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Where No Man Has Gone Before

For decades, dedicated fans of 'Star Trek' have postulated a Kirk-Spock romance. A look at 'slash' fiction, 40 years later.

Newsweek Web Exclusive
May 5, 2009 | Updated: 7:24  p.m. ET May 5, 2009

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  • Posted By: rogerjun2 @ 05/06/2009 3:22:21 PM

    This is an article written by an obvious idiot. But I'm sure the homosexual community is really pleased with it. It's interesting that Newsweek panders to a group that is about 6% of the population and ignores the 94% that think this kind of trash is unnecessary and beyond ignorant.

    • Posted By: Alia B @ 05/08/2009 4:19:27 AM

      Way to demonstrate poor reading comprehension along with your ignorance. In case you missed it, a fair majority of slash fic is written by women - heterosexual women no less! - for other women of all sexual orientations who care to read it.

      • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:18:33 PM

        When you say slash fic is written by heterosexual women, you don't make sense. If you are straight you wouldn't want to write slash fic. What you are really saying (or more the writers of such slash fic) is they are bisexuals not heterosexuals. That or they are lying just to convince everyone that straight people can be gay to LOL.

        • Posted By: ayslin @ 05/28/2009 11:55:40 PM

          LOL. Conspiracy theory. Covert lesbians writing about male gay sex to trick people into thinking straight women...can like men? Wow. You got me.

        • Posted By: SarahKathleen @ 05/10/2009 11:27:02 PM

          Hello! Heterosexual woman and slash writer here. I would just like to point out that I exist. Thank you.

          • Posted By: Canderson2003 @ 05/11/2009 2:32:19 AM

            Yay! Het fic writers :)

        • Posted By: SarahKathleen @ 05/10/2009 11:25:15 PM

          Hello! Heterosexual woman and slash writer here. I would just like to point out that I exist. Thank you.

        • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/09/2009 5:30:12 PM

          For academic studies on the slash fandom, which is, in fact, predominately heterosexual women (although bi and lesbian women and gay men also participate), please see the works of Henry Jenkins, Camille Bacon-Smith, Constance Penley, and the others that followed them. You are, of course, allowed to have your own opinion, but with slash culture well studied and documented your opinion evidently remains wrong.

      • Posted By: Alia B @ 05/08/2009 4:26:38 AM

        I should add that there are male slash writers as well in numerous fandoms (gay, straight, bi, trans and genderqueer) and male readers of all sexual orientations are more than welcome to read. The depth and scope of the identity of slash writers (gender, sexual identification, nationality, race, religion, etc.) has broadened since many of those surveys were conducted. We're a happily diverse community and growing all the time.

        • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 12:56:41 AM

          It's just unfortunate that people choose to focus on the worst of the bunch to represent the whole. Of course there are those writers stories that perfectly fit with every negative stereotype they have (which is why I advocate being selective about what's allowed to be posted. Sounds mean, but when the group is fighting for respect, fighting just to remain able to do what we love, the writers who just write for *** or don't even try for a quality story take unless backwards in the fight). But for every one of those you find an amazingly well-written slash story. Search for Vorabiza. She's got some really great stories written and she's just one of many.

      • Posted By: sunhawk @ 05/16/2009 2:14:30 AM

        "When you say slash fic is written by heterosexual women, you don't make sense. If you are straight you wouldn't want to write slash fic." LAUGHING SO HARD CAN'T STOP XD Feel free to stop talking on my behalf anytime soon, kthnx! I absolutely LOVE slash fiction, love reading it, love writing it and I am not the only straight lady out there who feels that way!

    • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:14:01 PM

      Well said Roger!

    • Posted By: fangrrl @ 05/06/2009 5:43:11 PM

      This is a comment written by an obvious idiot. But I'm sure the homophobic community is really pleased with it. It's interesting that Newsweek doesn't pander to a group that is about 6% of the population and refuses to ignore the 94% that think this kind of information is necessary to help inform the ignorant.

  • Posted By: Emerald72 @ 05/25/2009 11:24:23 AM

    To those of you who are complaining of some sort of "homosexual agenda" being pursued through Slash, and the reporting by media such as Newsweek as to the existence of this decades old culture, allow me to quote you this...

    "Until such time as you get lambasted for bringing the fandom down, get nastygrams in your email box for "daring" to make your favorite pairing heterosexual and have to go through five decades worth of secret handshakes and hiding in order to find fans who think just like you do shut the f*ck up about your poor, persecuted hetero side of the fandom. You're the god-damned majority. Cope."

    (from An Open Letter to the Anti-Slash People by The Brat Queen)

    http://trickster.org/symposium/symp134.html

  • Posted By: smartnsweet1 @ 05/24/2009 1:16:12 PM

    Check out "Where Angels Fear to Tread, the Zygan Emprise," by Yolanda Pascal. Hot! http://www.amazon.com/Where-Angels-Fear-Tread-Emprise/dp/0595522238/ref=ed_oe_p

  • Posted By: peage @ 05/17/2009 1:48:46 PM

    Hi! Big slash (yaoi, boys' love, whatever you call it) fan here! And yes I am female and straight. I started reading slash fanfic at 13 (10 years ago!) and I am still an avid fan. This genre is more than just internet based, as well. From print fanzines to manga and anime that you can buy at hastings, men in love with men is an incredibly popular genre for straight women. I even have japanese video games that feature boy love couples!

    Here is some reading for those who are out of the loop.

    Yaoi Manga: What Girls Like?
    by Kai-Ming Cha -- Publishers Weekly, 3/7/2005
    http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA508674.html?

    or this masters thesis is very interesting
    "One index finger on the mouse scroll bar and the other on my ***" : slash writers' views on pornography, censorship, feminism and risk
    http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/dspace/handle/1892/8734

    or try
    The World of Yaoi: The Internet,
    Censorship and the Global ???Boys??? Love???
    Fandom
    http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=artspapers


  • Posted By: sentstuff05 @ 05/07/2009 9:08:32 PM

    <i>I find myself wondering if K/S and other slash may be primarily a phenomenon in cultures like the US where close male friendships are always suspect and where we tend to be uncomfortable with asexual male/female relationships as well. It does seem that in many countries, the deep, abiding love between Kirk and Spock would be accepted and valued as it stands without the need to impose a romantic or sexual component.</i>

    Well AFAIK, there are slashers from any country you can think of. Maybe you can blame that on them being infected by "Western ideals", I don't know. Japan has its own yaoi, shounen ai, boyslove. etc. "Normal female interest in men boinking" seems a more likely explanation.

    • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 1:21:08 AM

      Personally I think it's the introduction of Western Ideals that in many ways made homosexuality as taboo as it became. In Japan, for instance, homosexuality was a built in part of the culture. Not openly expressed, but then not heterosexual love wasn't really openly expressed either, but an acknowledged one. For instance between a Samurai and his student. In return for teaching them, students would engage in a sexual relationship with their teacher.

    • Posted By: gitarslinger @ 05/08/2009 5:06:58 PM

      Again, I didn't refer to Western ideals. I referred to any country where male/male affection is suspect or repressed. The presence of individual fans in any particular country does not perforce support the argument that there are no cultural differences of interest.

      *Any* form of art may have its adherents in any or all countries of the world. Does that indicate to you that all cultures are identical? I would submit that an art form being primarily a phenomenon of cultures with particular cultural traits is entirely independent of the presence of adherents in cultures without those traits. Culture, and indeed individual human variation, is far too complicated to give itself to simple either/or scenarios.

      As for your last comment, the article would seem to indicate that "normal female interest in men boinking" (whatever is meant be "normal" in this case) is not at all what's in operation here, as "boinking" appears to be the least part of it. Adding to that, I find calicokat's observations in response to my post fascinating and far more plausible than the unsupported trivialization of the question into "men boinking."

      • Posted By: sentstuff05 @ 05/08/2009 8:10:47 PM

        Slash is an internet culture. I don't think your question is determinable--give everyone equal internet access and the same language and maybe we could tease out statistics by country and draw conclusions? but that's not going to happen.

        As for your last comment, the article would seem to indicate that "normal female interest in men boinking" (whatever is meant be "normal" in this case) is not at all what's in operation here, as "boinking" appears to be the least part of it.

        It was a joke reference to an academic article on slash:
        http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/bonking.html

        I really don't think it's trivial to point out women are writing slash because they find it hot; of all the explanations it's the one most will grant. I might even say observers try to intellectualise it so they don't have to deal with female desire.


        • Posted By: OpenMinded1000 @ 05/09/2009 9:10:01 AM

          I find this conversation very interesting, as are many of the comments on this article. I would like to contribute just one thing, though. You say that "slash is an internet culture." That's not strictly true. K/S in particular developed and grew long before the internet was born; fans kept in touch through phone and letters and contributions to columns in various amateur-produced publications. K/S and many of the more established fandoms based on older TV shows developed during much more difficult times; it was *hard* to find them in part because the fans involved were very wary of responses such as the more intolerant comments to this article; the fans wanted it to be hard to join the group. Only the most persistent, dedicated, and lucky managed to do it. The internet has changed ease of access and many other ways of conducting fannish business, but in some of the older fandoms I do believe the shape of the fandom is different from those that grew up exclusively in the "modern" age.

          • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/09/2009 2:25:14 PM

            I agree with what you're saying here.I think it's more accurate to say "slash is a culture," period. I don't stop participating in the culture when I'm hanging out with people in person writing fanfiction together in notebooks, having slash discussions, and making observations based on the influence of my slash fandom worldviews. Despite the dominance of the internet, older fandoms still continue to publish zines. It's important to remember where we came from and that we are a culture and have a cultural history as slash becomes more mainstream and people will 1) regularly criticize us for what we enjoy together and b) appropriate our ways into the main stream. (Academics who try to make the "Everyone is a fan at heart!" argument fall into this catagory.)

        • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/08/2009 8:31:37 PM

          Hmm, I mean, I agree with you that some observers try and make it intellectual for that reason but at the same time I think slash is so much deeper than pornography, or you could call it "emotional pornography." There's a lot more to it than a pornographic video and it can be equally satisfying without the porn. Maybe my view is warped as a lesbian, but at the same time I've heard my heterosexual fandom friends make similar observations. Calling our culture, with all its tropes and cultural artifacts (fics, icons, fanart), "some chicks writing porn on the internet" just doesn't cover it.

  • Posted By: T. Guess @ 05/06/2009 8:46:04 PM

    Kudos to Newsweek and the writer for this article. Ignoring the homophobes and those making idiotic comments about a subject they know little about, fan fic (including erotic het and slash) has been around for decades. The majority of K/S is written by women for women - most of whom are straight. In the 1976 introduction for 'Star Trek: The New Voyage' - a Bantam published book - Gene Roddenberry wrote:

    --------------------------

    "...We were particularly amazed when thousands, then tens of thousands of people began creating their own personal Star Trek adventures. Stories, and paintings, and sculptures, and cookbooks. And songs, and poems, and fashions. And more. The list is still growing. It took some time for us to fully understand and appreciate what these people were saying. Eventually we realized that there is no more profound way in which people could express what Star Trek has meant to them than by creating their own very personal Star Trek things.

    Because I am a writer, it was their Star Trek stories that especially gratified me. I have seen these writings in dog-eared notebooks of fans who didn't look old enough to spell "cat." I have seen them in meticulously produced fanzines, complete with excellent artwork. Some of it has even been done by professional writers, and much of it has come from those clearly on their way to becoming professional writers. Best of all, all of it was plainly done with love."

    -----------------------------------

    Every slash writer who I know writes out of love - love for the series and the characters.

    Also, in a 80s statement to The Advocate, a gay magazine, Roddenberry wrote: "In the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, viewers will see more of shipboard life in some episodes, which will, among other things, include gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances.??? Roddenberry didn???t live long enough to bring this to fruition and those who took over the franchise nixed the idea. But it's clear Roddenberry didn't have a problem with gay characters in Trek.

    And keep in mind, Roddenberry also invented the open-minded philosophy of IDIC in Trek (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations). Something some of the Trek fans posting here have forgotten or never learned.

    • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 2:57:29 PM

      I get so sick of hearing people say "If you disagree with my lifestyle youre a homophobe". I am so tired of the heterphobic bashing and hate crime.

      • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 1:11:36 AM

        ... your an idiot. Homophobia as defined by dictionary.com: "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality." That's pretty much all of what you've expressed, therefore you are a homophobe. Don't like that label, then work to change yourself. Otherwise, accept it, embrace it, love it because it's what you are.

  • Posted By: kayakatak @ 05/05/2009 9:47:41 PM

    This is the most ridiculous article of all time. Kirk was with a woman every week. Spock as a vulcan would not have endangered the crew with a risky relationship with the captain. I argue that a Vulcan would find it illogical to be gay for it would not advance the population, for "the need of the many, out weight, the need of the few."

    Futhermore, these people do not exist, so how does one speculate past the script. It simply isnt consistent with the Star Trek cannon. Since the script does not allude to it, why would anyone else? Because they want to mold it to fit there own homosexual fantasy, and thats your buisness but hardly worthy of Newsweek.

    Sounds to me that this dude from Newsweek is either gay, or is trying to advance some sorta progay agenda by manipulating any culture phenomenon. Why else give such an obscure tiny fringe group a platform?

    • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 1:07:52 AM

      Actually slash is a genre that's dominated by heterosexual women.

    • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:05:20 PM

      Well said!!!

    • Posted By: westwingpotus @ 05/06/2009 1:46:50 PM

      LOL...at the gay agenda thing. I've never actually really heard someone use that in real life. Slash fiction, a sub-genre of fanfiction, is hardly a tiny fringe group, it's a huge expressive platform that crosses all fandoms, Star Trek, X-files, Quantum Leap, Stargate, supernatural, and dozens upon dozens more.   But keep in mind that it's fiction, as such, the writer can go where they want with it.  Like all writing, it's completely dependent upon the skill of the author and some of it totally sucks and some of it is an interesting take of familar characters. Some of the parings are ludicrous and some works.  some qualifies as porn and in some the sexual act is never even mentioned.  Yes, some is inappropriate too.  There are really bad writers who don't know when to say when.  But there are excellent writers who know how to tell an interesting story.  In the end, it's really not a commentary on a character "really" being gay or straight so much as just a story being told, it's up to the reader to buy into it or not.    

      And what you would probably be MOST shocked to learn about the whole gay agenda thing is that for the most part, that majority of slash fiction is written by heterosexual women.  And for the most part, the readers are heterosexual women.

  • Posted By: PeeDee59 @ 05/09/2009 12:20:26 PM

    Kirk-Spock Romance => What obscure Star Trek fan population did this article come from? Not a true TREKKIE group for sure. I've been a Star Trek fan since the 1st episode of the first series and of all the things to discuss a romance between Kirk & Spock was never one of them. Hey Newsweek, get a Real TREKKIE to write the Star Trek articles!!

    • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 1:06:53 AM

      Ummmm.... I'm not a Trekkie and even I've heard of this. What rock have you been living under?

    • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:12:58 PM

      This whole article is just lame. I thought Newsweek was a legitimate news medium :S

  • Posted By: Tprillah @ 05/07/2009 12:18:50 AM

    Oh give me a break" NotA Socialist. If you don't like it, then don't read it. Don't come on a positive website about slash and spout your hate. Slash is not just about PORN it's about the love between two people. Nothing disgusting about that. Men loving men and women loving women is not only NORMAL it's beautiful. Most slash is more professional then the pro (non slash) stuff.
    I'm a proud reader of K/S and especiall a proud reader and author of Spock/McCoy fanfiction. So there.
    T'Prillah

    • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 2:42:10 PM

      Thats the misunderstanding about people that disagree with homosexuality. We dont HATE, we DISAGREE, and we have a right to do that., as Americans. Yet, because you dont like us disagreeing you label it HATE so that it seems worse than it is, and will hopefully gain you some advantage legally. Its not hate its disagreement, and I disagree with anyone that tells me that I have to raise my children to believe homosexuality is a good thing. When I turn on the tv or go out in public I dont want my family to see such things.

      • Posted By: skweetis @ 05/09/2009 8:49:39 PM

        What if my religion taught that eating pork was wrong? Could I expect that public school cafeterias would stop serving ham and cheese or that TV shows never depicted a Christmas ham so that my children didn't have to see it? That would be crazy, right? I encourage you to express your disagreement with homosexuality, just as I would encourage you to express your opinion if you were a racist. That way people know who you are and can respond how ever they like. Sorry if that response is to disagree with you or form opinions about your character. I know this is a hard time for you, much as the civil rights era was hard for people who had lived much of their lives when it was acceptable to be racist. Society is changing, not to punish you, but to become more fair and to treat everyone with respect. It's probably too late for you, but trust me, in 20 years your children won't feel the frustration that you clearly do because they won't remember the time when it was okay to discriminate against gays. It just won't be a big deal to them. Hopefully, that's some small comfort.

        • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/10/2009 3:24:06 AM

          Let me say this.... just because I disagree with the "lifestyle", that is not to say I condone beating people up and all that nonsense. I dont agree with beating anyone up, straight or not. It isnt that im "homophobic" any more than some of you are heterophobic; I simply disagree with this lifestyle, for me and my family; there is a difference.

          I dont believe society is changing to punish me, that is silly, but at the same time, I dont believe it is changing for the better either.
          I also don't believe that in 20 years there will be an American "Utopia"; but we'll see in 20 years.

          It isn't "frustration" I feel; I don't understand where you get that either .

          According to you I should find comfort in the fact that my children might, one day, not remember a time when their parents taught them that homosexuality is a self-extincting lifestyle (what you twist to mean "discrimination").
          You were born out of the union between a man and a woman, you must have a horrible time dealing with that.




          • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/11/2009 1:51:47 PM

            Homosexuality has been present about as long as human history has been recorded, and we're not extinct yet, nor are homosexual practices. I don't believe in 20 years there will be an American Utopia because there wasn't twenty-years ago and there wasn't at all when the country was founded. There's been no known Utopia in human history. However, a future where discrimination isn't based on age, gender, sexual orientation or race is a future we're gradually climbing towards during this era of globalization where more and more people are coming to realize people aren't all that different anywhere and no matter what they practice.

            I could make an argument, and I'm not making this argument but making an example of it, that heterosexuality is a destructive practice contributing to the overpopulation of our planet, its gradual destruction through pollution, and the extinction of thousands of other Earth species. Certainly, these results are consequences of human overbreeding. However, the truth is we can all live with a close to zero carbon footprint and take better care of our planet with the current human population on the earth. What needs to change are our attitudes about acceptable waste generation, not our sex lives. But, that said, what harm has homosexuality ever done? What harm does it do to slow the increase of the human species by scant increments by living a life following the star of love and affection?

            The only argument I can see you making against homosexuality is that it will drive us towards extinction, but we're in healthy non-danger of that and in much greater danger of literally attaining critical mass as a species, so that argument doesn't hold any water.

            • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 1:00:40 AM

              I see he had no response to that :-D Hard to counteract fact, huh Socialist?

          • Posted By: skweetis @ 05/10/2009 7:38:32 AM

            First, let me thank you for responding. As I've said, I don't think I'll change your mind, but I appreciate the opportunity to present another perspective to you. Let me ask you this, what would you like to happen? What if this country was a lot more anti-gay? What if it wasn't okay to be gay? If you're idea of what it is to be gay, a "lifestyle", a choice, then everything will be perfect. But, would you want your daughter to marry a closeted gay guy? Even if he never strayed, never cheated on her, and he loved her, in the way that you love your best friend or your sister, but not in the way that a straight man loves a woman. Do you want that for her? Is your belief that being gay is a choice that strong? That you would want all men who currently identify as gay to stop it and marry women?

        • Posted By: ForTheLoveOfPandas @ 05/09/2009 10:31:05 PM

          Well said!

  • Posted By: rdaffron @ 05/06/2009 5:47:10 PM

    I write fanfic myself, tho not ST fanfic. Personally, I adhore slash, and the actors I know (and they persoanllly know and approve my and my writing partner's fics), do NOT like slashers and their take on their old show. And btw, erotic fanfic is NOT only slash, but hetro as well. and there's a lot of it out there.

    • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 12:48:30 AM

      ....yeah. Your write, yet you can't spell. That's funny.

    • Posted By: sunhawk @ 05/16/2009 2:24:59 AM

      The actors can think what they like, the fics aren't meant for them or to be read by them, they are for fans, by fans, pure and simple. No one does, or should, force them to read any of it. All they have to do is resist their own curiousity, nothing more complicated than that :)

    • Posted By: fangrrl @ 05/06/2009 5:52:43 PM

      Well, the actors *I* know very much enjoy and seek out slash fic. They find it creative and entertaining that their fans have such open minds. In fact, believe it or not - the actors I know are very open-minded with regards to people of all kinds! Imagine that!

      • Posted By: rdaffron @ 05/06/2009 6:39:36 PM

        The gentlemen I'm associated with adhore it and find it totally revolting and insulting that someone would slash the characters they protrayed. And quite frankly, I totally agree and respect them for it.

        • Posted By: OpenMinded1000 @ 05/06/2009 6:53:52 PM

          Rdaffron, you do mean "abhor," don't you? As in detest? At first in reading your comments, I wasn't sure,and thought maybe you meant "adore." But then the rest of your comment didn't make sense, so I think you must mean "abhor."

          Of course you are entitled to your opinion. Everyone can like or dislike what they read; we can't force anybody one way or the other, can we? But I can say that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, knew about K/S from the beginning and did not appear to have a problem with it. He had some K/S fanzines in his office, as witnessed by more than one fan who had the privilege to enter it, plus he had some very interesting things to say about the Kirk/Spock relationship.

          Roddenberry was interviewed by the authors of a biography of William Shatner, and asked what he thought specifically of the "writing in the Star Trek movement which compares the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to the relationship between Kirk and Spock...." (To clarify, it is supposed by many historians that Alexander and Hephaistion, his lifelong companion, were lovers.) Here's how Roddenberry replied.

          "Yes, there's certainly some of that -- certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal...we never suggested in the series...physical love between the two. But it's the...we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century."

          Now, just quoting Gene Roddenberry doesn't negate what you say about the actors you know. I simply advance this open minded comment from the creator of Star Trek. Some people will like K/S and slash in general, and some people will not like it. For those who don't care for it, I say just stay away. Live and let live. Fanfiction in general and slash in particular is the new mythology of our age. It is so pervasive in so many expressions that trying to control it would be like trying to stop the waves of the ocean by stomping on the shoreline.

          • Posted By: rdaffron @ 05/06/2009 7:32:36 PM

            You're correct regarding the spelling. I didn't spell check, a direct violation of writing ;-( Also, the faded "reply box" doesn't come up too well on my screen. And detest and dislike are also ample descriptions as well.

            I'm sure some don't mind slash. I don't care for it, as a lot of others don't either. The characters I write about were never gay, just as the actors who protrayed them are NOT gay, and they cannot understand why anyone would ever want to protray their characters as gay and I totally respect their views, just as I totally respect them.

            • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/07/2009 2:27:12 PM

              However, it isn't disrespectful to the actor, your views, or his views to write slash fanfiction. Once a work of fiction is dissiminated throughout the public the initial agents of its production lose the right to demand a specific interpretation of that work. This point is commonly understood in the academic study of literature and media. A piece of fiction is a public artifact and once the public has internalized it (particularly if they've paid you money for it), your interpretation, even as the creator of the work, carries no more weight than that of anyone else interpreting the final product.

  • Posted By: kobe24youbeast @ 05/06/2009 7:00:28 PM

    im just saying i dont like when 2 men are kissing its is destorying our world if u didnt know that

    • Posted By: Tprillah @ 05/07/2009 10:28:00 PM

      IF you believe that, then you are truly the largest Dumba** on the Earth. Two men kissing does not destroy anything. It enriches the world with love.

      • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:25:52 PM

        How can it not be self-destructive when homosexuals cant even have babies (without "help")?

        • Posted By: Taya @ 05/16/2009 10:32:02 AM

          Considering the overpopulation on Earth and all the unwanted children in orphanage, I don't think Earth's population is going to be dying out anytime soon as the Earth's popluation is about 6.77 billion. Earth does not have the resources to keep up with the booming births that are happening. If it keeps going this way, we're just digging ourselves into the grave.

          • Posted By: Bookworm51485 @ 05/17/2009 12:46:11 AM

            I was gonna make the same response to that stupid comment. As if having more babies is what we need, Baka. I remember reading somewhere that homosexuality is nature's response to overpopulation. Interesting theory and it actually kind of makes me wonder. Either way, people need to mind their own damn business. If it doesn't affect them, I don't know why they think they should have any say.

    • Posted By: Tprillah @ 05/07/2009 12:30:51 AM

      I find nothing wrong with two members of the same gender kissing. Doesnt seem to be destroying my world. (I'd hate to be in a world where one has to be somebody they're not) Your hate on the other hand does Destroy my world.

    • Posted By: gitarslinger @ 05/06/2009 10:15:24 PM

      Geez. There have been homosexual relationships since the dawn of written history, often quite accepted by the general populace. It's highly unlikely that it co-developed with writing (no matter what some say...LOL...I say it codeveloped with acting!), so it has been around for tens of thousands of years. When exactly is our world going to be ruined, then? For that matter, how?

  • Posted By: sunhawk @ 05/16/2009 2:22:14 AM

    I was pleasantly surprised to read such a nice neutral article on the slash phenomenon, considered to be THE first slash pairing by many, that it's such a shame to see so many homophobes and inflexible Trekkies in the comments. We slashers don't poo-poo YOUR fan experiences and likes, too bad you can't extend the same courtesy. As we say in slash circles; "Don't like? Don't read"

  • Posted By: FourDeerInMyYard @ 05/06/2009 4:55:16 AM

    All slash triggers my squick alarm, but the article was interesting. At first glance, the fact that the majority of slash writers are heterosexual females may seem to make no sense. But in sooth, it makes *perfect* sense. Obviously these ladies are simply projecting their Mary Sue into one or the other of the starring dyad. Such projection is necessary because the series made it clear from the beginning that women would come and go on a weekly basis for Kirk, and even for Spock women would occasionally come and go???but the women would always GO. Nobody is gonna yoko-ono her way into that precious dyad with a crowbar???or a phaser set on heavy stun, either. So poor Mary Sue has nowhere to go but Transgenderville.

    For a thorough explanation of ???Mary Sue???, if you need one, go here:
    http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.HTM

    The paragraphs most relevant to the Newsweek.com article are 1, 3, 5, & 26.

    Kayakatak says: ???...how does one speculate past the script.??? (Punctuation sic.) He or she apparently is unaware of, or simply thinks there should not be, any such thing as fan fiction. This is silly; fanfic is knee-deep on the ground.

    • Posted By: sunhawk @ 05/16/2009 2:17:10 AM

      I'm sure some slashers do read/write for that reason, but definitely not all. I personally have no interest in doing that sort of thing; if I wanted to be in the fic, I'd write myself into a fic! Why make things more complicated than that? I suggest you do a little research about the academia of slash before you go assigning one single motive like that. Every slash fan has a slightly different reason for being involved.

    • Posted By: SarahKathleen @ 05/11/2009 12:12:41 AM

      I think your theory might be true in some cases, but I would hesitate to apply it to slash in general.

      When I write slash stories, I don't Mary-Sue my way into the relationship. For me, it's about the characters, about how they interact and adapt to a relationship that, in many situations, would have to be hidden from society at large. This also helps to explain why their relationship would be conducted "behind the scenes," as it were, and not on-screen.

    • Posted By: Shadows Falling @ 05/06/2009 2:50:59 PM

      I am inclined to agree with you on your Mary Sue theory. I thought I was the only one who thought that. I have definitely seen that in some slash stories, although I never felt that way in any stories that I wrote and I don't think they came across that way. (For me, the whole experience was sort of scientific.) However, there are a LOT that clearly qualify as disguised Mary Sues. Thanks for bringing that up!

  • Posted By: zinelady @ 05/13/2009 1:36:30 AM

    This was an interesting article, but nothing new to me. I've been reading and writing K/S since the 80s, back before the internet. The fanzines were expensive for a college budget, but if you wrote a story for it, you would get a contributor's copy for free, so I started writing to support my habit.

    For me the sex was always secondary to the story. Sure you could find PWP (plot what plot) stories that were basically just sex, but writing a great plot with sex was the real test of a good writer.

    Hurt/Comfort was also a big draw. EIther Kirk or Spock would be hurt, sometimes almost to the point of death, and the other one would comfort him. They might not be in a sexual relationship, but their love for each other would show through their actions.

    A lot of the best fan fiction writers from the 70-80s started in K/S. They were usually heterosexual women from what I knew of. If there were any gay men writing back then, they had a female pen name.

    I don't know much of what's going on with K/S through the internet, but I can imagine there is going to be a resurgence of K/S out there.

  • Posted By: Canderson2003 @ 05/11/2009 2:28:44 AM

    This article made me smile so much! As an avid slash fic reader and writer in fandoms such as Supernatural (Wincest) House MD (Hilson) and Harry Potter (Snupin and Snarry), I can say I never thought slash would be depicted as something more than a perverted way to look at books, movies and tv shows. (Oh, and japanese anime, never forget it)

    Regardless of the rating of the story (PG to NC-17) what we see is really the romance, the feelings and the sexyness of those character. All of us slashers have found friendship acceptance and joy in sharing what we do with others, and that is just great. The author is right, and this new version of Star Trek is meant to bring new life to K/S fans (Spork, I believe is the contraction they use) and I gotta say both of them are extremely hot! :D

    Thank you very much for your article and kudos to slashers everywhere! ???

  • Posted By: Dredd @ 05/10/2009 7:01:22 PM

    Virgin space ... where no man has gone before ...

    http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/05/phallic-sun-and-sexy-universe.html

  • Posted By: entertainmentwasteland @ 05/10/2009 5:29:56 PM

    I believe the newer films and shows sometimes pander to the slash fans they know will be in the audience. It insures repeat viewers, and recommendations to others to watch. There was a curious joke written into an episode of Futurama where all of the old-school Star Trek actors (with exception to Scotty) voiced their own characters. Kirk saw Spock for the first time in years, and said something like: "Spock! I haven't seen you in ages! I'd hug you, but we're both men." This may have been a joke about Trekkie slash writers.

    Whether or not the creators of such movies and television shows disagree with slash, there's most likely not a lot of legal action taken against the writers of fan fiction for this fact: They bought the t-shirt. They also bought the mug, the Klingon to English dictionary, the movie ticket and the commemorative DVD boxed set. If they are a major part of keeping the Star Trek empire alive, and the economy booming, who is anyone to say that they are doing wrong? To each his or her own, and there are much more important moral issues to be worried about than slash.

    Besides, Kirk and Spock were totally hitting it.

  • Posted By: mremre @ 05/10/2009 10:44:55 AM

    All fanfic starts with canon (what is shown on screen/text) and plays the old writer's game: What if? What then?

    Everything that happens after that is personal interpretation and an exercise in storytelling. There's varying degrees of adherence to canon and different ways of presenting it. Slash in particular drops the forgettable GotW (girlfriend of the week) and concentrates on the leads (in this case, Kirk and Spock). There are any number of gen and het stories that involve these two, but if in the slash writer's personal worldview that includes a sexual component... well then.

    Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combination, right? What could be more Star Trek than that?

  • Posted By: jordan c. fan @ 05/10/2009 1:35:11 AM

    By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.

    "To go Where No Man Has Gone Before" is a dream that will never come. The Environment, God, Devil, Heaven, Mother Nature or whoever created and controlling the Universe will NOT allow men explore and go where no man have gone before. Simply look at what men have done to their Environment on planet earth. ll those destruction of Environment and pollution must be stopped. If there is a Superntural Power, will it allow men to go where no man have gone before? Such idea in the title of this article is simply wishful thinking.

  • Posted By: NotASocialist @ 05/09/2009 3:31:00 PM

    Heres an idea write a "slash fic" in which every cast member in Queer Eye For The Straight Guy are all heterosexuals and they find homosexuality wrong.

    • Posted By: calicokat @ 05/10/2009 12:35:59 AM

      Sure! Go ahead and write it. I don't mean that in a mean-spirited way. Fandom is all about subverting tropes and nowadays traditional slash, however magnificent, is tropeful. Subversive slash sounds delicious. :)

    • Posted By: gitarslinger @ 05/10/2009 12:19:23 AM


      And why not? Write it. You have that right. Maybe somebody will even read it.

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