Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts
| Title: | Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts |
| Creator: | Joanna Russ |
| Date(s): | April 1985 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
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Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts has the title page subtitle: "Essays on Sex and Pornography." The cover has the subtitle: "Feminist Essays."
It is a collection of essays by science North-American fiction writer, literary critic and fandom participant Joanna Russ.
The chapter most known in fannish circles is Pornography by Women, For Women, With Love (Originally published in 1985, as an essay in the fanzine Nome entitled "Another Addict Raves About K/S" and later modified for the book). This chapter analyses the possible psychology behind the desire to read slash, which she understood because slash is the kind of fantasy that works for her personally. She posited slash is about female sexuality, not gay men, not men at all but the type of relationship women want (with men or other women).
Reactions and Reviews
1986
I always like to see someone else take Star Trek seriously besides me, and if it is outside fandom, all the better. Recently, I discovered two scholarly books that concern themselves, at least in part, with Star Trek (I have the good fortune of being employed at a college library). One deals with American popular culture [American Monomyth] and the other with feminist issues, and I must say it has been fascinating delving into them.... My second find was a collection of feminist essays called Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts by Joanna Russ. In it is an essay entitled, "Pornography by women, for women, with love." In the opening paragraphs, she discusses the title and says something like, "Now that I've got your attention, let me tell you about Star Trek." She proceeds to take a look at the K/S literature and comes up with a decidedly "thumbs up" verdict. I'd like to point out that I had never read any K/S when I read this essay, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it except that it seemed a rather alien concept to me. Reading this essay, however, gave me a way of approaching K/S, and it provided me with a background which allowed me to enjoy the K/S I finally did read. I think the most interesting premise of the essay was that, although Kirk and Spock are both male, the stories are really not about male love. They resemble love and sex from a female point of view rather than a male one (a main example used is that in traditional male-female relations, women wait and men act. In many K/S stories, neither of these men act; they wait, and hem and haw and wonder if what they are doing is right). Other pluses: androgyny—Kirk and Spock are equals and take on equally both male & female roles in love; the celebration of male beauty, as Russ puts it. We (female) readers get loving descriptions of two terrific male bodies. The author's conclusion is that K/S is not pornography in the popular sense, which defines pornography as disgusting and degrading. K/S, seen in the light of Russ' article, is sexual fantasy of a sophisticated nature. It's not about S & M, even though violence is often done to the characters. It's about a satisfying love between the ultimate equals, the kind of love rarely found in reality. Well, I'm sorry if I've bored anybody who's been through all this before, from religion to K/S and back again, but talking about things like this is what makes being a fan fun and special for me. And isn't sharing what being a fan is all about? [1]
1987
This book of feminist essays]] (Crossing Press, 1985) was loaned to me because I was interested in the subject matter of the essay "Pornography By Women, For Women, With Love" — which is about K/S fan fiction. If you know what that is, you are already smiling and interested.
If not, let me explain that this is about love relationships between Kirk and Spock of Star Trek. I have always loved science fiction. I haven't always loved Star Trek. I’ve come around a lot on this subject. There was a time when I was rather bitter toward things like Star Trek and Star Wars and other popular media science fiction. I regarded it as simple-minded, diluted, cotton-candy versions of the real stuff, and feared that this pap would crowd out the more seriously-intended science fiction.
I try to keep an open mind, and I guess I now see this stuff as an important part of the educational function of science fiction, in that it has provided stepping stones into the larger field of SF; maybe it has even induced some people to being to read. I won't want to get into this too much in this review; I've written extensively about my thoughts on science fiction and SF conventions and their educational functions in an article in The Comic Buyer's Guide last year.
To return to the Russ essay cited above, fans who are familiar with Star Trek fandom may be amazed by the analytical manner in which the K/S stories are considered. You probably thought the stories were just for fun! Actually, Russ's essay makes it clear that the stories are fun. It is startling to see these stories seriously studied and placed in a feminist context. Those readers who are not familiar with Star Trek fandom will be even more amazed by the nature and extent of the phenomenon.
Russ's essay on K/S fiction illustrates one of my ideas about popular culture. It seems to me that commercial artfoms, like TV, movies, comics or popular fiction, sometimes become something much more than "merely” entertainment. Members of the large audience — which in part defines popular culture — bring their own individual viewpoints and interpretations to the products; absorb the symbols and vocabulary, the lexicon; and in using all of these elements as part of their shared experience, adding their own human dimensions, create "real" art forms and real ways of communicating important and interesting thoughts and ideas.
Obviously I've been getting around to saying that this is what Star Trek fans have been doing when they create their own stories, especially these K/S stories, which are a rather extreme example. They add an erotic element to the TV product that goes beyond that envisioned by the show's original writers and producers.
My interest in this book goes beyond this one essay. As soon as I got the book in ray hands, I started reading the introduction and found it so interesting I couldn't even skip ahead and read the Star Trek essay which was my original intention. I just read the whole thing from cover to cover. One major theme of the book is a feminist theoretical analysis of the issue of pornography and censorship, always important issues, especially in light of the Commission on Pornography's report to Attorney General Edwin Meese. I am very sensitive about this issue, as a bookseller. I was delighted with Russ cited the article which I've been trying to get people to read for 6 years, ”The Politics of Porn: Can Feminists Walk the Line?", by Deirdre English in the April 1980 Mother Jones.
My reading of this book suggested that Russ was a opponent of censorship. When the local fan group got together to discussed this book, I realized that this is more than an attack on censorship, but rather a celebration of the variety of human expression. K/S stories are a clear example of an erotic fantasy with real meaning to some people, in contrast to commercial pornography or the sexual images of men and women in TV advertising. Russ supports individual rights, and doesn't want to take judgmental stands. An interesting aspect of this book is the extensive autobiographical context of the essays, and the warmth and humor of the discussion. Russ takes a lot of effective shots at the unholy alliance of feminism and the right wing against pornography and for censorship. So go and read this book. You will find it provocative and valuable. [2]