Who is (still) afraid of queer: Homosexual and transgender strategies of star trek

Abstract

This text gives a critical account of various, often conflicting interpretations of slash fiction - stories based on characters from popular TV show, The Star Trek, written (and read) by fans. What makes slash fiction, a subgenre of fan fiction, specific is a homoeroticization of characters that in the original narratives are either explicitly or implicitly heterosexual. Whether such ?homoerotic pairing? has any foundation in the original Star Trek narrative, remains an open question. Answers to this question vary greatly. An affirmative answer, however, begs a further question: whether these narratives are ?homosexual representations? in a strict gay/lesbian sense? The authors propose that slash represents a non-hegemonic narrative which transgresses borders (of the medium, genre, gender, sexuality etc.) set up in the original narrative - queering, reexamining thus both sex and gender.