender. It sounds like the admins of MA just made this entire mess themselves instead of just leaving things as they were and including the options.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 5:26 PM
We live in a modern world with some old fashioned people I guess.
Strange that they have a problem with that at the memory alpha staff.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 6:01 PM
MA is a funny old place., Last year they had a mahoosive round of arguments about how to record Picard after the first season on his show; they really do not seem to always act terribly sensibly over there.

I think the best course of action would have been to just go with what the cast member wanted if it's about them personally, or with whatever the writing team decided upon as that's the canon answer. No use muddying the water with silly personal decisions based on the admin's view. It's not their call to make what the writers wanted the character to be identified as.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 6:05 PM
Unfortunately, the MA admins have long operated in their own little self-important bubble. This is true of most of the well-traveled wikis over at Fandom (fka Wikia). They pride themselves on the fact that they are an important resource, used by so many Trek writers and authors throughout the years, and that's led to a sense of over-inflated worth and ego. Often times, problems brought to their attention are bothersome nits; minimized and dismissed. I'm actually glad that after so many years of this kind of behavior, Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz are calling them out for it. I hope this results in some major change, but I feel that once this dies down, they'll return to their default perspective.

It's okay to dislike Discovery, but speaking as a technical writer, you can't let your personal opinion of your subject matter cloud your judgment when constructing and maintaining a long-term reference. You end up with a poor product as a result.

-- Kyuu
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 6:06 PM
Disappointing but not surprising.
Sat 09 Jan, 2021 7:52 PM
Out of curiosity I looked around the Memory Alpha site to see what I could find about the admin team. I expected to find it was maybe just a handful of people that made this poor choice, but according to the list on their site there are around 50 admins active as of their last list update. A professional chronicler should check their beliefs and record their subject matter free of any biases they may personally hold, so for so many to fail to recognize this issue up front AND fail so miserably at resolving it once the team was called out for it is ridiculous. The fact that the subject here was Star Trek, which strives to portray a future humanity that has risen above and beyond this petty behavior makes this failure all the more tragic.
Sun 10 Jan, 2021 11:09 AM
I think you should see memory alpha as a Star Trek version of Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, not all of the information is always correct cause some people don’t check their sources. It even happens in the local press so ...