Mid-Course Correction: ‚Don╎t Ask, Don╎t Tell╎ and Stargate SG-1 Femslash
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qsmpc 1 (1) pp. 41–59 Intellect Limited 2016 queer studies in media & popular culture Volume 1 Number 1 © 2016 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/qsmpc.1.1.41_1 Liz MiLLward and Janice G. dodd University of manitoba Mid-course correction: ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and Stargate SG-1 femslash abstract Keywords This article explores Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007, SciFi) fanfiction responses to the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) policy of the United States Department of Defense. It fanfiction examines 58 examples of femslash that depict a same-sex relationship between char- femslash acters Samantha Carter and Janet Fraiser. It suggests that this fanfiction mirrors lesbian the evolving public debates regarding lesbians and gays in the military and critiques military DADT in two ways. First, the femslash demonstrates that the television show repre- Stargate SG-1 sents a realistic version of conditions under DADT. The second approach uses the science fiction elements of the series to critically comment on the assumptions behind DADT, such as unit cohesion based on compulsory heterosexuality. Sam/Janet femslash insists on the possibility of a valid lesbian existence within the US military and beyond. The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy (DADT), introduced by the US Department of Defense in 1993, required lesbians and gay men serving in the US armed forces to refrain from ‘homosexual conduct’. Its repeal finally came into effect on 20 September 2011. The life of the policy broadly coincided with the highly successful science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007), which is set in a top-secret branch of the present-day United States Air Force (USAF). 41 QSMPC_1.1_Millward+Dodd_41-59.indd 41 10/16/15 2:13:16 PM Liz Millward | Janice G. Dodd In this article, we argue that a significant number of fanfiction writers take up specific canon narratives (from the source text, which is the Stargate SG-1 tele- vision series itself) in order to explore and critique DADT through femslash that paired two of the show’s main characters, Samantha Carter (played by Amanda Tapping) and Janet Fraiser (played by Teryl Rothery). Fanfiction is a form of creativity that is popular with women: Anne Jamison suggests that ‘the majority of this not-for-profit writing is written by women or if not by women, then by people who are willing to be (mis)taken for women’ (2013: 18). Within the broad range of possible types of fanfic- tion, the subgenre of femslash has become a staple fan response to televi- sion series that depict women working together, or, as Helen Caudill puts it, ‘in online fanfiction, women are writing stories about women for women to read’ (2003: 37). Femslash can have a profound effect on its writers and read- ers. In her research on the Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001, syndication) fan community, Rosalind Hanmer found that ‘many of the fans [she] interviewed celebrate how the television series, the fandom formed and the fanfiction content produced and written by the fans has helped them to gain the cour- age and empowerment to discover themselves’ (2014: 609). In this article, we suggest that in addition to helping to empower individuals, celebrate sexual- ity and create lesbian community, fanfiction can be used by its writers (and readers) to analyse the negative consequences of the existing social order and propose alternatives to it. In other words, it provides a forum where partici- pants can develop a specific political critique on the basis of shared values (which may themselves coalesce in the process of sharing stories and ideas). Our focus is on the significant subsection of Sam/Janet femslash stories that enact a form of political resistance to the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. Following Patricia Melzer (2009), we draw on the notion that science fiction ‘queers’, or makes strange, the normative social order of the present and reveals its underlying politics. The work of both Ika Willis (2006) and Elizabeth Woledge (2006) explores the ways by which fanfiction insists on breaking into canonical narratives in order to suggest – and bring other fans’ attention to – alternative interpretations. We extend their insights to consider Sam/Janet femslash, which promotes a queer reading of DADT and Stargate SG-1 in several meanings of the word: it defamiliarizes the world in which DADT could make any sort of sense (an effect it shares with science fiction), challenges heteronormativity, insists on same-sex sexuality and intimacy and indicates multiple possible interpretations of the source text, refusing an authoritative reading. In doing so, therefore, it enacts a kind of ‘mid-course correction’ to the canonical reading of both the DADT Directive and the show. Members of the Stargate SG-1 online femslash community engage with the characters, share stories, provide reviews and critique, write corrections and extensions of the canon, celebrate (the ‘Seventh-Annual International Day of Femslash’ was held in July 2014), host writing contests (‘Sam and Janet Ficathon’), hold conventions (Femslashcon began in 2010) and construct YouTube videos. Femslash archives contain complete works of fanfiction and those in progress, reader responses, fan art and music videos. The archives consulted for this article – Archive of Our Own, Area52: The HKH Standard, The Comfort Zone, FanFiction.Net, LiveJournal, Passion and Perfection, Sam and Janet Ficathon and ShatterStorm Productions – contain more than 1,800 Sam and Janet (Sam/Janet) femslash stories. Like other examples of femslash, much of this material describes characters’ sexual encounters with each other, referred 42 QSMPC_1.1_Millward+Dodd_41-59.indd 42 10/12/15 9:49:45 AM mid-course correction to as ‘PWP’, ‘porn without plot’ or ‘Plot? What Plot?’ (Busse and Hellekson 2006: 11). We therefore selected stories that went beyond ‘PWP’. Of these stories, we restricted our study to complete works based on Stargate SG-1 and did not include stories based on the other two Stargate series (Stargate Atlantis [2004–09] and Stargate Universe [2009–11]), nor crossover stories with other fandoms. We examined 58 Sam/Janet stories by 31 different authors. Many authors of fanfiction write under one or more pseudonyms, and participa- tion in the fan community may also involve the use of an alias and associated icon. The texts examined here are attributed as they appeared online with the site or archive web address and the date of retrieval. (Alphabetical listing of author names in fanfiction archives uses the first letter so, for example, Sam Walker is located under ‘S’ rather than ‘W’.) The stories were selected for analysis on the basis of storylines that explicitly identified the impact of the DADT policy on the characters. Our approach was informed by the work of Bronwen Thomas, who advocates ‘an integrated analysis – one that combines close attention to the text and a focus on the wider processes of production and reception’ (2011: 16). We examined the stories thematically based on the perceived problem of gays and lesbians in the military as articulated in the DADT Directive (with regard to discipline, unit cohesion and morality) and for evidence of the lived experiences reported in sociological studies about gay or lesbian serving soldiers (negotiation of sexual identity, social isolation and fear of reprisal). While not analysed here in detail, we also were attentive to the reader responses to each story as evidence of uptake by this femslash community. We found that the stories critique the DADT policy in two main ways. First, some explore the canon in order to claim that the show represents a realistic version of conditions under DADT. Given the requirement for silence under the policy, telling stories about its impact has the effect of answering what Kirby Bowling, Juanita Firestone and Richard Harris characterize as ‘questions that cannot be asked of respondents who cannot respond’ (2005: 411). The second, perhaps more important, approach uses the science fiction elements of the series – such as multiverse theory, space and time travel, reanimation, cloning and ascension – to illustrate the absurdities of DADT and to imagine alternative realities. In order to discuss these critiques, we summarize DADT policy and introduce Stargate SG-1. The bulk of our discussion, however, focuses on the femslash that deals with Sam/Janet and DADT. We briefly review the literature on fanfiction and then examine the femslash through three thematic strands: (1) the negotiation of sexual identity, (2) military morale and discipline and (3) the hope of a liveable future. don’t asK, don’t teLL The Department of Defense Directive 1304.26, which came to be known as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’, allowed ‘homosexuals to serve in the military on the condition that they do not reveal their sexual orientation and refrain from any homosexual behaviour’ (Sinclair 2009: 707–08). This compromise policy was supposed to remove some discrimination against lesbians and gay men while maintaining the military position that they posed ‘an unacceptable risk to the armed forces’ high standards of morale, good order and discipline and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability’ (US Code 654, quoted in Sinclair 2009: 705). The policy was always confusing and the number of discharges for ‘homosexuality’ increased under it (Bowling, Firestone and 43 QSMPC_1.1_Millward+Dodd_41-59.indd 43 10/9/15 10:06:32 AM Liz millward | Janice G. Dodd Harris 2005; Sinclair 2009). However, in recent years the attitudes of junior enlisted service members and the general public shifted toward the idea that lesbians and gays should be able to serve openly in the US military, as they are able to do in other jurisdictions (Belkin 2008; Bowling, Firestone and Harris 2005), and in 2010 the legal process to repeal the policy began.