The Sociology of Star Trek: Notes on the Relationship of Science Fiction and Fantasy
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Sociology of Star Trek: Notes on the Relationship of Science Fiction and Fantasy |
| Creator: | Judith Gran |
| Date(s): | 1980, based on 1979 survey results |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Sociology of Star Trek: Notes on the Relationship of Science Fiction and Fantasy is a 1980 essay based on a 1979 survey conducted by Judith Gran.
The essay contains lots of tables and survey results, many quotes from fans, and analysis by Gran.
It was printed in the zine R & R #4.
The Sample
Gran explained what she saw as some gender divides. Looking back, it can be surmised that while she encountered more males in clubs and at conventions, it was the females who created zines (whom she referred to as "actifans"), which she perhaps had to work harder to find.
The survey was given to to "members of ST clubs, attendees at ST conventions, and a special sample of "actifans" who read, edit, write, and do art for ST fanzines." The essay is based on 507 completed questionnaires.
"The ST sample as a whole is 42% male and 48% female. There were important differences among the three sub-samples (clubs, conventions, and actifans). The club sample is preponderantly (61%) male; the actifan sample is heavily (85%) female. The con sample is almost equally balanced. As the data will show, there is a tendency for ST fans to be either young men of high school or college age, or women in their 20's and 30's. The majority of club members are young male students; the majority of actifans are working women. Once these differences are borne in mind, they should not be a barrier to interpreting the rest of the data. When we control for age and sex, the social characteristics of the three groups are quite similar: the patterns of occupational distribution, education, and parents' occupations tend to be repeated throughout each separate group of fans. Therefore, I shall discuss most of this data for the sample as a whole rather than breaking it down into the three sub-samples."
The Questions
The survey asked questions such as employment status, occupation, gender, education, age, and political leanings.
Fan Comments
In April 1979, a fan wrote:
Got a real interesting questionnaire in the mail the other day, which I intend to send back Real Soon Now. A woman named Judith Gran, a political Sociology student, is writing a paper on Star Trek as a social movement. The difference with her proposed article is that she will focus on the individual fan's reactions instead of the interpretations of the writer doing the paper. Some of the questions quite thought-provoking, such as, "...Many episodes argued...the undesirable consequences of delegating too much initiative to machines.. .Do you consider this an important message of Star Trek? Do you agree with it?...Does(the manner in. which it was presented - The Apple, The Ultimate Computer) have anti-technological implications?" And there were 10 other questions like this, along with page of personal data, such as the occupations of my parents and grandparents.- (Your guess is as good as mine...) [1]
Excerpts from Grans' Essay
The most striking fact about the table is the highly disproportionate concentration of fans in the "professional and technical" category. The proportion of fans working in professional and technical occupations is over two and a half times the proportion of the population as a whole In the correspond ing age groups. Nor Is this simply another way of saying that ST fans are "middle class."
It is more plausible to argue that ST fan activities, with their literary emphasis on writing, art and publishing, should naturally appeal to the well-educated, highly literate products of a middle-class background. However, it does not require verbal or literary skills to attend a ST convention or even to participate in a ST club. ST is, after all, basically a visual media product. It has been transformed into a literary product by literary-minded fans, but that fact doesn't in itself account for ST's initial appeal to those fans.
Women who work as scientists, computer specialists, mathematicians, technicians, or librarians are also strongly over-represented in the fan sample. This supports the conclusion that female fans tend to gravitate towards professional careers that are relatively highly specialized and untraditional for women. (Note that there were no bankers or lawyers in the fan sample, and only one physician — a woman.)
Subjective Characteristics: Fan Attitudes. ST fans are diverse. They include engineers and creative artists, scientists and secretaries. They range across the political spectrum from left to right. They include Christian Trekkers, atheists, and Theosophists. For some fans, Interest in ST is only a relatively minor facet of a general interest in science fiction. Other fans have branched out from ST fandom to become fans of a wide variety of other media products ranging from STAR WARS to STARSKY & HUTCH. Others have found ST the only science fiction of media product that has yet captured their imaginations. Still others have delved more deeply into a single facet of ST, such as character relationships, Vulcans, or Klingons. To some, the philosophy and spirit of IDIC is one of the series' most deeply compelling attractions. For others, the "philosophy" of ST is Irrelevant and perhaps even unpercelved. To many fans the show is attractive mainly as a relatively consistent science-fiction universe which serves as a convenient vehicle for their own creative efforts.
An attempt to ask whether fans tend to share any traits in common need not deny or ignore this diversity. There may be common characteristics that unite fans in spite of their apparent differences. Or, even if there are no common qualities, there may still be a tendency for fans to hold certain attitudes rather than others.
The questionnaires I collected from science fiction fans at SF conventions suggest that science fiction fans and ST fans tend to be drawn from almost Identifcal social backgrounds. Although I would not generalize from the data I have collected so far, that data does suggest that by occupational distribution, education, and social background, ST fans are a "microcosm" of science fiction fans in general. If science fiction fans and ST fans tend to come from similar social backgrounds, it would be logical to expect both groups to share the same individualist values. Or perhaps ST fans, as a subgroup of science fiction fans, tend naturally to share the same values that are common in the parent sub-culture. One Big Name Fan with a long history of active involvement in other science-fiction related fandoms besides 5T emphasized this derivation: "A lot of ST fan are liberals, democratic, pro-abortion, supportive of gays, etc.—but that's not because of the show. That's just the way a lot of science fiction fen are."However, another BNF reports that she finds regular SF fandom too "rigid, conservative, pessimistic, and self-obsessed" for her tastes and argues that "ST fandom is the only SF-related fandom I know of whose socio-political outlook is primarily Liberal-to-Radical."
Of course, many ST fans did not come to ST from a background in science fiction, although many have developed an interest in written science fiction as a result of their interest in ST. Perhaps one of ST's contributions is that it was one of the first adult mass media science fiction productions to bring to the screen the rationalist and Individualist attitudes which are common in written science fiction.
I believe that the affinity between liberal individualism and ST fans goes even beyond the values of the original series. It may also be rooted in (a) the nature of science fiction as a medium of cultural expression and (b) the characteristic patterns of fan action (fanac). In his studies of sub-cultural groups, sociologist Paul Willis has argued that there is a "homology" or "fit" between the values and life-style of a group, Its subjective experience, and Its use of cultural objects. (The Cultural Meaning of Drug Use, RESISTANCE THROUGH RITUALS Birmingham, England: Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, 1975.) I would like to suggest, very briefly and superficially, that there is a "fit" between ST fans' values, experiences, and fan activities. There are several different levels on which we can discern "homologies" between ST fan attitudes and fan activities.
First, science fiction, with Its focus on the future, on possibility rather than authority, is profoundly suited to serve as a vehicle for the creative efforts of the Independent, self-determined individual. The science fiction writer or artist creates not only plot, character, dialog, and scenes, but a whole "universe" from his or her own resources. It should not be surprising to find that individuals for whom autonomy and the idea that "you can be whatever you wantA are values of prime importance should be attracted to science fiction.
Second, ST fandom (which Inherited certain traditions of science fiction fandom) is also based on the expression of individual creativity. Fan writing, fan art, publishing fanzines, filksinglng, expressing one's opinions through LoC's, collecting, the crafts of model-building, costuming, and making blueprints—all are activities which soring directly from individual autonomy and creativity. ST fandom could have evolved as a following of passive "groupies" interested mainly In mass-produced commodities based on the show--but it didn't. The distinction fans make between the passive, uncreatlve "Trekkie" or groupie and the active, creative "Trekker" reflects the high value fans place on individual effort, autonomy, and creativity.
Third, by his own account Gene Roddenberry deliberately designed the ST format specifically to express liberal-individualist Ideas, and the majority of active fans apparently perceive those Ideas in the show itself. In form and content, ST and fanac are tailor-made for the Individualist.
Fans' attitudes toward their work vary, of course, with the kinds of jobs they hold. But in spite of this diversity, fans' statements about their work reveal rather consistent attitudes and expectations. Fans seem to share a strong need to create. They value freedom and space to do their own creative work, intrinsic job satisfaction, Intellectual stimulation, and the satisfaction of helping others. Material rewards, security, power, "getting ahead" and similar ambitions were scarcely mentioned at all except negatively.
The most satisfied group of fans are the creative artists and writers (See Tables 2 and 3 for the job categories I am using). Almost all of them expressed, in no uncertain terms, the conviction that creative work is for them its own reward. One fan, a Ph.D. who left her job to become a free-lance writer, gave the following response: "If you'd asked me that a year ago, I'd have said there was something I'd much rather be doing. But in the interim I've gone off and done it, and right now I'm enjoying my life/job enormously...here I am, living right next door to dire poverty, slaving away for an average of twelve hours a day on a novel—and I've never been happier in my life."
How do housewives, secretaries, and women doing traditional "women's work" in general regard their jobs? Does fandom serve them as an escape from the boredom and frustration of routine work? One eminent fan writer suggested that this is a common Impetus in fandom: "Host of my friends In fandom would rather be doing fannish activities than working. A lot of them are students, or started out that way. And a lot of them have dull jobs. Fannish activities, again, provide an Intellectual outlet/ catharsis." Many fans in routine clerical jobs did report intense dissatisfaction with their work. But the general mood of these fans was neither alienated nor fatalism and submissive. Many fans, though unsatisfied with their current jobs, regard them as merely a stopgap until they can launch a free-lance creative career, or as a means of support which allows them to do creative work on their own time. Many fans distinguished between their "formal" or Income-producing job and their "real" work A housewife states, "My housework is a bore—MY WORK, art or occasionally writing is fun."
In the discussion of fans' occupations above (Tables 2 and 3), I mentioned a tendency of female fans tho choose careers that are rather "untraditional" for women. This proportion would be even higher if some female Trekfans had their way. One woman who works as a "part-time janitor" expressed a highly non-traditional job preference: "I would rather be commanding a battery of 105 mm howitzers; but women are not yet permitted in the short-range artillery." And many fans expressed a longing to explore space, an occupation that is even more untraditional for women than it is for men. One fan says that she went so far as to take the qualifying test for astronaut training, but at the time (the early 70's) women were not accepted to train as astronauts. "Bitter?" she asks rhetorically, "You bet! That career would have been meaningful-- anything less is a farce." Another pan articulated this common dream of Trekfans: "If I could do anything I wanted I'd go into space. I want to see for myself what and who are out there. I want to find out all there is to find out and know all there is to know and, especially, compare what I think and feel and am with other Intelligent beings." But as a practical choice for the present, she reports that she has chosen a career in veterinary medicine, a field that is almost as untraditional for women as space travel and says: "I feel that I've made a very good career choice....I feel very good about it."
In the meantime, whatever the ultimate origins of fan individuality and independence may be, one thing is certain: fans will go on expressing that Independence in their "mundane" activities as well as in fanac. For the ST fan, creative autonomy does not begin and end with ST. One fan put it aptly enough --"The person who's Involved in fandom questions everything. Why does it have to be this way? Somebody, somewhere, can do it better."