Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise encounters a matriarchal society on the planet Angel One.
In this episode, viewers see the physical manifestation of a matriarchal society from the point of view of the patriarchal society of the 1980s projected into the galaxy in the twenty-fourth century. What I mean by this is, does the society on Angel One really envision what a matriarchal society looks like, or is it just represented as a place where stereotypical gender roles are reversed? Angel One is a place where the humanoid females hold all the authority and are larger than the males of their species.
I argue that if this was a true female run planet, it would be much more along the lines of what Riane Eisler described in The Chalice and the Blade as a gylany. “Gy” – reflecting the female, “an” – the male, and “l” – as the linking of them in a partnership type of society, where one gender does not dominate the other, instead everyone is linked together as equals.
That a planet run by women would just be the reverse of how a patriarchal society is run is just reflecting the patriarchal complex of American culture into the future.
Original post created 21 May 2021
mydailysoultrek 