Gorgeous (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Gorgeous
Author(s):	Kathy Stanis
Date(s):	2002
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	on AO3
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Gorgeous is a Kirk/Spock story by Kathy Stanis.

It was published in the print zine First Time #54.

Summary

"Kirk and Spock must dress like women in order to fit in at the diplomatic reception being held for them on a female-dominated planet."

Reactions and Reviews

2002

Clever, funny and very unique, this story expresses an intimate view of K/S while taking on our cultural and societal attitudes. If that sounds unwieldy or complicated, it’s not at all.

Kirk and Spock are made to examine their own feelings about masculine and feminine roles and themselves. It’s beautifully done here, without any message hitting you over the head.

The premise is simple and realistic—Kirk and Spock must go to a planet on a diplomatic mission and do as the natives do—dress as women.

On this planet, men’s and women’s roles are essentially reversed from ours and Kirk and Spock must face others and themselves in these roles.

I realize the idea of Kirk or Spock dressing or acting in a feminine manner might be off-putting to some, but in the context of this story and how it’s presented, the idea becomes completely acceptable.

Besides, can you resist Kirk and Spock slow dancing together or Spock in eyeshadow? Yum.

I loved what they say to each other as they move through the upside down world:

“Are we...ridiculous in these clothes? Was it silly to agree to this?”

“We are not ridiculous here.”

“I want to dance with you as...our real selves, as men.”

“I assure you, Jim, your...manly essence comes through quite clearly no matter your attire. Perhaps especially in this attire. And if I may say so, you are the most...beautiful man in this room.”

“Besides you, Spock.”

And what a terrific and memorable first line: “Does this make me look fat?” which sets up the whole story in a way that we as women can relate to.

So please try not to let any preconceived notions stop you from fully enjoying this delightful and thought- provoking story.

"Gorgeous" is seven pages long. While I don't automatically hate stories where the macho male leads have to dress up as women for various reasons, I am not really fond of them either. Nor do I particularly like men dancing with each other which I know does turn some women on. I thought this story about Kirk dressing up as woman was just plain silly.

Actually I wouldn't have even read the story, except you had to read all the stories in this contest zine if you were going to try to vote fairly for the best three stories in your opinion. The story did require a lot of imagination, that I do admit. It just wasn't a story for me.

I was frankly shocked to discover that Kathy Stanis, a writer whom I normally really, really like, wrote this story. I never would have picked this out as a story of hers at all. For me in this contest zine, this was the biggest surprise to me when I discovered who the authors were.

I like Kathy a lot because she normally writes with a highly poetical style.

I'd like to thank Robin, Shelley, and Jenna for putting the names of the writers and the top three winners of the contest zine First Time 54 in August's KSP. I was really curious about this. I rated ALL 17 stories in order and kept my ratings. I only voted for one of the eventual top three winners—Deanna Gray. She got 1st and I had picked her 3rd. What interested me the most was that in my personal rating of all the stories that my top 9 stories had six people I knew I liked. And also included the other two winners—Jenna Sinclair and Carolyn Spencer. Only three names were new names to me. But two of those three new names, I picked as my personal 1st and 2nd favorite—Elise Madris and Anne Elliot. What I had originally expected is that I would automatically pick the people I have always liked. And that turned out to be both true and false. Of the stories I put in the bottom half, stories 10-17, there was only one old familiar name that I was shocked to see there — Kathy Stanis. Never in the world could I imagine me not liking a Stanis story very much—and here I had done it. Why? Because I didn't like the basic plotline. So I guess that proves to me that although I do have writers I really tend to like whether I know they have written the stories or not, I am also very much into the actual story concept/plotline. I had previously always thought I was more impressed by individual writing style, but I guess that is not as true as I thought.

This short story, while intentionally amusing at some points, actually makes a very serious point--that gender roles are culturally defined. In “Gorgeous,” the Enterprise visits a planet where men are second-class citizens expected to wear tight dresses, make-up, and high heels...and Kirk and Spock are expected to dress the part. I must admit that the thought of Kirk and Spock in dresses doesn’t do much for me. In fact, I found the mental images conjured up by this story to be anything but erotic--ridiculous is more like it. But the thing is that this story forced me to keep asking myself why the images seemed so ridiculous, and the answer was always the same: that despite the definite progress that has been made against sexism, we are still accustomed to women being the ones who are expected to sacrifice their bodies, common sense, free time, and bank accounts on the altar of fashion. Speaking as someone who still (occasionally) wears high heels, I believe it is a very good idea for all of us--male and female--to stop now and then and try to see our own culture as if we were aliens viewing it for the first time, and this story definitely helps the readers to do just that. But “Gorgeous” is more than just a socially responsible story. It is also interesting K/S. Why? Well, for one thing, despite their unusual attire, Kirk and Spock are very much in character. There is a great conversation about dancing in which Kirk is working up the courage to dance with Spock and Spock is deliberately challenging Kirk by playing dumb in a maddeningly Vulcan way. Which brings me to the second reason why this story works as K/S. It seems as if Kirk is liberated by the role reversal. One gets the feeling that, if he were still in the role of macho captain, he might not have worked up the courage to talk to Spock about dancing. (And we all know that “dancing” can be both a prelude to and a metaphor for even more intimate contact.) Finally, there is a third factor that made “Gorgeous” an enjoyable K/S story for me: by the time Kirk and Spock actually did start dancing, I couldn’t have cared less what they were wearing. The point was that they were finally, finally together—and their clothing and everything else about the images they present to the outside world became very, very secondary to the deepening mental and physical intimacy of these two friends.

2021

4/5. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The only problem I had with this story is how it handled gender roles, but, as it was completely canon compliant (for the time it was written), I suppose I can't really complain. There was romance, there was sexual tension, and there was a depiction of Uhura that I enjoyed. Overall, I'd recommend it.