aceofwands:

To the Star Trek fandom community on Tumblr – I need your help!

Specifically, the fans on here who are interested in / read or write fic about the female Star Trek characters.

As some of you may already know, I am now a fledgling academic, in my final year of a BA in English Literatures, and I’m currently working on a research project about female-centred fic.

I already knew that, for my very first big research project, I wanted to focus on Star Trek female-centred fic, because quite frankly I think it’s fantastic, and I want my research to be on topics that are important and interesting to me. But when it came time to figure out what particular aspect of it I wanted to research and write about, I was a bit stumped – until I noticed a ‘trend’ in some of the lady-focused fic our community creates and shares. Namely, a subset of them involve ‘domestic’ activities like knitting, gardening, going on holiday, hanging out in the holodeck, having drinks at Ten Forward/Quark’s, and so on. And I was like, huh, I wonder what’s going on with that? Voila, research topic found.

It’s taken me the better part of the last few weeks to realise/decide that this sub-section of fic is actually an, as yet unlabelled, subgenre – which in my paper I am going to be giving the label 'Homoaffection Fic’. I’m still narrowing down my definition, but so far I’m defining it as: Fan fiction that resists (so-called) “masculine” narrative/elements, which connects the “private sphere” with the notion of women liking women, in order to “feminise” the canon.

In other words: Fic that doesn’t have a “masculine” narrative or elements like action and conflict, which are typical of a normal Star Trek episode. Which takes place in the “private sphere”, i.e. non-work spaces (e.g. people’s quarters, holodecks, bars, restaurants, Risa, etc) in which domestic and/or “feminine” activities take place. And which depict positive relationships between women, whether platonic, romantic and/or sexual, which have a lack of conflict or a peaceful conflict resolution.

Having done all this preliminary research, it’s now time for me to actually do the reading and analysing fic part, and then write the paper – which is where you come in!

I’ve already been talking to the wonderful @cosmic-llin, asking her for fic recs and lamenting the lack of good academic articles about femslash, but considering this community is the one I’m focusing my paper on, it’s only proper that I ask all of you for your help in finding fic to make sure that I don’t miss any perfect examples!

Furthermore, I’m still trying to refine this definition, so I would like your help in doing so – by sharing recs with me, based on my definition above, you’ll actually be helping me to narrow down my definition. Even if you want to send me fic and say “Look it ticks two of the boxes, but not the third, but I still feel like it fits” that’s helpful to me! I think that Homoaffection Fic is something we can all recognise, even if we’ve never labelled it or grouped it together before now.

I know that fandom and academia haven’t always had the best of relationships – and rightly so, considering some of the stuff that’s gone down in the past! But I’m hoping to change that. I’m as much a fan of this stuff as you are, and the whole reason I’m writing a paper about this is because I think it’s super fascinating and want to shine a light on my own work and pleasures as well (the two fic I’ve published on AO3 both classify as Homoaffection Fic).

I will be asking permission from each fic writer to use their work in my paper – and want to clarify that this is only for a University assignment, and will only be read by my supervisor. However, that said, this paper could be the basis for published work in the future (I certainly hope so, because I’m sure there’s more I can say about this exciting topic!), so do let me know of any concerns you may have.

You can get in touch with me with your recs through the Inbox, or the new-fangled Messenger system, or even through my thevalkyriedirective@gmail.com email address if you’d prefer. If you have any questions or concerns, I’m happy to answer those too! (Also if you want to talk more about Homoaffection Fic, or fem-fic in general, my inbox is always open!)