#disabled julian bashir

[captainjimothy]

personally i do think julian bashir is trans, but not in a way that sublimates his genetic alterations into a trans allegory. i think he's disabled and trans at the same time, but i think his rebellion against his parents--the symbolic death of his old self with the name change--that's not about gender, for him, at all.

it's about the incredible violation of autonomy he experienced as a disabled person under the knife of a eugenicist society. it's about the need to reclaim some, any, of the agency that was so completely stolen from him by his parents.

it's about discovering that his entire self was deconstructed and reconstructed, without his knowledge or consent, for the express purpose of being less of a burden on his parents.

because let's not forget that the death of julian's old self was not his decision. it was his parents who killed the old self and created a new one.

let's not forget that human society in star trek is still recovering from the eugenics wars--that just because it's post-scarcity doesn't mean it's a utopia.

let's not forget the multiple episodes where bashir is forced to confront the fact that his "success story" is truthfully a gross reminder of how deeply his society (and his family) hates disabled people, not only shown in how they tried to fix him, but also in the fact that the process so rarely works as intended, yet is still done anyway--and the failures and the ones too far gone to save are locked away! with no connection to general society, and only the bare minimum provision for their physical needs, with no privacy and no autonomy!

and let's not forget that julian sees these people and is torn between the empathy he has for them, and his urge to fix them. and he goes through with this urge on Sarina, "fixing" her to conform to his idea of what she ought to be, treating her as a problem to be solved, objectifying her via "my ideal woman was trapped in this disabled body/mind and i saved her," thus continuing the cycle of violence, because even he can't conceive of a world where the disabled do not need to be fixed. where the violence done to him was wrong. fuck man

[moonhibs]

Au where Julian is a child of divorce

[cantorpike]

julian: when i was younger, i was terrified of doctors jadzia, laughing: really? julian: well they seemed to know everything. it was as if they held the power of life and death in their hands. i used to think that if i didn't behave, they'd make sure i got sick. then, as i got older, i decided that i wanted to know what they knew—be as smart as they were jadzia: and that's why you went to medical school julian: that's right

i'm fucking screaming and crying and sobbing this is literally even worse after finding out about all the medical trauma he went through as a kid. UGH

[1960z]

julian found out he was an augment at 15 and I’m sure he had a lot of (extremely justified) huge emotions about that but because of his age I can’t help imagining dealing with them in the most hilariously over the top teen agnsty way possible.

he’s writing bad poetry about it. he’s dying his hair black. he’s listening to this animal I have become by three days grace and monster by skillet on the shuttle to school. it’s amazing.

[autisticburnham]

It's admittedly been a year or two since I've watched Doctor Bashir, I Presume, so it's possible I'm forgetting something, but I don't understand why people act like Amsha Bashir is less guilty of genetically engineering and making Julian feel unwanted than Richard is. I mean, yes, the text does treat it that way with Richard going to prison and her not, but I tend to read that as a consequence of the gender politics of the 90s.

But I get the impression that people feel like Richard pressured and/or forced Amsha into going along with it. And I understand that people may be coming to that conclusion because Richard Yells. But the line that I find most upsetting in the entire episode is Amsha's line about how Julian understand how painful it is to have a disabled child and see them fall behind and how bad it makes you feel. Which is just so Autism Mom, and it very much reads to me like she was 100% on board with "fixing" him. And admittedly, I am clearly projecting my own issues onto that line, but I do nonetheless think that it is the intended reading that she was a fully consenting partner in genetically engineering him.

So am I missing something? Or am I just misreading the general consensus when I get the vibe that people think that if Amsha and Richard had gotten a divorce, it wouldn't have happened to Julian?

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4, Wave 2, Poll 2

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and round here.

Julian Bashir-Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Qualifications:

Disability: Along with being generally awkward with conversation and not knowing how to talk to people, a part of his backstory is that he was “underperforming” in school so his parents got him illegally genetically enhanced to “fix” him (in the show this is treated as a horrible fucked-up thing that they did LGBTQ+: He has a relationship with another male character on the show that everybody behind-the-scenes (except the homophobic producer) treated as canonically romantic. The homophobic producer had to tell the writers to stop putting Bashir and Garak in scenes together because they got along too well and he didn’t want the audience to think they were a couple. The non-homophobic producer said in a documentary looking back on DS9 that one of his biggest regrets about the show is not making the relationship actually canon.

He was canonically intellectually disabled as a child, which his parents attempted to "correct" with illegal gene editing. This eliminated his intellectual disability, but he displays many many autistic traits still (socially awkward, infodumps, hyperempathetic, echolalia, blunt). This lends itself to the popular interpretation that the gene editing couldn't "correct" his autism, but it did change exactly which autistic traits he had. One of his closest onscreen relationships is with Elim Garak, a relationship that both actors have since said is romantic in nature, and Andy Robinson (Garak's actor) has explicitly said he played Garak as being attracted to Bashir. There is also some possible evidence of Julian being trans; in one episode, he says this of a situation in which he had to transfer a fetus from one of his friends into another due to an emergency (paraphrased): "The fetus was in distress, and the only available candidates were Major Kira... and me." This line potentially implies he is capable of carrying a fetus. Furthermore, he canonically has a name that his parents used to call him that he refuses to answer to now (Jules). In-universe, this is due to him finding out about his genetic engineering, but it is very transgender of him.

Propaganda:

- He uses all of his free time to role play historical events with his best friend - He intentionally got one question wrong on his finals so that he wouldn’t be valedictorian - On like 5 separate occasions he gets invited to medical conferences then kidnapped on the way - Season 2 episode 22 “The Wire”

He is so awesome. Very autistic, very interesting character. He's an extremely caring doctor, to the point he once stayed on a plague-ridden planet with no futuristic tech, mixing medicine by hand for weeks in an attempt to cure the populace. Which he succeeds at, by the way!! He also, after finding a rogue group of former enemy soldiers who have managed to kick their dependence on the drug used by the enemy government to control them, Julian agrees to try to formulate a way for all of the soldiers to be free of their dependence. He only fails due to interference. Also, when Garak is suffering withdrawal from a brain implant, he stays by his bedside for days on end, caring for him, and even going to the heart of hostile territory to ask the head of the Space KGB how he can cure him. And that's not all! In addition to being a very dedicated (if often unethical) doctor, he is also a space tennis player! He has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth immediately upon meeting anyone new, and not just because of his canonical foot fetish! I'm not joking about that. It is canon.

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @convenient-plot-device is the second submitter.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus-The Locked Tomb

Qualifications:

She's a lesbian and the author Tamsyn Muir has confirmed she's written as schizophrenic, based on her own experience.

Okay SO Harrow is a necromancer nun who is also a huge lesbian. She spends the books of TLT series being super gay and repressed about her emotions for 1. Butch lesbian Jesus and 2. Human Barbie the death of God. She narrates the second book (Harrow the Ninth) and is author-confirmed schizophrenic. She experiences hallucinations thru the whole book and has since childhood. She’s also WIDELY headcannoned as autistic by the fandom (me too) because. Because she IS SO FUCKING AUTISTIC (source: I am autistic too)

Schizophrenic lesbian with a traumatic brain injury

Schizophrenic and sapphic

canonically a schizophrenic lesbian. neither word is used in series, she isn't in a position to get a diagnosis and queer identities are so normalised in the universe that labels just don't get mentioned, but she is written as both by an author who is also both.

Canon schizophrenia

Canon lesbian with canon schizophrenia

She's a schizophrenic lesbian with a traumatic brain injury

Propaganda:

The Locked Tomb is pretty popular on tumblr but I might as well submit her anyway

She’s a lesbian necromancer nun. She’s a saint and also woke up the death of God, who is a human Barbie, who she is in love with, tho she’s also kind of married to lesbian Jesus. She’s schizophrenic. She’s scrungly. She puts bread in a drawer. She’s even autistic

Harrow first started hallucinating (visual and auditory) when she was ten years old! The traumatic brain injury and seizures are much more recent. Unironically gotta love a pov protagonist who makes you struggle along with her in sorting out hallucination and false memory to figure out what's going on. Also while Harrow's disability shapes the narrative, the book isn't at all about her being disabled. It's a fantasy/scifi gothic horror novel about being trapped at a work retreat with God.

so many women want her but she’s determined to be in love with the soul of the dead earth trapped in a 10ft barbie doll instead. she’s a lesbian disaster and is trying to deal with both schizophrenia and over 200 actual ghosts haunting her.

a schizophrenic lesbian, written by a schizophrenic lesbian! she's in love with multiple dead women, but she's also a necromancer so that's not as big of an obstacle as it sounds. weird little bone-obsessed necromancer lesbian. I care about her deeply

Author Tamsyn Muir has discussed how Harrow's schizophrenia is modeled after her own experiences. It matters a lot in her eponymous novel, where her inability to trust what she sees and hears is compounded by her self-inflicted lobotomy to save her girlfriend's soul from getting absorbed into her own.

Harrow is one of the protagonists of her series & both her lesbianism & her schizophrenia play major parts in the story. The author has spoken about how she wrote Harrow based on her own experiences, and the authenticity comes through strongly. Beyond that, she's a teenage gothic nun in love with a holy corpse & she's the greatest bone magician ever born. What more needs be said.

She's a lesbian, she's psychotic, she has seizures, she faints regularly and can't rely on her own memory worth shit. And the only reason she's not going to kill god is so she and her girl can escape the cycle of violence. Basically, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is the entire package.

Anything Else?:

Listen. Listen. I’m not doing Harrow justice here. I LOVE her (Submitter 2)

The author is also schizophrenic! Which is pretty cool. (Submitter 3)

The author of the series is openly schizophrenic, and has mentioned in interviews that she's drawing on that experience when writing Harrow :) (Submitter 8)

[revisionsong]

Sometimes you just have to do a self indulgent DS9 sketch.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Ignore all logistical considerations of "would they ever meet each other under these circumstances". If you don't think Jules Bashir would have chosen to join Starfleet, imagine he is on the station for some other reason, or they meet in some other location.

I wanted to make this poll because I've seen various fics where Garak reassures Julian that far from being upset over him being augmented, Garak is grateful for it, either explicitly because (he thinks) they wouldn't be able to have their usual conversations if it weren't for the augmentations, or simply because he likes Julian "just the way he is" and wouldn't want him to be "different". I disagree that Garak would think like this (or at the very least, I think Julian would react negatively if he did, rather than be reassured), so I wanted to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[bijoumikhawal]

I am constantly thinking about "Unnatural, Mummy? You tell me, what's Nature's way? If poisoned mushrooms grow and babies come with crooked backs, if goiters thrive and dogs go mad and wives kill husbands, what's unnatural? Here stands your lamb. Come cover him with kisses. He's all yours." from The Lion In Winter vs Julian's "The word you're looking for is unnatural, meaning not from nature. Freak or monster would also be acceptable. I was six. Small for my age, a bit awkward physically, not very bright...."

[youngpettyqueen]

I watched the reading of Little Achievements yesterday while I was crocheting and like yes the Garashir of it all had me squealing but hearing Julian acknowledge himself as disabled truly put me in a state and I am still thinking about it

[timaeuslover001]

Let me tell you how warped people are today…

So I got my whole blog deleted

Someone and I know who flagged my page and got it deleted

so I was commenting on how I hated a Star Trek storyline that they have in deep space nine about Bashir being mad at his parents because he had augmented genes and how he took it was they didn’t love him enough and that he’s like a creation more than a person which was so stupid because all they did was heal his learning disability and they clearly loved him. They clearly were affectionate towards him. They didn’t treat him any less human than any other children. They just healed a problem that he had .

And somebody commented back-and-forth with me about how his parents took away his ability to write to choose, and I was confused about why that would be an issue because if any parent who had a child who had any kind of disability of any kind they would want them healed because who wouldn’t want to be healed from blindness, having no limbs one limb Missing fingers missing eyes.

Not only doesn’t make it an easy quality of life, but you also get to engage other things as well that in richer life more.

And we just got to the whole back-and-forth and she just twisted my whole words to make it seem like I was over here making it seem like disability disabled people aren’t people and that they were not enough and that they don’t have quality of living and I didn’t say that, I said these parents Love their children to want to see them have a better quality of life.

No one said anything about being a person or being valued because a lot of parents are very unconditionally loving to their children, especially the ones that have extensive needs. These people sacrificed our whole lives for their kids.

Parents shouldn’t be able to do that or the parent isn’t able to do that they do it because that’s their children.

Confused why she would even care because I’m pretty sure they were pro life and so that means that they’re pro abortion so that means that the parent or the mom could choose to do whatever with the clump of cells that she chooses to do with the baby definitely confused I can’t imagine how healing your child of any disability or lack they may have in their physical body is somehow worse, as opposed to getting rid of a fully healthy and capable of baby.

They didn’t throw Bashir in the trash. They didn’t abort Bashir because he was disabled. They just said we can fix this if there’s a way to fix it we can fix it..

Idk how many parents in real life may have done that they don’t document those at the abortion clinic. Even if it was it wouldn’t be socially celebrated. People would tell any mom who thee away her baby because of a disability that she’s terrible woman and mother.

Doable people are protected and provided for in our society. They are loved and respected and even catered to . It’s ILLEGAL to not have any ramp accessible business in the USA. You even have to have bars for the bathroom for the disabled and at hotels.

So I’m confused what this persons “proof “ or point was

But I had a problem with the storyline because of how he reacted, and how he was completely missing his parents intentions of doing that as was the person who got my page deleted was missing the entire intentions of doing that. And it was very OOC of them.

This is crazy we live in

Like here are these people who have to do all these extra steps that they eventually get used to who can’t function, but or can’t function by themselves, depending on the severity of the disability or not or what it is and you wanna make it seem like having full functional ability of your life and creating an easier life for you a bad thing?!?

[honeybadger-who-gives-a-shit]

My headcanon is that Bashir is not autistic but has an intellectual disability. This read is more interesting, imo, because it goes to the roots of both the diagnosis itself and the ideology of meritocracy in starfleet and the Federation.

Obviously, he could be both, but when we hear his mother explaining how he had difficulties as a child, it reads to me to be a more accurate explanation.

Also, we often times see autistic characters as geniuses, and maybe it's more interesting for me to see this character in a different light, beacuse we don't get to see a lot of characters with a learning disability as more than a cute sidekick or the butt of the joke.

[moonhibs]

Sillies

[sopranoentravesti]

Ok I’m FINALLY in a place where I have a minute and brain space to recount some of my Convention highlights:

I got 2 hugs from Nana Visitor. And she told me I look good as a Bajoran, asked me what I do, and when I told her, she asked what I do to take care of myself.

I also got told by multiple people that my eyes look similar to Nana’s (brown eyes next to the nose ridge?)

On Saturday, I wore my Kippah with my cosplay, going from Morning Services to Convention.

At one point, Robert Picardo was talking and John Billingsley was crouching down in order to surprise him and his face turned red. I thought he was having a heart attack.

I put my hand on his shoulder and was like “sir, are you okay,” until someone was like “he’s fine he’s just heckling Bob Picardo.”

Thankfully, he didn’t notice

I was a bit late for my photo with the (present) members of the DS9 cast. They had to bring Penny Johnson-Jerald back, but everyone was very gracious, understanding, and sweet.

“Who am I taking a picture with! Oh my goodness, you are too cute,” she (Penny Johnson-Jerald) also wanted to know my first and last name

They stationed Rosie, my Rollator, “center seat.” Terry Farrell complimented my vest, which I crocheted myself, and very excitedly told me she just learned how to crochet.

(I commented that despite my disability, I am unable to sit still and was taught to cope with hyperactivity and keep myself from fidgeting too bad).

J.G. Hertzler at one point approached me and was like “that [my Rollator] looks handy! Can I take a seat?” And growl chuckled and clapped my shoulder ( Klingon friendly style) when I was like “that is not honorable.”

Later he stopped me again. Apparently, one of his loved ones has MS, uses a rollator, but unlike Rosie, hers is not upright, and they are worried about it contributing to back problems. He wanted to know more, how to find one.

I asked Siddig a somewhat rambling question about Julian’s disability, Eugenics, and how that may have affected his relationship to other disabled characters, and disability in trek vs our Society as a whole.

I had my hand up for a minute and he was like “relax, you got next question” I was kind of embarrassed but then he was like “I don’t think you’re hyperactive, I just want you to not exhaust yourself“

He listened attentively, and he gave a vent like answer where he was like “I see your concerns about Star Trek obscuring / erasing disability… my general thoughts are that we are all racist (i was born in Arab Africa, in Sudan, riddled by geopolitical conflicts, Africans are also racist) we are all ableist, and all have the potential to be disabled . And unfortunately, it’s your job to appeal to me as an able bodied person, and my job to appeal to [another audience member] as a brown person …And why we need to work to change laws first, before we work on everything else. Sorry, didn’t mean to get all political.”

Later, I was sitting outside the venue for mingling because of autism ears and photosensitivity.

And he approached me and was like “hey, how are you doing? I just wanted to check in on you.”

Naturally, I aspirated my saliva and stammered something about avoiding the noise and migraines.

I didn’t think he remembered my name (one point I was attempting to steer around him and he was like “so sorry, sweet thing,”) but later when he was signing my autograph! He did! I did have to spell it, but I usually do anyways bc it’s spelled not the typical way.

At one point, I dropped a change of clothes I had packed and Bonnie Gordon came up to me “Darling, I thought your days as a stripper were over.”

Thank goodness I developed a tolerance for making a damn fool of myself.

There’s so much more. I met many cool people, including several folks I knew previously only on tumblr (hi, @xenobotanist @philosopherking1887 @cardassiangoodreads @ettaberrytea and multiple others I am forgetting just now) I got to hang out IRL with some people from the SidCity Social Club, which previously I only lurked at.

I’m still absolutely filled up with warmth. Like I can take anything

[captainjimothy]

who would win? the need to sleep on a work night vs the need to post about kira nerys

[ijustwanttoreblogthings]

content note: ableism, eugenics 

Lurking on the periphery of DS9 fandom, I was so relived that most people (if sadly not all) noticed and were horrified by the implications of what Bashir’s parents did to him.

but I still get pretty bummed when the trend tips a bit too much towards “he’s autistic [not the part I’m bummed about, I love that headcanon!] and he’d probably be a doctor / researcher / Starfleet officer anyway”. 

Julian’s explanation in the episode made it sound like he had an intellectual disability (which doesn’t mean he wasn’t / isn’t autistic as well!), and I see the conversation dodging around that a bit when it comes to outlining why what happened to Julian was so sickeningly ableist...

just from what I’ve seen and read, it sometimes feels like there’s this caveat where the wrong hinges on “he probably could’ve ended up on a similar path anyway**”, rather than “no matter what path he ended up on, people with disability - including people with intellectual disability, who get left behind and looked down on even by other disabled people - have an inherent worth and should not need to do or be anything whatsoever to be respected and valued as a human being”

the episode was very vague and also a dumpster fire, and there’s no real indication of what disability Julian had or who he would have grown up to be if his parents hadn’t had him genetically altered...but idk there’s a very strong societal belief that people with intellectual disability should be pitied / don’t accomplish anything / don’t have any reason to enjoy their lives, so i wanted to float this post into the ether because that’s an insidious, ableist misconception that does so much damage. 

No matter what disability Julian had, or how it affected him, his future had an inherent worth, in whatever form it took.

not to say that anyone is wrong for the headcanons they have or their take on the episode, just pointing to a general trend which everyone - including disabled people without an intellectual disability - should keep an eye out for in their sci-fi 😊  

**i honestly do understand the interest in this angle, because addressing the low expectations people have towards disabled folks is so, so, so important and you’ll never catch me saying otherwise. Not to mention how the Bashirs’ motivations smacked very strongly of wanting a “~normal~-according-to-ableist-societal-standards” child but were waved away in the end as “concern” for their child’s happiness, as if disabled people can’t live good, meaningful lives...gah, such important themes to unpack!

(note: I am disabled but do not have lived experience of intellectual disability so that’s the context I’m writing from)