Sexuality in K/S Fiction: The K/S/Mc Triad
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| Title: | Sexuality in K/S Fiction: The K/S/Mc Triad |
| Creator: | Linda Frankel |
| Date(s): | January 1986 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | Fanfiction, Kirk/Spock, Threesome |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sexuality in K/S Fiction: The K/S/Mc Triad was an installment of Linda Frankel's regular column, "Sexuality in K/S Fanfiction," which appeared in Not Tonight, Spock! #12.
The author notes that in preparation for this essay, she read all of the K/S/Mc fiction that had been written with the exception of Gayle F's story, something that illustrates how few fanworks with this premise there were in existence at the time.
Frankel begins the essay with a discussion of how a triad would begin. Would it be Kirk/McCoy first, with Spock as an addition? McCoy/Spock with Kirk as an addition? Spock/Kirk and an added McCoy.
At the end of the article, Linda says she is a “convert to K/S/Mc,” suggested that some fans writing these stories were less enlightened than she apparently would have liked them to be: “…Fans show the coming together of the triad as a difficult problem in the stories and poems I have read. The major obstacle is the idea that a bonded relationship should or must be monogamous. Exclusivity is a prevalent prejudice in K/S, and the initially excluded partner whether it be McCoy or Kirk reflects the pro-monogamy bias of the readership. The excluded partner is sure that he can never be included because he has no concept for a relationship that is not monogamous.”
Fanworks Discussed
The essay covered the topic of a Kirk-Spock-McCoy triad, with reference to stories by K.S. T’Lan (Two's Company in Duet IX), Ann Carver (What are Friends For? in Daring Attempt #3), a poem by Tere Ann Roderick (“First Thought" in ”Daring Attempt #1), and the story In Triplicate by Natasha Solten and Dovya Blacque.
The Series
For the seven other essays in this series, see Sexuality in K/S Fiction.
Excerpts
Yet why not begin with Kick/McCoy? One reason could be that Spock is perceived as too central to allow for even an initial exclusion of him. His Vulcan ability to bond is too important to the kind of intimacy that many writers focus on as well- It might be that Kirk/McCoy could be considered too ordinary or even too predictable to be interesting. There is also the possibility that fans can't believe that a relationship could start off between Kirk and McCoy. Maybe they are seen as too much alike. The assumption behind this is that opposites attract and sameness doesn't, yet sharing things in common is often the foundation of any relationship—whether it be heterosexual, homosexual or non-sexual. People who are total opposites will find themselves in too much conflict for any relationship between them to be viable. Personalities are more complex than magnetic forces. The notion that love adheres to the same law as magnetism may be a source of much unhappiness. I see no reason why Kirk and McCoy couldn't be the first to approach one another in a K/S/Mc story.
Why couldn't they begin as three? One reason is the desire for plot conflict to center on the establishment of the relationship. If the triad is established without trouble, then the story's conflict must center on other matters. Another justification for not having a triad in the beginning is that the concept of K/S/Mc is regarded as too strange and new to be a given in any story. Once this sub-genre has progressed and become more accepted, stories might easily start with the premise that K/S/Mc have been a functioning triad for years. Fans show the coming together of the triad as a difficult problem in the stories and poems I have read. The major obstacle is the idea that a bonded relationship should or must be monogamous. Exclusivity is a prevalent prejudice in K/S and the initially excluded partner whether it be McCoy or Kirk reflects the 'pro-monogamy bias of the readership. The excluded partner is sure that he can never be included because he has no concept for a relationship that is not monogamous.