Slash - Fanlore

The virgule, or slash mark ("/"), has been in use from the earliest days of fandom, including being used to designate relationships--both friendship pairings and romantic/sexual pairings. For example, Kirk/Spock often was used as a shorthand designation for the friendship between Kirk and Spock and Spock/McCoy for that friendship. Romantic opposite-sex pairings also might be referred to this way, e.g., Spock/Christine and Kirk/Uhura. But no one referred to any of these types of pairings, either verbally or in writing, as slash stories.

When "those" stories about Kirk and Spock starting appearing in publication, fans referred to them in many different ways ("Kirk/Spock erotic love stories," "Kirk-Spock homo stories," The Premise, etc.). Gradually, as a way to distinguish them from the Kirk/Spock friendship stories, the fans adopted "K/S" and made it the term to refer to the romantic/sexual premise--although the first printed use of the term “K/S” was in gen zines edited and published by Nancy Kippax and Bev Volker (The Mirage, November 1976, and Contact #3 and #4 in 1977), and it was used to refer to the friendship premise. Some confusion continued for a few years, with K/S and Kirk/Spock being used interchangeably--by some to mean the friendship stories and by others to mean the sexual/romantic premise.

Sentinel Jim/Blair "/" zine with the virgule on the cover (2007)

When Star Trek fandom opened up into Media fandom, other fandoms developed their own noncanonical same-sex pairings. They adopted the naming convention of K/S fandom: H/J for Harry and Johnny in Magnum Force, S/H for "Starsky and Hutch," B/D for Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals. With these and, still later, other pairings being published in fandom, fans started discussing this type of fan fiction as a whole. Needing a way to refer to all such pairings and the entire genre of writing, they referred to them and it as "/" (they typed the punctuation mark by itself--a stand-alone virgule, usually within quote marks, sometimes with none). This was in the early eighties.

When verbalizing this punctuation mark in conversation (from the early eighties on), it was, of course, said out loud as "slash." Eventually (primarily in the mid- to late-eighties) the term itself ("slash") started appearing in print. That is, fans wrote or typed "slash" and not "/". The earliest printed reference I found using the word "slash" is in a LoC to the S&H Letterzine #18, (February 1981), but that was an extremely rare reference. It didn't become common in print for several more years.

Today one can still find "/" used to refer to slash, but that's much less common. Also, nowadays a slash pairing is as likely to be designated as, for example, Jim/Blair and Jack/Daniel as it is to be called J/B and J/D. (Not to mention the much more recent mash-up naming convention that applies to both same-sex and opposite sex pairings, such as Clex for Clark/Lex and Spuffy for Spike/Buffy.)^[2]

The first piece of published slash in "Star Trek" fandom was "A Fragment Out of Time" by Diane Marchant, in Grup #3 (September 1974, Carrie B., ed.). Grup was the only adult fanzine being printed at the time (and tame by today's standards). Diane's story really was only a story fragment (a couple of pages of "he" and "him"—no names mentioned, but an illustration by Diane of Kirk and Spock was included). Because it was published in an adult zine, for a more specialized audience and likely with a small print run, fandom as a whole did not register this piece as "the first published K/S."

Other than that, K/S fiction (not yet called "K/S") was being written and circulated fan-to-fan and talked about underground.

Jennifer G., one of the earliest and most popular writers of the fan-circulated K/S stories, later allowed one of her early stories, "The Ring of Soshern" -- considered by many an early classic -- to be published in a fanzine (Alien Brothers #1, 1987, Helena Seabright, ed.). She also wrote stories which were published in gen zines, some of which some fans later reported as leading them to the idea of K/S.

In Grup #4 (September 1975) Diane Marchant printed "Pandora's Box -- Again," a brief essay on the relationship between Kirk and Spock. Still pretty indirect, but it sparked the first publicly printed discussion of the K/S premise, in the letterzine The Halkan Council (beginning with #12, November 1975, Sandy Y. and Shirley H., eds.). This led some fans to begin writing stories about Kirk and Spock, most notably Gerry Downes and Leslie Fish. Gerry made it to print first, with Alternative: Epilog To Orion (June 1976), which she wrote, illustrated, edited and published.

Alternative (unlike "Fragment Out of Time") got a lot of attention and really set the match to the fire -- although K/S fiction was not alone in the eye of the storm -- adult fan fiction in general was just coming into its own and being hotly derided by many fans. Furious debates raged in private conversations and public forums. Much of the public debate I researched and provided for publication in the fanzine K/S Legacy (five volumes, 2007, Beyond Dreams Press). When K/S was the only example of what later came to be called slash fandom, debates surrounded the issue on several levels. People disagreed because they were anti-homosexuality (religious reasons, homophobic reasons, etc.). They disagreed because they thought people had no right to do that to Gene Roddenberry's characters. They disagreed because they thought it wasn't in character for Kirk and Spock, or illogical given the premise of the show. (Similar objections cropped up in later discussions in other slash fandoms, as well.)

Thrust (1978), the first all-K/S anthology zine. At the time, it was considered to have a shockingly explicit cover.

Warped Space, a general interest Star Trek zine edited and published by Lori C., printed every 10th issue as a "special adult issue." The contents of Warped Space #20 (October 1976) primarily were what is now called "het," but it also featured the K/S story Shelter by Leslie Fish and Joanne A. Warped Space decided to expand their adult issue to a new and separate title, leading to Obsc'zine #1 (March 1977), which included "Poses" by Leslie Fish (the sequel to "Shelter"). Also in March of 1977, Contact made the only exception to its gen focus to publish a short K/S piece, "The First Step" by Susan D. Sensuous Vulcan (Diane S., ed.) came out in September 1977. It, too, was a mixture of het and K/S, including Desert Heat by Gayle F., the first in her Cosmic Fuck series. Because of issues resulting from Diane’s inability to fill orders for this zine, this story was reprinted in Naked Times #2 (1979, Pon Farr Press). The next two stories in the series, "Beyond Setarcos" and "Night of the Dragons," were printed in Thrust (1978, Carol F., ed.), the first all-K/S anthology zine. The fourth story in the series, "Between Friends" (Obsc'zine #3, May 1978) was the first published menage a trois story in ST fandom, featuring an encounter between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. (In 1986 the series was reprinted in a collected edition.) Another popular Leslie Fish K/S story was "This Deadly Innocence or ‘The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome’" (Naked Times #3, 1979). This story was significant because it was based on a theory held by some K/S fans who felt that anti-K/S fans who were deeply enamored of Kirk and Spock hurt/comfort stories actually were in denial about K/S and that hurt/comfort was disguised K/S.

A few other notable early K/S titles (by no means an exhaustive listing): Alternative: Book 2/3 (Gerry Downes, 1979), Nightvisions (Susan J., Carol F., 1979), Mirrors of Mind and Flesh (Gayle F., 1979), Companion (three issues published between 1978 and 1980, Ellen K. and Carol H., eds.), T'hy'la (first published in 1981 and still in publication today, Kathy R. ed.), Out of Bounds (six issues published from 1981-1984, Pam R. and Lezlie S., eds.), and Cheap Thrills (four issues published in 1981-1982, Ellen K. and Carol H., eds.)

In May 1977 at SekWester Con, Too (a fan-run con held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and a precursor to the MediaWest*Cons still held each year in Michigan), discussion of K/S got even more public, with the first panel discussion on the topic: "Kirk and Spock: Do They or Don't They?" (I provided a transcript of this panel for publication in K/S Legacy.)^[2]

S&H was the next big US fandom to publish slash. S/H fandom went through some of the same do they/don't they debate that had rampaged through K/S fandom, but a lot of S&H fans also were ST fans, so they had heard it all before and fewer people expressed shock at the concept. The first S/H zine was a non-explicit single story British publication, Forever Autumn, by Sue M. and Sue S., (March 1980). The next published S/H piece was also British, a short story, "Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn," by Pamela D. (10:13 Vol. 1, 1980/81, Terri B. and Chris P., eds.).

Code 7 #1 (1981). Quote from the title page: "This is a privileged and private publication; it was sent to you because you know the value and the need for discretion. You are being trusted, if you misuse this trust, you will be harming not only the contributors but all of S/H fandom. Please keep this zine entirely to yourself! Thank you."

The first US S/H zine was Code 7 #1 (1981, Karen B., ed.). Karen had been advertising this zine (and some other S/H zines) for upcoming publication within the pages of The S&H Letterzine when suddenly it was listed as cancelled with no explanation. In reality, the zine hadn't been cancelled. Word had gone through fandom of troublemakers who were planning to "out" these slash zines to TPTB. So Karen went underground with the zine, publishing it with no names listed: no authors, no artists, no editor. In the meantime, however, other S/H was going forward, such as Graven Images by Jane Aumerle (pre-S/H, 1981). Terri and Chris published a "Statement of Intent" in the Letterzine, stating that they were not going to be intimidated into pushing any slash material in their zines underground. Annette H. and Pam R. began advertising Trace Elements (which was published in 1982). Leslie Fish jumped feet first into the fray, asserting she would publish a fanzine that couldn't be used against the fandom. This resulted in Pushin' The Odds (which didn’t see publication until 1983), a mixed gen and slash zine, with slash stories printed in blue ink on red-patterned paper to render them "copy-proof." It also made them almost unreadable without the sheet of red plastic that was included to put over the page. She also required a signed "statement of compliance," numbered the copies, and used coded hole-punches on the pages, supposedly to identify the purchaser of any copy that "fell into unauthorized hands." However, by the time that zine saw print, everybody was going ahead with their S/H zines anyway, regardless of threatened repercussions. Later issues of Code 7 (there were four total) were published openly in fandom. There was supposed to be a second issue of Leslie’s zine, but that never materialized.

Another early slash fandom in this period was H/J (Harry and Johnny) fandom. This fandom was unique in a couple of ways. First, its creation can be specifically attributed to two fans, Ruth K. and Teri W. Second, it was the first time a fandom existed that had no gen component. H/J was created and perpetuated as slash, period. It was based on characters in "Magnum Force," as played by Clint Eastwood (Harry) and David Soul (Johnny). Both Ruth and Teri started out in ST fandom. Teri also wrote some ST gen and some of the earliest K/S. At the time they created H/J fandom, they were active in S&H fandom. H/J initially was underground -- not in zines, being circulated in manuscript form (like the Pros Circuit stories). As word got out and more fans got interested, they started publishing them in zine form, starting in 1980. Teri was involved primarily in the first several zines, then Ruth took over the primary writing chores. Ruth also did most of the artwork that was included (the zines also were liberally illustrated with "cut and paste" photos -- literally cut and paste, not in computer terms). Over 40 zines were published, and it still was being published as late as 1991. H/J fandom drew contributions from many noted fan writers, poets, and artists of the day.

In British fandom, "The Professionals" and "Blake's 7" were on the air during this period and their fandoms developed overseas but didn't migrate to the US immediately. Other fans would have more information on these early fandoms, since I deliberately was avoiding acquiring more fandoms at the time and therefore got into both of these fandoms a little later. ^[2]

Certainly B7 was being slashed in the early eighties. "The Professionals" was a fandom where gen was the exception and slash the rule. Pros fandom also featured the unusual phenomenon of a very active "story circuit," by which the bulk of the fan fiction was being distributed, fan-to-fan. Karen B. took on distribution in the States, establishing a "Circuit Library." Just like a real library, fans checked out stories and received them in the mail, to read, copy if desired, and return. As originals became more tattered and less legible, fans were recruited for re-typing duty.^[2]

In her book, "FutureSpeak" (Paragon House, 1991) Rogow has entries under "K/S" (with historical errors in it), "same-sex relationship stories," and this entry:

slash fiction (fan): Not to be confused with slasher movies. When the slash is placed between the names of well-know male-bonded pairs, it indicates a degree of intimacy not usually fostered by most such buddies. Slash fiction is written mostly by women, to the intense disgust of many straight men and to the amusement of the gay community. The first objects of this peculiar form of literary affection were Star Trek's James T. Kirk and his loyal first officer, Mr. Spock. Later pairs included Starsky/Hutch and even Napoleon Solo/Ilya [sic] Kurakin, of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. There is very little anyone can do to stop this sort of writing, short of confiscating every fanzine in which it is printed. Gene Roddenberry tried to stem the tide with a footnote in his novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1980 [sic]). George Lucas vented his irritation through his official fan club. Other actors, writers, and producers tend to shrug and laugh, realizing that the writers of this kind of fiction are a very small minority as compared with the great number of writers who concentrate on other areas of media fandom.

However, Rogow already was a published slash writer at the time of this book's publication, having written stories in the H/J universe that were published in Timeline (1984, Ad Nauseum [sic] Press) and Mixed Media (1986, same).

Bjo Trimble, in a letter to the "Star Trek" letterzine Interstat (#21, July 1979, T. Meyer, ed.), responded to a letter in the previous issue with this: "It is too late to worry if Nimoy and Shatner have seen any of the K/S relationship writings; tacky things have a bad habit of getting to the people involved."

And in her book On the Good Ship Enterprise (1983, The Donning Company/Publishers), Trimble had this to say:

The first, and most obvious fandom which sprang up was the "Spockies" who really threw themselves into loving Mr. Spock. It was a wonderful case of unrequited love, and they loved even that! . . . Later, this unrequited "love" was to manifest itself in a peculiar underground movement of stories about Kirk-Spock relationships. Psychologists recognize this as a tendency for women to want something very much and decide that the only reason they cannot have it is (a) something is "wrong" with it or (b) it is totally unavailable. Making Spock homosexual neatly fulfills both those necessities in one fell swoop! Fanzines had to be advertised "for adults only," and reviewers often noted that an otherwise well-done story had "K/S" elements.

Trimble’s friend, science fiction author David Gerrold (best known to Star Trek fans as the writer of the popular TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles") is another vocally anti-K/S critic. In his revised edition of his nonfiction book The World of Star Trek (original edition printed in 1973 by Ballantine Books, revised edition in printed in 1984 by Bluejay Books), he has many negative comments to make about fans. Right after shaking his head over examples of a fan stalking the studio and another disturbed young man who tried to turn himself into Spock and then killed himself, he proceeds with this:

An equally disturbing phenomenon has developed among a group of female Star Trek fans. To them, Star Trek is not about the Enterprise or its five-year mission, or the noble vision of humanity among the stars—it is specifically about the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

More specifically, these women entertain themselves by writing stories in which Kirk and Spock are homosexual lovers. [He footnotes this with "I am not making this up. Honest."]

Kirk?!! And Spock?!!

The stories are collected and circulated in mimeographed fanzines. More than one unsuspecting Star Trek fan has stumbled unwarily into these zines at some convention or other. The result is usually a started expression and the question, 'Is this what Star Trek is really about?' (It is most definitely not what Star Trek fandom is really about, but more than one young would-be fan has been prohibited from attending Trek-cons or reading Trek-zines because his/her parents have seen this material.

The network of K/S fans -- as they call themselves -- is small, but very active. Some of their stories are very explicit. And some of the artwork accompanying—well, never mind. These women use scenes from the episodes and specifically from the Star Trek movies to justify their belief that this is the secret message of Star Trek . . . . While the K/S ladies have never been vocal enough to be a problem, their projection of their own sexual fantasies onto Star Trek has at times been a nuisance for those who actually have to produce the show. Eventually, Gene Roddenberry, in his novelization of Star Trek I, had to acknowledge their unwelcome invasion of the universe he had created by including a footnote . . . explaining that Kirk and Spock were "just good friends." (This did not even slow the K/S ladies down.)

One long-time Star Trek fan summed up her feelings about the K/S phenomenon this way: "I really don't mind the stories. Some of them are even quite well written. What does bother me though is the sado-masochism in them. Too many of the stories involve beating and rapes -- sometimes even between Kirk and Spock. I just find it difficult to believe that this is an accurate portrayal of the behavior of two of Starfleet's finest officers."

Even more candid are the comments of a gay male Star Trek fan: "The K/S stories I've seen are offensive. It's a woman's idea of what gay men are like, and it's way off base. Besides, I like Kirk and Spock the way they are."

What anyone wants to believe in the privacy of his or her own head, of course, is his or her own business. It's when you start messing around in other people's universes that you have to follow the rules of the local creator. If nothing else, it's good manners.

With those comments, Gerrold unleashed a storm about his head. Many fans (including me) exchanged letters with him. His response letters declared that " . . . those who write these kinds of stories will find it increasingly difficult to sell them" and "the active dissemination of the K/S interpretation of Star Trek is something that Paramount would very probably view as damaging to their property—and the studio will act to protect their property."

Ironically for Gerrold, many fans later reported that his book was their introduction to the concept of K/S, causing them to seek it out.

Both Rogow and Gerrold refer to Gene Roddenberry's footnote in the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which they consider his "answer" to the K/Sers. Here is that footnote:

Editor's note: The human concept of friend is most nearly duplicated in Vulcan thought by the term t'hy'la, which can also mean brother and lover. Spock's recollection (from which this chapter is drawn) is that it was a most difficult moment for him since he did indeed consider Kirk to have become his brother. However, because t'hy'la can be used to mean lover, and since Kirk's and Spock's friendship was unusually close, this has led to some speculation over whether they had actually indeed become lovers. At our request, Admiral Kirk supplied the following comment on this subject: "I was never aware of this lovers rumor, although I have been told that Spock encountered it several times. Apparently he had always dismissed it with his characteristic lifting of his right eyebrow which usually some combination of surprise, disbelief, and/or annoyance. As for myself, although I have no moral or other objections to physical love in any of its many Earthly, alien, and mixed forms, I have always found my best gratification in that creature woman. Also, I would dislike being thought of as so foolish that I would select a love partner who came into sexual heat only once every seven years."

The reaction of fandom to the footnote varied, as it was hailed by the anti-K/S fans as the last word on the subject (from the creator himself, no less), while the K/S fans were busy mining the quote for its K/S interpretations. It actually was a very odd thing for him to include, since the general Star Trek fan who would have bought the novelization would have no knowledge of fanzines, much less of K/S—so why raise the issue? Indeed, some fans who read that footnote got into K/S as a result—they just hadn't thought about it "that way" before Roddenberry put the idea into their heads. Also, many K/S fans felt he had no need to create the term "t'hy'la" unless he intended them to use it. And, again, there were fans who later stated that they had never thought of the idea until reading Roddenberry’s mention of it, but they were "converts" afterward.

During the same year that fandom got that footnote, there also was this: In Shatner's first published biography, Where No Man . . . (written by Shatner, Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, Ace Books, 1979) the authors talked with Roddenberry about the frequency with which fans compare the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to that between Kirk and Spock (referring to the closeness and the feeling that one would die for the other). Gene said: "Yes. There's certainly some of that with . . . 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 the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style in the 23rd Century."

Rogow made mention of Star Wars fandom and George Lucas’ reaction to slash. Star Wars slash never had a chance to get off the ground (until recently, that is), because Lucas put the kibosh on it early. (I still have a copy of the first SW slash story I ever laid eyes on. It was never published, I read it at a friend's house over 30 years ago.) ^[2]

'Slash' characters excite by being extensions of female sexuality while the 'gay' characters excite by being a window into an alien sexuality, that of homosexual men. It is internal versus external in a way. The issues I will write about, power and trust, concern me as a woman, not Bodie and Doyle as gay men. I am fulfilling my kink, not accurately portraying the kink of gay men. ^[7]

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