"Am I real?": Hybridity, Strategic Multiplicity, and Self-Actualization in Star Trek: Picard

Abstract

abstract:This analysis takes up hybridity to consider how dominant ideologies of assimilation, hegemony, and homogeneity in the world today shape the way entertainment, and in this case Star Trek: Picard, is written and produced, with particular attention to Picard himself, Soji Asha, Seven of Nine, Hugh, and Rios. With this framework, we can see past the tropes (like the white savior, "liberal" multiculturalism, and sci-fi's utopian/optimistic imaginings of a world without racism and sexism) that the show seems to promulgate unconsciously to a richer, complexified reading of hybridity as nonconsensual and strategic multiplicity as resistance to hegemony.