Star Trek

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[edit] Introduction

This section needs more information.

[edit] Male to female ratio

What is the male to female ratio in the Star Trek fandom and how has that ratio changed over time? Mary Ellen Curtin looked at this question by examining the editorship and authorship of fan fiction fanzines during the 1960s. She found that Star Trek fan fiction community seemed to be composed of 83% female. She compared this to the whole of science fiction community where the percentage of females was 17%. This number has been disputed by Katherine Langley who claimed that Mary Ellen Curtin used Textual Poachers by Verba and that Curtin did not always accurately identify the gender right based on her guesses based on name.

During the late 1970s, fandom rumor claims that women were not actively sought to write professional Star Trek novels because many of the ones who they had used had connections to the slash community. Paramount was worried that these female writers would try to work in more Kirk/Spock material and other homoerotic material, which they were uncomfortable publishing because that was not the way they wanted fandom to go.

[edit] 2008

What is the gender of the Star Trek fandom in 2008? There have been no recent ethnographic studies done in the fandom. Current speculation can be done based on visits to popular Star Trek fansites.

Star Trek.Com in January 2008

The above chart is from StarTrek.Com and shows that for January 2008, males made up 60% of the visitors to the site.

TrekWeb.Com in January 2008

The above chart is based on TrekWeb.Com and shows that for January 2008, males made up 66% of the audience for the site. [1]

TrekFanFiction.Net in January 2008

The above chart is from TrekFanFiction.Net and shows that for January 2008, males made up 52% of the visitors to the site.

[edit] Mary Sue

Ariel said on 03-06-2003, 09:16 PM at http://www.khazaddum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1866.html :

"The same thing happened in ST fanfic. Mary Sue’s abounded in the early years after the series ended and when I was following it in the early 70’s, they were practically non-existent. In their place was Kirk/Spock – the only form of self-insertion fic that the ‘establishment’ of ST fandom would tolerate. These types of fics grew rampant and it got to the point were you couldn’t find any other kind of Star Trek story. The people who would have written anything else weren’t being read and those who might have wanted to read anything else had long before found that nothing was being written (or at least published) in ST fanfic that wasn’t slash. It gave ST fanfic a very bad reputation and when SW fandom started up, Lucasfilm was VERY insistent that fanfic in it’s genre would not end up going in the same direction. I published a fanzine in that era, and you were supposed to send a copy of your ‘zine to Lucasfilm’s Fan Club – it was said to be for archiving purposes, but I knew from others in the fandom that if you had questionable stories in your publication, you would be pressured not to publish again. Lucasfilm was very active in monitoring it’s fandom while I was part of it (until 83) but I have no idea what happened afterwards."

[edit] Hurt/Comfort

In the Star Trek fan fiction community in 1981, the hurt/comfort genre became more established with the release of such stories Diane King’s Captives. The community discussion centered around the movies that were released. Slash was being discussed, as was how people preferred to view the Kirk-Spock-Bones relationship. Verba cited a survey which said most people preferred to see that relationship as a friendship.

[edit] Tissue Warnings

During the mid to late 1990s, Tissue warnings were a popular thing to include. This warning informed the reader that the story was sad, might make them cry and thus they would need tissues.

[edit] Awards

Awards were being given in a lot of fan space on-line in 2001. There were numerous ones being given this year. They included the ASC Awards and the Golden Os in the Star Trek community.

[edit] Cult of Personality

There is a suggestion by Seema[2] that a cult of personality was present in the Usenet/mailing list centered fandom period. This was tempered "due to unreliability of service, the smaller number of people involved, and the fact that there was always some semblance of censorship, whether it be a moderator or the fact that if you pissed off the group you were in, there was nowhere else to escape to and it was really best to just fall in line."[3]

[edit] Having babies in Star Trek fan fiction

[edit] Star Trek: The Original Series

In Star Trek: The Original Series, the couple most likely to have a baby was Spock/Chapel. This concept of their procreation was present originally in zines and continued on the Internet, being popularized by such authors as Ronda Sexton.

[edit] Star Trek: Voyager

The most popular pairings for babies in Star Trek: Voyager are Janeway/Chakotay, Paris/Torres and Chakotay/Paris. Janeway/Chakotay and Paris/Torres are the two most popular pairings for the show as a whole and with the addition of Paris/Torres canonically having children, it helped fuel this desire to write them with babies. The Star Trek fandom has also been traditionally one of conservative values of its members. Given that, it is not surprising that babies would be written as an expression of love for pairings that many wanted to see become canon.

Chakotay/Paris is the major m/m slash pairing. When the couple is pregnant, it tends to be a result of mpreg. The story may or may not be humor. This contrasts to f/f slash pairings like Janeway/7 where the characters generally have a medical procedure which results in the child sharing both mothers' dna.

[edit] Star Trek Fan Fiction History Timeline

[edit] 1960's

[edit] 1967

  • Early test audiences for the Star Trek pilot did not like the female Number One, with attitudes like "Who does she think she is?" [4]
  • The first Star Trek fanzine was published.

[edit] 1970's

"The same thing happened in ST fanfic. Mary Sue’s abounded in the early years after the series ended and when I was following it in the early 70’s, they were practically non-existent. In their place was Kirk/Spock – the only form of self-insertion fic that the ‘establishment’ of ST fandom would tolerate. These types of fics grew rampant and it got to the point were you couldn’t find any other kind of Star Trek story. The people who would have written anything else weren’t being read and those who might have wanted to read anything else had long before found that nothing was being written (or at least published) in ST fanfic that wasn’t slash. It gave ST fanfic a very bad reputation and when SW fandom started up, Lucasfilm was VERY insistent that fanfic in it’s genre would not end up going in the same direction. I published a fanzine in that era, and you were supposed to send a copy of your ‘zine to Lucasfilm’s Fan Club – it was said to be for archiving purposes, but I knew from others in the fandom that if you had questionable stories in your publication, you would be pressured not to publish again. Lucasfilm was very active in monitoring it’s fandom while I was part of it (until 83) but I have no idea what happened afterwards."

[edit] 1972

  • By this time, there was a Star Trek erotica only fanzine, Grup. (Sir Bob)

[edit] 1974

[edit] 1975

  • In 1975, "Ring of Shoshern" was circulating privately in Great Britain. This story was not published until 1987 in Alien Brothers. Some sources say the story was circulated among fans earlier than 1975, perhaps as early as 1969 or 1970.
  • Star Trek Lives!, edited and written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston, was published. This book contained a chapter at the end of the book which examines Star Trek fan fiction and the Kirk/Spock relationship in fan fiction. This book is important because that last chapter helped formed a lot of the modern thought on Slash communities. Scholars still cite this source today. [5]
  • While the first Kirk/Spock story may have been published the previous year, more material was out there and not getting published. The general community did not seem overly receptive to romance and in particular, that pairing. Diane Marchant would address this pairing in an essay in Grup #4. There was a follow discussion to this essay in the Star Trek letterzine, Halkan Council. This did not lead to a glut of these stories being privately circulated being published in fanzines. Rather, many would continue their trips underground, in some cases not being published for another ten to fifteen years.

[edit] 1976


[edit] 1977

  • In 1977, T'Kuhtian Press was founded to promote an interest in Star Trek and other science fiction/media through amateur publishing and other means.


[edit] 1978

  • Between January and March, Thrust is the first Star Trek anthology fanzine published to contain only Kirk/Spock slash in the early part of this year.
  • There began to be a drop off in the number of Star Trek fanzines being published as some were leaving the fan fiction community because of the prevelance of Kirk/Spock material.

[edit] 1979

  • In June, Randall Landers published his first issue of Stardate which was an action-adventure fanzine. The zine was created in response to the large amount of Kirk/Spock material, and its editor promised no slash material would ever appear in its pages. The zine sold well enough to promote the creation of Stardate Press which eventually became Orion Press.

[edit] Late 1970s

  • During the late 1970s, fandom rumor claims that women were not actively sought to write professional Star Trek novels because many of the ones who they had used had connections to the slash community. Paramount was worried that these female writers would try to work in more Kirk/Spock material and other homoerotic material, which they were uncomfortable publishing because that was not the way they wanted the franchise to go.

[edit] 1980's

[edit] 1981

  • Slash was being discussed in the Star Trek fan fiction community, as was to how people preferred to view the Kirk-Spock-Bones relationship. Verba cited a survey which said most people preferred to see that relationship as a friendship.

[edit] 1982

  • In 1982, the Star Trek fan fiction community discussed the lack of fen submissions of Letters of Comment. (Langley, Verba)
  • In 1982, Paramount mistook a fan effort for a professional effort and sent a cease and desist letter to Syn Ferguson for her fan art on her fanzine cover being sold as a fundraiser.

[edit] 1984

  • Archives from net.startrek during that period show that discussion of slash, referenced as K&S instead of the current convention of K/S to refer to the Kirk/Spock relationship, was happening on the group, along with advertisements for various Star Trek fanzines.
  • Usenet gained more exposure in 1984 with a presentation by Alice Greene. In June, she showed Star Trek fans net.startrek and explained some of the advantages to using this medium for fannish communications. Archives from net.startrek during that period show that discussion of slash, referenced as K&S was happening on the group, along with advertisements for various Star Trek fanzines.
  • FASA, a Star Trek gaming licencee, created a gaming magazine for its players, and entitled their magazine "Stardate." The cover design and title were eerily similar to the Stardate Press fanzine with the same name. A minor legal exchange occured, and Stardate Press was renamed Orion Press. Legal expenses caused some delays in filling of Stardate Press orders at this time.

[edit] 1985

Aug 14 1985, 7:09 pm
Newsgroups: net.startrek
From: s...@uoregon.UUCP
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 19:09:00 EDT
Subject: Re: Requested information on K/S

Feminists who are interested in erotica written by women for women should find themselves very able to "stomach" K/S. They should check out the rave review of K/S written by SF feminist author Joanna Russ in a fanzine namec NOME, "Another Addict Raves about K/S." Natrually there is a spectrum of material-from mild to X-rated, from well-written to total trash. This material is widely circulated, but not "Published" in the ordinary, or profit-making sense, and is in fact underground material of great interest to the participants-the writers, readers and editors. Unfortunately, attention paid to K/S for its feminist
importance, may be damaging to fandom as a whole, if Paramount gets too interested in it. Starsky/Hutch and Star Wars fandoms were severely restricted by
paranoid producers. Joanna has refused to supply the names of K/S editors and writers to the editors of Penthouse FORUM--but FORUM is interested. As for the writers involved, writing fan material is wonderful fun, and may just provide the impetus for writers to break into publication, as a number of fan writers have. While it is true that REAL SF writers look ascance at Trek as formula
fiction, the first item of importance to most aspiring writers is GETTING PUBLISHED. Trek is a "hungry" market.

[edit] 1987

  • According to TheForce.Net's Fan Fiction Archive: Lexicon, the drabble craze started around this year. This tradition was based on a Monty Python skit. It started in the Doctor Who fan fiction community before spreading to the Star Trek, Star Wars and other fan fiction communities.
  • An examination of Datazine 48 looking at Star Trek fanzines published this year shows that there were 47 non-Kirk/Spock zines compared to 30 Kirk/Spock zines. Universal Translator, looking at the same year, lists 144 non-Kirk/Spock zines to 58 Kirk/Spock fanzines.

[edit] 1990's

[edit] 1990

  • In 1990, there was debate about the creation of the following Usenet groups: rec.arts.sf-creative, rec.arts.sf-creative.d. Some of the fandoms that were suggested as being served by the creation of these groups included Star Trek, Doctor Who, Dune, Buck Rogers and Berserkers.
  • One of the ongoing discussions in 1990 on-line was fan rights and fan ownership. By this period, a number of Star Trek fen felt that if it were not for them, Star Trek was dead and that the attempts on the part of Paramount to crack down on some fannish activities. These activities included fanzine production and the distribution of fan fiction and fan art.

[edit] 1991

  • alt.startrek.creative was created. Originally suggested as rec.arts.startrek.creative, discussion of the rec.arts.startrek reorg indicated that there were problems with having a Big 8 (then Big 7) USENET group.
  • The alt.startrek.creative archive was started under the Archivist Joseph Young at ftp.cis.ksu.edu

[edit] 1992

[edit] 1995

B/G *is* Bashir and Garak. There are only two commonly accepted fan slash
acronyms in Trek-- K/S (Kirk/Spock) and P/C (Picard/Crusher.) You never
see S/K or C/P. Other orthographies exist for B/G, though (I've also seen
it G/B, and even G/J! A side note-- a lot of fans have taken up using
people's first names in their orthographies, for instance referring to
Dax/Bashir fiction as J/J, despite the fact that neither character is
commonly called by their first name on the show. I think this is
annoying. If I see J, I expect it to be Janeway, not Dax or Bashir.)
(This despite the fact that the normal pairing code among slashers for Garak/Bashir has been G/B since early in the first season, and Picard/Crusher is obviously not slash)

[edit] 1996

[edit] 1997

  • On June 4, 1997, Wired ran an article titled "The War against Fandom" which mentioned Star Trek:
For months, webmasters of unofficial Star Trek sites have been embroiled in disputes with Paramount/Viacom - a clampdown that fans say followed on the heels of the launch of the official Trek site, Continuum, on MSN. [12]

[edit] 1998

  • In February 1998, Sci-Fi Entertainment ran an article on fan fiction. It referenced the Star Trek fan fiction community. An extract of a relevant section of the article says:
There's also high-volume activity associated with Star Trek (referred to here as a aggregate for all four series, although currently Voyager seems to be leading to the greatest fanfic response ) and Lois and Clark: The New Adventure of Superman. But there are other, too: Star Wars, Babylon 5, Sliders, Xena, Dr. Who, Quantum Leap, Highlander, SeaQuest DSV, Beauty and the Beast - all of these popular science fiction and fantasy series have sites dedicated to the stories and characters of those universes.
  • In July Alara Rogers handed off the Archivist job on ASC to Dina and Constable Katie.
  • In November The Index to the ASC Archive was renamed Trekiverse with the purchase and activation of the trekiverse.org domain. The Archive Team latter secured .net, .com, and .us.
  • In December 1998, the Usenet group alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated was joined by a Yahoo mailing list called ASCEML. Messages to the list were also uploaded to the Usenet group and vice versa. Both the group and the mailing list are still in use as of September 2007.

[edit] 1999

[edit] Late 1990s

  • Canon Police were some what problematic in the Star Trek fandom in the late 1990s. They would frequently publicly correct people who goofed canon details in their fan fiction.

[edit] 2000's

[edit] 2000

  • K/S fiction, which has blossomed online after Sci Fi Channel's decision to rerun the series in the late 1990's, peaks at nearly 900 story posts. (Some stories were posted in multiple parts, so the total number of individual stories is somewhat lower.)
  • The following Star Trek fan fiction archives were around in August 2000: XSF [14], and The Slightly Warped Sliders Page. [15].

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2004

This section needs more information.


[edit] 2005

This section needs more information.


[edit] 2006

This section needs more information.


[edit] 2007

[edit] 2008

  • During 2008 the myth construction of Vulcan Alberta's identity as the birth place of Spock, intensify as Vulcan's negotiations with Paramount seems to make it possible for them to host the premiere of Star Trek XI. [24]
  • In mid June the video project "fanmo jimte" was discussed on youtube, "fanmo jimte" brings together different contemporary Star Trek related phenomena. It also deals with fan fictions power of making fictions real, bringing them to life. [25]

[edit] Historical Definitions

There area number of terms that have been used in the Star Trek fan fiction community. Some of these definitions have stayed the same and some have changed over time. Some have been depended on the location of the particular Star Trek fan community. Below are some examples of historical definitions of words used in the Star Trek community.

[edit] Slash

The following definition dates to April 1993 in the Star Trek fandom:

It began long ago in a galaxy far, far away....its history is shrouded but ba-
sically it means two people getting together of the same sex from certain
television shows (mainly all the Star Treks) that you would never see on TV.
The original slash was Kirk/Spock "Captain, not in front of the Klingons!"
(Spock to Kirk in ONE of the movies). ST:NG has many more opportunities for
lucious ladies to lay together than the original Star Trek did. [26]

The following definition dates to April 1993 in the Star Trek fandom:

"slash" fiction refers to the orthographic character "slash" ("/") as
in kirk/spock. it may interest you to know that 90% of all male/male
slash fiction is written by straight women. [27]


The following definition is was written by Jane Leavell and updated in June 2006:

SLASH: Originally taken from descriptions of Kirk and Spock as sexual partners; the stories were labeled "Kirk/Spock" and thereafter stories about homosexual pairings--whether male/male or female/female, and whether or not they involved graphic sex scenes--were referred to as "slash" stories. A few newbies (people new to fandom) have tried to stretch this, using "slash" to mean sex of any kind, but that isn't the generally accepted definition. See also: GEN and HET.[28]

[edit] Sources

  • Ariel said on 03-06-2003, 09:16 PM at http://www.khazaddum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1866.html
  • Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania P, 1992.
  • Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Spock Among the Women (Star Trek Fanzine Writers)." The New York Times Book Review. V. 91 (November 16, 1986), pages 1-.
  • Benford, G. (1996, January). Alt.fans: the Internet is recapitulating science fiction fandom. Reason, 27, 43-44.
  • Berman, A. S. (2001, February 22). Fans add own scenes to fictional favorites. USA Today, p. 3D.
  • Bjorklund, Edi. "Women and Star Trek Fandom: From SF to Sisterhood" in Minerva, Spring 1986, pages 16 - 65.
  • Brotman, Barbara. "'Weirdos' Strike Back." Chicago Tribune 11 Oct. 1981.
  • Cherny, Lynn, and Elizabeth Reba Weise. Wired Women Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace. Emeryville, CA: Distributed to the Trade by Group West, 1996.
  • Dadds, Kimberley. "Harry Potter Fan Fiction Phenomenon." Digital Spy 9 July 2007. 10 July 2007 <http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a63822/harry-potter-fan-fiction-phenomenon.html?rss>.
  • Fan Fiction Critics Association. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fca-l/>.
  • Geraghty, Lincoln. "Creating and Comparing Myth in Twentieth-Century Science Fiction: "Star Trek" and "Star Wars"" Literature/Film Quarterly 33 (2005): 191-200.
  • Harmon, Amy. (1997) “In Dull TV Days, Favorites Take Wing Online”, New York Times, August 18 1997. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3142/fanficart.htm
  • Harris, Cheryl, and Alison Alexander. Theorizing Fandom Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Cresskill, N.J: Hampton P, 1998.
  • Hurd, Denise A. "The Monster Inside: 19th Century Racial Constructs in the 24th Century Mythos of Star Trek." Journal of Popular Culture 31 (1997): 23-35.
  • Jamelia. Online interview.
  • Jenkins, H. (1998). Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 5, 85-107.
  • Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
  • Jenkins, H. (1996, June). The politics of fandom. B. Adams, the alternate juror in the Whitewater trial in Arkansas who wore a Star trek uniform to court. Harper's, 292, 23-24.
  • Kapell, Matthew. "Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek, the Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity." Extrapolation 41 (2000): 104-114.
  • Kreitzer, Larry. "The Cultural Veneer of Star Trek." Journal of Popular Culture 30 (1996): 1-28.
  • Lancaster, K. Journey of the Media Hero, immersion into imaginary media environments of science fiction and fantasy. (2001, January). Retrieved December 1, 2002, from http://www.dawn-joy.com/sf/
  • Langley, Katherine. Telephone interview.
  • Lichtenberg, Jacqueline, Sondra Marshak, and Joan Winston. Star Trek Lives. London: Corgi, 1975.
  • Loertscher, David. "Science Fiction Timeline." SLIS Home Page. 7 Aug. 1998. 6 Apr. 2006 <http://www.davidvl.org/262WebFilesSpring04/w8a.html>.
  • Macbeth, Edna R. Compelling Communication: Understanding the Appeal of Fan Fiction. Southern Sociological Society, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2005, Dept Sociology, U Virginia. 9 June 2006 <Sociological Abstracts>.
  • Michaelides, John M. Welcome to the "Frequently Asked Questions" List from rec.arts.startrek.misc. The World of Star Trek. Copyright 1994. Bp http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/SciFi/StarTrek/FAQ.html#19
  • Nicholas, Karen. Fan Fiction on the Internet. Copyright 1996-1999. Bp http://members.aol.com/ksnicholas/fanfic/index.html
  • Plotz, David. "Luke Skywalker is Gay? Fan Fiction is America's Literature of Obsession." Slate 14 Apr. 2000. 9 June 2006 <http://www.slate.com/id/80225/>.
  • Poison Pen Press. Zines, Etc. Poison Pen Press. Copyright 1999. bp http://www.poisonpenpress.com/fanzines%20.html
  • Roberts, Robin. "Rape, Romance, and Consent in Star Trek: the Next Generation." Extrapolation 40 (1999): 21-35.
  • Russ, J. (n.d.). Another Addict Raves About K/S. Nome, 8.
  • Scodari, Christine. "Resistance Re-Examined: Gender, Fan Practices, and Science Fiction Television." Popular Communication 1 (2003): 111-130. Communication & Mass Media Index. EBSCO. Northern Illinois University. 9 June 2006. Keyword: Scodari.
  • Verba, Joan Marie. Boldly Writing a Trekker Fan and Zine History 1967-1987. Minnetonka, Minn: FTL Publications, 1996

[edit] See Also


Star Trek
Characters:

Kirk - Spock - McCoy - Uhura - Chapel - Sulu - Chekov - Picard - Riker - Troi - Crusher - Sisco - Dax - Worf - Odo - Janeway - Chakotay - Paris - Kim - Torres - Neelix - Seven - Trip - Tucker - Archer - Sarek - more...

Pairings:

Janeway/7 - Janeway/Chakotay - Janeway/Torres - Torres/7 - Kirk/Spock - Picard/Crusher - Uhura/Chapel - Data/LaForge - Kira/Odo - Riker/Troi - Worf/Troi - Yar/Data - Trip/Tucker - Spock/McCoy - Paris/Torres - Chakotay/Paris - more...

Shows:

The Original Series - The Next Generation - The Animated Series - Deep Space Nine - Voyager - Enterprise - New Frontiers - Misc


Languages: 

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