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4 PornographybyWomen forWomen,withLove Joanna Russ Yes, there is pornography written 100% by women for a 100% female readership . Surely I mean erotic? Well, let’s just say that to call something by one name when you like it and another when you don’t is like those married ladies we all know who call what they do “making love” while what is done at singles bars is “shallow and trivial sex,” and what homosexuals do is “perversion.” (There are also those folks who call a work of art that supports the status quo “art” and works that question it “political.”) I tend to get restive at such honorifics, yet in the anti-pornography/antianti -pornography fight, “pornography” has become a loaded word, so for the purpose of this discussion we need a neutral one. Now that the title has caught your eye, and made some of you bristle, I’m going to talk about neither erotica nor pornography, but “sexual fantasy.” But first I must tell you about Star Trek. In the late ’60s, Star Trek brought into science fiction fandom a large number of women. Science fiction readers are very often amateur printers who publish their own non-profit fan magazines, or “zines,” who attend science fiction conventions (and run them), and who know each other via all sorts of friendship networks, amateur press associations, and discussion groups. Pre–Star Trek fandom was roughly ninety percent male; Star Trek has moved the sex ratio much closer to equity, though nobody seems to know the exact figures. This influx of women is surprising in view of the fact that the Star Trek television show focused on the work relationship and friendship of Joanna Russ 83 three male characters: James T. Kirk, the ambitious, sometimes impulsive and emotional, rather macho Captain of the starship Enterprise; Spock, his First Officer and Science Officer, who is half human and half alien (from the planet Vulcan) and who is almost completely unemotional, logical, and self-controlled; and the ship’s doctor, Leonard McCoy, a peppery, outspoken cuss, who serves as a foil to the other two, who (because of their very different personalities) serve as foils to each other. While the usual science fiction fanzine consists of personal essays, letters, gossip, Amateur Press Association news, book reviews, and philosophical or scientific speculation, the Star Trek zines (certainly the ones I’m going to consider) specialize in the fan writers’ own stories and poems, which are based (often very minimally) on the TV show and now the two Star Trek movies. Within the Star Trek fan world lies a specialized sub-group of writers, editors, and readers who edit, write, and read fanzines called “K/S.” “K/S” zines are anthologies of fan-written stories about the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The authors rate their own stories G, R, or X, and their premise is that Spock and his Captain are lovers. This fact is often assumed in the G-rated work, very often talked about in the R-rated poems and stories, and the X-rated work shows sex between the two characters again and again and again. (And again. Ditto the illustrations.) And all of the editors, writers, and readers are women.1 If your autonomic nervous system does the nip-ups mine does upon reading merely the premise of this material, it’s quite irrelevant to talk about the beauty of friendship or the necessity of empathic compassion in human affairs. These are sexual fantasies. I’ve shared this material with eight women I know who like science fiction and Star Trek; they all shrieked with delight and turned bright red with embarrassment upon hearing only the premise of the K/S zines. Briefly: not only are the two characters (Kirk and Spock) lovers (or in the process of becoming so; many of these are “first time” stories), they are usually bonded telepathically in what amounts to a life-long, monogamous marriage, which is often literally impossible for either party to dissolve. Sometimes the union of minds lasts only until death (often the death of one bondmate precipitates that of the other) but often it is assumed to last after it. Like Tristan and Iseult, the two are fated to love; even stories that don’t specifically state this fact assume it. Anyone who knows the K/S literature knows that in a sense this love already exists—an assumption which imposes a kind of [3.137.192.3] Project...

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