#mesk

★ | Mesksexual: A deep and primarily exclusive attraction to men, nonbinary, and masculine-aligned people, with only rare or infrequent experiences of attraction toward women and feminine-aligned people.

݁˖꩜ Term coined by: oaasray . ݁⊹

Nuff said.

All three apply in the case of the first photo for those who are confused.

You know, in retrospect it’s obvious Mesk wasn’t a “real” Orion.

I’ve realized long time ago that the Star Trek shows are often delving into cultures of certain ST races, due to supporting or reaccuring characters coming from said races. These characters helped to make those cultures a bit deeper. We never saw Klingons the same way again after commander Worf; and we certainly looked differently at Ferengi after all those “Ferengi Episodes” of DS9.

I was kind of hoping that Lower Decks will do the same for Orions, because of Tendi... but so far we keep on repeating the same theme of Tendi not wanting for her culture to be associated with piracy and thievery, even though (aside from the holoprogram in the pilot) we only see this pirating and thieving side of  Orion.

But see, in today’s episode we meet Mesk, an Orion who was raised by humans and all his knowledge of Orion culture was taken from holonovels. He is proud of his culture and tries to have some kind of connection with it... but he has very shallow view on it. So much so that Tendi - who wants to distance herself from this part of her heritage - is slowly growing annoyed by it.

Now, TVTropes compares it to Worf’s situation, because he was adopted by humans too and tried to maintain connection with his Klingon roots. However, I would argue that we can also compare it to Quark’s situation (at least to some extend).

Because what’s Quark’s situation on DS9? He, his brother and nephew are far away from Ferenginar, on a station currently ran by Federation. Often, throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he tries to maintain old Ferengi traditions, especially in regards to Nog, but he keeps on finding himself acting very human-like, i.e. against his better interest. It also gets him in trouble with FCA, because for Brunt Quark and his family are cultural traitors.

At face value, Ferengi culture displayed and maintained by Quark is very stereotypical - it’s all about profits and business and opportunities, with shades of ruthless capitalism and misogyny. However, with each “Ferengi Episode” we get to see non-stereotypical actions and deeds from Quark, Rom, Nog and other Ferengi. We get to see them not as just greedy gremlins; and see some nuance in their culture. 

Today’s Autistic character of the day is:

Mesk from Star Trek: Lower Decks

Shh! I’m pirating!/Woah you just did that with a wine opener!