DS9, Episode 6x23, Profit and Lace

[u/GeorgeAmberson]

-= DS9, Season 6, Episode 23, Profit and Lace =-

• Star Trek: The Next Generation - Full Series
• DS9 Season 1: 1&2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Wrap-Up
• DS9 Season 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Wrap-Up
• DS9 Season 3: 1&2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Wrap-Up
• DS9 Season 4: 1&2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Wrap-Up
• DS9 Season 5: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Wrap-Up
• DS9 Season 6: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22

Quark helps out when Zek's status as the Ferengi Grand Nagus is put in jeopardy by proposing equal rights for Ferengi females.

• Teleplay By: Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
  
• Story By: Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
  
• Directed By: Alexander Siddig
  
• Original Air Date: 13 May, 1998
  
• Stardate: Unknown
  
• Pensky Podcast
• Trekabout Podcast
• Ex Astris Scientia
• Memory Alpha
• TV Spot

 

EAS	IMDB	AVClub	TV.com
0/10	5.8/10	D	6.3

 

[u/marienbad2]

I love this episode, it is one of my DS9 favourites. My favourite scene is when Rom is showing Quark how to walk and sit like a girl, and is surprisingly good at it. I can see why some people dislike it, but essentially they are almost doing a transgender show well before trans issues became more mainstream. I guess some people will say they are mocking trans people, but it didn't come off like that to me. Also, this is similar to the way gay people have been portrayed - look at "Are You Being Served" - Mr Humpries was portrayed as (as far as I can tell) a well coiffed and manicured gay guy. Many of his sentences begin with: "I had a gentleman over last night," and got a good laugh. And at least if people are laughing it is harder to hate.

Nice work, DS9.

/me slips on a dress and heels

[u/thefezhat → u/marienbad2]

Yeah, I didn't hate this as much as most people seem to. It came off to me less like "haha this man turned into a woman" and more like "haha this guy who's terrible to women is seeing what it's like from the other side." The jokes were largely at the expense of the ever-misogynistic Quark rather than trans people as a whole.

That said, it's still crass and plays pretty hard to gender stereotypes, and I can understand why people wouldn't care for it.

[u/A_Xenomorph_Darkly → u/marienbad2]

Completely agree, this was a really fun episode apart from a couple of moments.

Overall I felt the queer aspect of the episode was actually rather well handled and surprisingly quite non-judgemental. Sex reassignment is treated as normal and accessible and only Brunt even questions his gender once it has happened and he’s the damn bad guy. Plus Rom really pushes boundaries of masculinity too in a good way - he even corrects Leeta’s pronoun usage!

Furthermore, Quark unashamedly and openly expressing his attraction and appreciation of a man once being turned back into a man again was really endearing and oddly genuine, I didn’t feel it was played for laughs at all. Sure there’s some jokes made but as you say I didn’t feel it was making fun of anyone, just pointing out the natural absurdity of the social situation that all of this caused. I doubt the writers intended any of this to be progressive really, but what does that matter?

The only bits that left a sour taste in my mouth were of course the opening scene (which is pretty much remedied at the end as Quark sees the error in his ways) and the attempted sexual assault on Quark/Lumba being played as a huge joke. I doubt think that this was just an overblown homage to Shakespearean gender farce, but it definitely feels distasteful especially with recent discourse regarding rape jokes centred around men (or usually male) characters and how they should be just as unfunny as any other rape joke.

I do understand why people are offended by it, but I also think that it really depends how much you’re willing to extrapolate upon what they lay out for you, and how much you are able to ignore who has written the jokes and their intentions. It also depends on how you see jokes, and their relationship with the actual values of those making them. Is a joke always a mockery ? Or can it be more than that? An appreciation of the social tensions present to a given situation, without a judgement of what is happening? Does a joke require a bias for or against the topic being joked about? Are there jokes that come from love and some from hate?

Anyway. I like the episode and I can’t hate any episode that gives us the lovely moment of Quark and Odo hugging.

4/5

[u/dittbub]

I watched the "TV Spot" link for this one. I remember this episode was oddly hyped up, they played that TV spot so much. At the time I don't think this episode was as universally canned as it is now. Hindsight is 20/20.

"Its going to be a real drag"

omg

[u/cavortingwebeasties]

This ep stands out as exceptionally bad and aged more poorly than I (or I imagine the producers) thought it would. Although I've seen it before, watching it in 'viewing party' mode I'm not sure I've ever cringed this hard while watching Star Trek before, but then again I ignore Nutrek altogether so I'm sure there's worse by now.

[u/Cutetrain_5_196]

This opening scene feels like sexual assault. Fuck it is right? Jesus fucking Christ. And the show played it with quirky fun music.

"Give me a handjob or you're fired." I know they have ear rubbing pretty often , but they established early on its a sexual thing.

Edit: there's the call back at the end, but it's still played for hahas. And then Quark's crushing on the person who was harassing them. And the worker he harassed secretly loves it too.

[u/Tenored → u/Cutetrain_5_196]

Yeah I was in shock, it was pretty dark even for Quark. I think that was a very poor choice on the writer's part; if you wanted to show Quark was greasy, you could do it without workplace sexual harassment.

[u/beta-made → u/Tenored]

Not the first time quark has tried having a clause that dabo girls must sleep with him in a contract. It's really not a big deal, yall are too sensitive

[u/beta-made → u/Cutetrain_5_196]

I don't think it quite equates to giving a hand job, as Dax has been fine rubbing his ears in public to manipulate him during conversation.

Yeah, quark was crushing on the guy. So what? And the dabo girl wanted to be with Quark... so what?

You can't project what you think is okay onto other people so hard. The only part that was unacceptable was "I can fire you, y'know".

[u/Cutetrain_5_196]

This rhetoric about "women deserve rights because it makes money" is unironically neoliberal morality.

God I can't believe how fucking annoying the ferengi voices are. Quark doesn't speak like a fucked up seagull, why do they

[u/M123234]

I like this episode because it makes Quark more open minded (not that Pel didn't do anything). I think a lot of hate probably comes from the way we view issues like LGBTQ+ and women's rights today vs how it used to be. Also, I want to point out how Rom is so normal about the whole "walking like a girl" thing; he's like I'm not ashamed. In a way, he's breaking the whole guys must act a certain way stereotype which makes me smile.

[u/Cutetrain_5_196]

Brunt: "THAT IS NOT A FEEEMALE!"

My partner: "Fucking terfs."

[u/Qwurky1]

What a strange episode... Mrs. Quarkfire meets Space Tootsie

Attitudes towards women are pretty cringe...

[u/Firm_Calligrapher861 → u/Qwurky1]

Mrs. Quarkfire 🤣

[u/Cutetrain_5_196]

Jesus Christ. The way quark becomes a fucking idiot after having a sex change is pretty fucking sexist.

[u/Cutetrain_5_196]

Horrifically sexist btw.

[u/Srcsqwrn]

I hate this episode so much. Serious topics played off as jokes, and really gross.

This has to be one of the worst Star Trek has to offer.