Sexuality in K/S Fiction: Sensuality vs. Genitality
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| Title: | Sexuality in K/S Fiction: Sensuality vs. Genitality |
| Creator: | Linda Frankel |
| Date(s): | March 1985 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | Fanfiction, Kirk/Spock |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sexuality in K/S Fiction: Sensuality vs. Genitality was a installment of Linda Frankel's regular column, "Sexuality in K/S Fanfiction," which appeared in Not Tonight Spock! #8.
It is an essay which explores “sensuality vs. genitality” in K/S fiction, including “This Deadly Innocence” by Leslie Fish, “Nightjourney,” a story in Thrust by Carol Frisbie and Susan James, and the stories of Teri White.
The Series
For the seven other essays in this series, see Sexuality in K/S Fiction.
Excerpts
It's a question of sexual style. To define what the subject of this article is, I will have to talk about the concept of foreplay. If Kirk and Spock don't have anal intercourse, but do have oral intercourse is that foreplay? If it isn't, suppose they have neither, but caress and cuddle instead. Is that foreplay? Many people disagree about what foreplay means and some reject the idea completely....What about our favorite pair? K/S fiction reveals an ambivalence on the issue of foreplay. On the one hand the writers understand the significance of genital acts to men and there seems to be an assumption that the relationship is not complete unless there has been oral or anal intercourse. Given the frequency of anal intercourse in K/S fiction, it is possible that many writers believe that fellatio is foreplay as well. Yet, on the other hand, most of the writers are women and believe with the majority of women that caressing and cuddling are really significant. How is it possible to maintain two contradictory sets of values? Highly illogical indeed, but in K/S it works.
In many ways "Hour of Lead" and "An Anguish to Pay" are typical of the pon-farr story. The pon-farr story demands genital intercourse and will be satisfied with nothing else. Yet at the same time, pon-farr stories represent the worst side of genital intercourse. It loses all tenderness becoming an expression of violent need. This establishes the dichotomy of sensuality vs. genitality at its most extreme. Tenderness and affection is never expressed through intercourse in a typical pon-farr story. It can only be expressed through sensual acts like kissing or smelling Kirk's clothes. The value of sensuality is therefore obvious.
Sometimes the characters have to arrive at an understanding of the value of sensuality after a long struggle with this issue. In "This Deadly Innocence" by Leslie Fish, (NAKED TIMES 3) Kirk sets up a dichotomy between "innocent affection" and what he perceives as really sexual. Fish piles sensual act upon sensual act. Stroking, massaging and wrestling may be erotic to the reader, but for most of the novelette, it isn't really sexual to Kirk unless it involves direct genital contact and brings about an orgasm. Finally, after one episode of tender sensuality Kirk thinks to himself that It feels "just like afterglow" — the sensation of contentment that arises after orgasmic intercourse. He goes to bed sated. This is a recognition that sensual acts are sexual. However, this insight doesn't remain with Kirk In the morning. The reason for this is that Kirk hadn't accepted sex with Spock as positive. If sex acts make you feel guilty then in order not to experience guilt while being sexual, you must narrow the definition of sex to genital intercourse. Then you can do a whole range of sensual acts without being threatened by them. but if sensuality is sexual then it too can't be free of guilt. Kirk therefore had to abandon the insight of the previous night until he could say that all sex is innocent, and none should exact the price of guilt.
The winning out of sensual affection over violent sexual expression seems to be desirable to K/S fans as well as to the writers. Many fans are expressing the fear that other values are asserting themselves in K/S fiction through rape, slavery and sadomasochism stories. Yet I find that even in stories which deal with these themes, the author is clearly rejecting them and asserting the value of tender affection in opposition. So K/S remains in accordance with the majority view of women that sensuality is the highest form of sexual love.