Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2021: Week 44

The Procrustean Petard is a Star Trek: TOS genderswap story by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. It was printed in Star Trek: The New Voyages #2. Unlike its predecessor, it is one of the seven stories/poems (out of ten) in the book that was not previously published in a fanzine.

"The Procrustean Petard" highlighted the canon (at the time) fact that there were no female captains in Starfleet. The story has been accused of sexism for its depiction of genderswapped characters, particularly James Kirk as a female. The story was also criticized for depicting people with XYY chromosomes as overly aggressive and violent, a stereotype based on 1970s pseudoscience that has been widely debunked.

Some of the early fanworks inspired by this story were parodies or reaction fics. Others expanded upon the original premise.

"The Procrustean Petard" has also been cited as the inspiration for many genderswap fics both within and outside the Star Trek fandom. The genderswap trope became particularly common in Kirk/Spock stories. Many of these fanfics were influential in their own right, further popularizing the concept of genderswaps in fanfiction. "The Procrustean Petard" has been called a "fandom classic".

With the advent of online fandom, some fans have shared scans or typed the full story to share with others, thereby bringing this story to a wider audience.