captaincrusher:

When I watch Ds9, I’m sometimes struck by how physical Dax’s character is. Terry Farrell walks with wide strides, she leans back on her arms, she sits down on chairs backwards. She’s using these little things that are coded male, but not in an obvious or stereotypical way.

Star Trek has a tendency to be stereotypical with male and female behavior. But Terry Farrell is using that, by making just these small changes in body language. So we don’t get outspoken (traditional and stereotypical) masculinity, like you might expect from some tv shows.  

It’s only when I looked at the show for maybe the third time that I realized how much of Dax is created by how Terry moves. She is constantly laying the ground work for viewing Jadzia Dax as someone that is comfortable being man, or a woman, or neither, or both. Which is an important part of her character.