Mid-Course Correction: Â‚Donâ•Žt Ask, Donâ•Žt Tellâ•Ž and Stargate SG-1 Femslash

qsmpc 1 (1) pp. 41–59 Intellect Limited 2016

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).

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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 television 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 fanfiction, the subgenre of femslash has become a staple fan response to television 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 readers. 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 courage and empowerment to discover themselves’ (2014: 609). In this article, we suggest that in addition to helping to empower individuals, celebrate sexuality 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 participants 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

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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 participation 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

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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. Women in the military negotiated changing conditions under DADT. Before the Directive came into force, recruiting officers had been able to ask women directly if they were lesbian. Recruits said no, not just to gain entry to the service but because they did not necessarily see themselves as lesbian before joining up. Many took the position that ‘I wasn’t lying because I did not really understand at the time that I was gay’ (Gershick 2005: 282). In her study of lesbians in the US military, Zsa Zsa Gershick found that many had relationships with men before coming out, while ‘21 per cent of participants in a study of how military women managed perceptions of gender and sexuality indi- cated that they consciously employ strategies aimed at ensuring that others do not perceive them to be lesbian or bisexual’ (Belkin and Embser-Herbert 2002: 195). One tactic they used to conceal their sexuality was to date or marry men. Others included avoiding revealing much about themselves to colleagues or living quite solitary personal lives. Bonnie Moradi asserts that ‘both concealment and disclosure strategies may be used by the same individual in different contexts and with different people within the organization’ (2009: 515), but nevertheless the ‘don’t tell’ parameter ‘imposes restrictions on speech and conduct of homosexuals that do not exist for heterosexuals. […] The ability to self-disclose is beneficial to a person’s social life, whereas nondisclosure has been linked to loneliness and social isolation’ (Sinclair 2009: 708). In spite of these attempts to remain hidden, lesbians have more or less been open secrets in the military. In the early 1990s, Melissa Herbert surveyed 394 servicewomen and 79 per cent said that they knew military women who were lesbian or bisexual (Belkin and Embser-Herbert 2002: 188). Although Belkin’s review of studies on DADT found a ‘cultural-organizational […] pres- sure to pretend to be uncomfortable’ with lesbians and gay men (2008: 287), by 2006, 73 per cent of US military personnel said they were

personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians. One in four military personnel who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knew a member of their unit who was gay, and more than 55 per cent who know a gay colleague said the presence of gays or lesbians in their unit is well known by others. (Sinclair 2009: 714–15)

Furthermore, some evidence suggests that the fear that open lesbians will undermine unit cohesion is flawed, because in actuality ‘disclosure was related to greater [unit] social and task cohesion’ (Moradi 2009: 529). Nevertheless, harassment ‘based on perceived sexual orientation […] occurs pervasively throughout the typical military duty experience’ (Bowling, Firestone and Harris 2005: 433). As Gershick notes, women ‘feared the “lesbian card.” Any compe- tent female can lose her post if a male – especially one who wants her job or fears she’ll get his – plays it’ (2005: xvi). In sum, then, under DADT women often came out after joining up. They practised concealment by having relationships with or feigning interest in men, or by limiting their personal lives. All of these conditions are examined in detail by the Stargate SG-1 femslash writers.

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Stargate SG-1 Stargate SG-1 ran for ten seasons starting in 1997, had 17 million weekly viewers and was broadcast in 64 countries (Gates 2004). It gave rise to the two aforementioned spin-off series, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, as well as two direct-to-DVD movies, numerous novels, role-playing games and licensed products such as figurines. The show combines earth mythology with science fiction and incorporates interplanetary travel through an alien device called a ‘stargate’, which connects via a wormhole to another stargate on another planet. People and objects travel through the wormhole and arrive instantaneously on the second planet, which may be hundreds or thousands of light-years away. The SG-1 refers to the designation of the premier team of explorers who journey through the stargate each episode. For the first eight seasons this team consisted of a civilian archaeologist (Dr Daniel Jackson, who was temporarily replaced by Jonas Quinn in Season 6), an alien (Teal’c) and two USAF officers (Colonel Jack O’Neill and Captain – later promoted to Major and then Lieutenant Colonel – Samantha Carter). They were supported by the staff of Stargate Command (SGC), in particular the base commander, General George Hammond, and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Janet Fraiser. Fraiser is a significant character who appears in 70 of the 149 episodes that aired before she was killed in Season 7, or 47 per cent of the series to that date (she appeared in 33 per cent of the series overall). Carter is a decorated fighter pilot and prominent theoretical astrophysicist who regularly saves the world through scientific insight, which is frequently achieved by working closely with Fraiser (Millward and Dodd 2012: 19–21). Elements of the canon that femslash writers emphasize are the on-screen bond between Sam and Janet and the show’s science fiction elements. In the show, Sam and Janet work closely together. At team meetings, a typical pattern is for Janet to provide a verbal report, give Sam a significant look and the two of them to then retreat to consult together. They have an off-base relationship as well, because they (unequally) share responsibility for raising an alien child called Cassandra. Cassie, as she is known, is rescued by Sam and adopted by Janet. In ‘Heroes’ (Episodes 7.17 and 7.18), Sam is devas- tated by Janet’s death, and the viewers are temporarily misled into believing that she is grieving for Jack O’Neill, who is her supposed romantic interest. Both Teal’c and General Hammond acknowledge that Sam is Janet’s chief mourner, and Sam gives the address at Janet’s memorial service. The series thus depicts the two women as profoundly connected to each other. The story arcs in the show introduce a number of science fictional possibilities from which femslash writers extensively draw. Within series mythology, the original builders of the vast network of stargates are called the Ancients. They now exist as pure energy, achieved through a process called ascension, and their highly advanced technology permits time travel. SG-1’s major nemeses, the Goa’uld, are parasitic creatures that live in human hosts. The Goa’uld pose as gods and have a range of technology at their disposal, including spaceships, healing devices and memory devices. The Goa’uld also use sarcophagi to regenerate and reanimate themselves and their victims. The Asgard (the SGC’s galactic allies who are becoming extinct) have developed cloning to the extent that they can transfer their own consciousness into a cloned body. Other forms of alien technology that femslash writers utilize in their stories include a quantum mirror through which one steps in order to access alternative universes. This mirror is based on multiverse theory, which

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assumes that many parallel universes coexist, with the quantum mirror as a portal between them. The series thus includes time travel, space travel, parallel realities, reanimation, cloning and ascension to a higher plane of existence. Within the show, it is through these means that SG-1 encounters alien forms of social organization or alternate versions of themselves. Femslash writers take up these concepts in order to provide Sam and Janet with the opportunity to explore and act on their desire (or agonize about their failure to do so). What particularly interests us is the use of these science fictional elements to explore more than just lesbian desire: it is their deployment in order to imagine the repeal of DADT and to conceive of alternatives to the homophobic here and now.

Because we are not dead white men While early fan studies largely took ethnographic or psychoanalytic approaches to frame fan activities, including the production of fanfiction (reviewed in Busse and Hellekson 2006), we share the position that fanfiction is a response ‘to not only the source text, but also the cultural context within and outside the fannish community in which it is produced’ (Busse and Hellekson 2006: 7). We argue that fanfiction writers use the medium in order to respond to existing social conditions, including unjust regulations such as DADT. They also consider alternatives, imagining a more just present or future, and they connect with other fans to create and sustain communities based in these shared (political) perspectives. They can assume that their readers are familiar with the source characters and their environment, both physical and cultural, and in part because of this, fanfiction is a collaborative writing project within which no single interpretation is privileged as accurate. At their best, fan communities welcome complementary, competing and even contradictory readings that allow for expansive exploration of the characters. As Ika Willis demonstrates, in some canon stories there is ‘a lack of a sustain- ing fictional world within which queer desire can be recognized and read by the characters themselves’ (2006: 160), an effect of the canon that is akin to not asking and not telling. Yet because fanfiction is shared, ‘fan fiction is a way of alerting other fans to other potentially choosable structures of desire in the text’ (Willis 2006: 167). Stated more clearly, while canon material tends to be relentlessly heteronormative, fan communities can encourage queer readings. Malfalda Stasi has compared this community engagement to the allusion techniques of medieval allegory, in which each bard builds upon the source to achieve meaning for the audience before them (2006: 111). Part of the power that fanfiction writers can wield is in the selection of their preferred place in the canon (Stasi 2006: 74). Authors’ notes or disclaimers that precede the femslash are utilized to place the story specifically within the fanon, which refers to ‘the events created by the fan community in a particular fandom and repeated pervasively through the fantext’ (Busse and Hellekson 2006: 9). They signal, for readers, the perspective taken by the writer on the potential queer reading of the series. For example, ‘They don’t belong to me. If they did, they [Sam and Janet] would be canon’ (sams_ceara 2011b) or ‘Oh, and Dr Fraiser, she’s alive and well and living in Colorado Springs’ (Celievamp 2007). Some fanfiction writers go further than their notes or disclaimers, using ficathons in order to emphasize and encourage particular interpretations. An image used by Geekgrrllurking to advertise the ‘Sam and Janet Ficathon’ of 11 November 2010 makes this intention explicit. This image (which can be

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viewed at http://geekgrrllurking.livejournal.com/tag/sg1) features Janet in the centre of the frame in her USAF uniform. Behind her stands Sam. Both are looking defiantly directly at the viewer. At the bottom are two more images of the pair standing together. On the left, they are leaning together, cham- pagne flutes in hand, in a still from the episode ‘2010’ (Episode 4.16). On the right, they are wearing matching pink and blue cardigans in a still from ‘Rite of Passage’ (Episode 5.6). The top left-hand corner of the image reads ‘Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell’. This advertisement for the ficathon explicitly invites fanfiction writers to read and write about Sam and Janet’s relationship through the context of DADT. Willis (2006) argues that the canon usually attempts to render homophobic, racist and sexist meaning continuous, coherent and therefore powerful. Fanfiction makes visible the gaps in this supposedly seamless narrative and actively creates associations, through intertextuality, that make other readings imaginable (Willis 2006: 154). These associations do not close the gap (which would imply a final, ‘true’ reading of the canon) but instead suggest possibilities. As Willis argues, fanfiction

brings a text to a legibility formed out of a set of associations ‘chosen’ on the basis of the demands made by a reader’s desiring subjectivity: one of those demands might be precisely that the fictional universe should have space for the reader herself, for her desires, her demands, her politics. (Willis 2006: 163)

When this technique uses science fiction, it draws on the central tenets of the form, which are to defamiliarize the present and point to possible alternatives. Patricia Melzer argues that ‘it is the narrating of future visions, the authority claimed in designing what is to come (and what is not to come), who counts as a subject and who doesn’t, that makes sf [science fiction] political’ (2009: 397), and certainly some femslash writers are acutely aware of this. As Tristian Mahkai explained at a panel discussion on science fiction at Femslashcon 2011, ‘As a genre, there is a pervading sense of hope and possibility in SciFi. The sky isn’t even the limit. If you can dream it, you can see it or write it or just feel it’ (Mahkai 2011). There are other television series without explicitly lesbian characters which, like Stargate SG-1, have nevertheless generated significant femslash that reflects on a world without homophobia and/or a complex world of lesbian possibility. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001, UPN) and Xena: Warrior Princess are the two most obvious examples. For example, Julie Russo, analysing femslash involving the characters Captain Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, comments that ‘becoming involved with a woman may be new and unexpected, but the characters never have to agonize over coming out’ because their science fictional universe is (relatively) free of bigotry (2002: 17). Caudill (2003) examines the ways by which some Xena: Warrior Princess femslash tackles the taboo topic (for many lesbians) of the possible sexual appeal of violence. It explores Xena’s violence in order to consider how it might be manifested as sexual violence (or, at a minimum, sexual power) in her relationship with her partner, Gabrielle. Stasi (2006) has argued that fanfiction is composed of two types of stories. Stories that ask ‘What if?’ have a simple intertextuality, in which the writer’s desire is explored within the context of the canon. When that source text does not provide sufficient scope for their desires to be explored, writers employ

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alternate universes (AU), and a more complex intertextuality is created by the new time and/or place. The first type of story utilizes what Stasi calls ‘extreme compression’ because the reader is knowledgeable about the characters, settings and cultural context of the source material (2006: 122). The latter type of story, involving alternative universes (AU), requires more attention to the development of the environment and novel context but, to be successful, must present the characters as recognizable to the reader. As a science fiction series, the Stargate SG-1 canon itself provides numerous AU opportunities, including space and time travel as well as alien worlds and technologies. As a result, the demarcation of the two types of stories is less clear in Stargate SG-1 fanfiction than in work that draws on non-science fiction series, and the Sam/Janet femslash creates a rich intertextuality that is aware of both the source text (the fictional but contemporary world of Stargate SG-1) and the larger social reality (homophobic regulations affecting personnel within the US Armed Forces). While fanfiction production and consumption are about returning to familiar characters time after time, science fiction by its very nature is a genre that destabilizes our understanding of the present. In the following sections, we discuss Sam/Janet femslash that draws on these approaches.

Open secrets/moving targets Some stories, reflecting the findings of Gershick (2005), indicate a lack of awareness of lesbian sexuality on the part of the characters prior to their entry into the military. In ‘Courage’ (Arcturus 2009a), ‘Slow Burn’ (bassair 2011), ‘Stay’ (bigdamnxenafan 2010b), ‘Stop’ (Geonn 2009), ‘Taking a Chance’ (Fern 1998) and ‘A Well-Placed Bet’ (LilFerret 2009), Sam and Janet must deal with their growing attraction for one another as being an expres- sion of their newly recognized lesbian sexuality. Other stories, mirroring the findings of Belkin and Embser-Herbert (2002), presume a ‘gay’ backstory for one or more characters that must be kept secret: it is what happens offstage. In ‘All That Glitters’ (Kiva 2004), ‘Early Days’ (Geonn 2011b), ‘Finally Touching’ (Kiva 2003a) and ‘Kitchen Catastrophe’ (sams_ceara 2011a), Sam and Janet have acted on their desire but are very conscious of the need to keep their feelings secret because of the possible repercussions for their careers under DADT. In ‘Priceless Things’ (MegSage n.d.), Sam and Janet are lovers but they are not able to be ‘out’. Janet refers to ‘the now cold embers of a marriage she’d used to hide, to convince others that she was a normal woman’ (MegSage n.d.). Sam laments her lack of courage about coming out: ‘I can go to other worlds, but I can’t admit this. My entire life is a secret’ (MegSage n.d.). The need to provide convincing evidence of normative heterosexuality in order to satisfy the idle curiosity and gossip of co-workers, or to dissuade unwanted suitors, is found in many of the stories. Sam constructs a fictional heterosexual relationship in order to make her commanding officer less curious in ‘Hum-worthy’ (jessica_eliza 2011). To Janet she says, ‘If the Colonel asks, I have a boyfriend named Jeremiah’ (jessica_eliza 2011). In ‘New Beginnings’ (Geekgrrllurking 2010a), Sam and a male colleague are seen together off-base, which starts rumours about their romantic involvement; but their relationship is a cover for them both to go to the only gay-and-lesbian bar in town, a story that is reminiscent of the ways in which ‘gay’ US military personnel would hide in plain sight. The need to refrain from any activities that might be

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perceived to be ‘gay’ was also an element of passing in the US military under DADT. ‘A Little Help’ (Olli n.d.b) is a deliberately self-referential nod to the femslash community: at Janet’s urging Sam has taken up a hobby and is writing femslash about the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 (1994–98, PTEN/ TNT), all the while insisting it does not mean she is gay. In a playful and ironic twist on the problem of providing a cover of plausible deniability of lesbian orientation, the failure of alien technology creates an opportunity for Sam and Janet to explore their relationship in ‘Playing with Fire’ (Geekgrrllurking 2009) and ‘Home Fires Burning’ (Geekgrrllurking 2010b). The destruction of an off- world stargate has left the two women stranded on a planet populated by warrior women. To thwart the sexual advances of the Amazonian leader, Sam pretends that she and Janet are a couple. Their fabricated relationship compli- cates the women’s dawning realization that their attraction to each other is, in fact, real, leading Janet to reflect that

I can’t do this anymore. […] I know better than to wander away from the strict military code of ethics. The rules about fraternization are there for a reason, and the whole same sex aspect merely complicated matters. Bending the rules always ended badly. As a scientist and doctor, I know this. As a flesh and blood woman though, these rationalizations are easily burned away with the simple touch of her hand against my skin. It had started out as a political ploy to fit in with the local tribe, protect each other from unwanted advances. And yes, I’ll admit it, a guilty pleasure to play the part of Sam’s lover. Now though, this game we were playing was hitting too close to home, and I was terrified. I’m becoming too attracted to it, enjoying the comfort of this make believe relationship. The ease of our friendship was shifting and changing lately, slip- ping into something much more intense. Deep down I know the truth. God help me, I’m falling in love with her. (Geekgrrllurking 2010b)

The social isolation and limited opportunity for personal relationships that are experienced by lesbian/bisexual women in the military are also reflected in the stories. In ‘All the Things She Said’ (Meesh 2003), ‘Drunken Confessions’ (Gravity Star 2004), ‘Unexpectedly on the Market’ (Celievamp 2004a) and ‘Unrequited” (Arcturus 2010–11), repressed desire is explored and weighed against the dual risks of rejection and discovery. Even when a partner and/or a family seem possible, the freedom to share their status and feelings openly must be suppressed. In ‘All That Glitters’ (Kiva 2004), ‘Janet Fraiser and the Christmas Letter’ (ocean gazer n.d.b) and ‘The Secrets We Keep’ (bigdamnxenafan 2010a), Sam, Janet and Cassie live together as a family, but Janet ends her annual letter to family and friends with the deliberately ambiguous phrase ‘I am seeing someone’. Femslash also elaborates ‘a world where a professional woman can have a public lesbian sexuality’ (Russo 2002: 18). Sam is a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show (2008–, MSNBC) and ‘comes out’ on national television in ‘The Interview’ (Geonn n.d.). A discussion of DADT ensues and Sam admits it was difficult to keep her relationship with Janet a secret. ‘Sam refused to lie, but she agreed to omissions’ (Geonn n.d.). How Sam and Janet might celebrate

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the repeal of DADT is explored in ‘I Read the News Today’ (Geonn 2010), where the women (and the policy) are in deep space:

Janet moved closer to Sam. ‘We just got a data burst from Earth. E-mails and personal messages, that sort of thing. There was one at the very bottom from Cassandra. She barely got it sent before the SGC sent the message. It just happened today.’ ‘What happened?’ ‘The Senate repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Sam blinked. Colonel Gant said, ‘What does that mean?’ ‘It means gay and lesbian soldiers can serve openly without fear of repercussion.’ Sam stepped off the platform on which her command chair was perched. ‘It’s done? It’s … over.’ […] Eight years. She could finally kiss the woman she’d been in love with for eight years without fear. There was no more choice between the love of her life and her career. Sam brushed her thumb over Janet’s cheek, wiping away the tears, and turned to face Colonel Gant. ‘I love this woman,’ she said. Erin smiled. ‘I’m sorry, is that supposed to be new information?’ (Geonn 2010)

This short passage captures the fear of reprisal, the pain of denial and the relief of being able to be open with colleagues about a relationship that may already be an open secret, but cannot be acknowledged or honoured.

Unit cohesion undermined? Stories that foreground the exceptional competence of the characters challenge the myth that unit cohesion and military effectiveness will be undermined by the presence of lesbians or bisexual women. ‘Never Known Love’ (Celievamp 2003) includes a lengthy description of Sam’s qualities as a scientist, and ‘The Longest Day’ (Kaelcee 2002) of Janet’s skills as a physician. In ‘A Gentle Love’ (Merfilly 2007), the crucial but dangerous work undertaken by SG-1 on every mission is acknowledged, even though the personal supports needed by those at home must remain a secret:

Every time she went through the Gate, she saw the possibilities of new peoples, new discoveries and new technologies. Her lover saw the chance of losing her, but bravely locked it behind a mask. Sam had to be what she was, and deserved her place on SG-1 without reserve. Janet accepted the quiet looks from Walter in the mess, the know- ing ones from General Hammond. They would never jeopardize the harmony of their unit with closed-minded regulations. (Merfilly 2007)

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In ‘Interviewing a Hero’ (Tittamiire 2010), Sam is featured in the LGBT press, and she addresses her illustrious career and her decision to be ‘out of the closet’ while in the military. Such stories stand in stark contrast to the real-life experience of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, and many others, whose exceptional skills and distinguished service were not enough to prevent their expulsion from the US Armed Forces (Cammermeyer and Fisher 1994). The local gay bar is the setting in both ‘To Be a Possibility and Wishful Thinking’ (Elizabeth Carter 2003) and ‘New Beginnings’ (Geekgrrllurking 2010a). Encountering many familiar faces from the SGC leads Janet to comment, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell is in full effect I see’. Self-destructive behaviour that can be caused by social isolation is also reflected in the stories. In ‘Aftermath’ (A. Magiluna Stormwriter 2004), ‘Back from the Abyss’ (romansilence 2006) and ‘Fork in the Road’ (Arcturus 2009b), Sam starts to drink heavily, pick fights and take suicidal risks as she fights her own loneliness. Sam and Janet are in an established relationship in ‘Remedy’ (Kiva 2003b), but only their adopted daughter, Cassie, knows about it. In a particularly dark story, ‘Black Widow’ (Celievamp 2004b), Sam is not able to overcome her fears under DADT and, even though she loves Janet, she settles for the validation a heterosexual union provides. Other stories depict Sam and Janet in a same-sex relationship that is acknowledged by co-workers, including their military commanders. In ‘Heroes’ (Olli n.d.a), ‘New Beginnings’ (Geekgrrllurking 2010a) and ‘Precious and Few Are the Moments We Two Can Share’ (Little Mac n.d.), Sam and Janet are respected as a couple and their privacy is protected by their team. In ‘The Box’, Cassie is caregiver to her aged ‘uncle’ Jack, who insists each day that they look through an old box of photographs, including one of ‘Sam and Janet standing in uniform, sharing a defiant kiss’ (Sam Walker n.d.). ‘[Daniel] always tried to tell me he knew before anyone else’ (Sam Walker n.d.). Here the challenge is to the enforcement of DADT regulations, which required those in command positions to act on perceived or reported violations of the Directive. In the case of SG-1, the characters are officers who must not only live under DADT but also enforce it for those under their command. Femslash reflects the analysis by Moradi (2009), of interviews with lesbian soldiers, in highlighting that discipline was impaired more by secrecy than by so-called ‘homosexual acts’ or associations, as well as the absurd cruelty of DADT for military personnel who may be injured or killed in combat. In ‘Trauma 01’ (sjslashfan 2010), Janet is dying in the SGC infirmary and General Hammond asks about summoning next of kin to her bedside:

‘She’s got her next of kin with her,’ O’Neill said, unexpectedly. ‘She’s got Carter.’ ‘Do you care to explain that statement?’ Hammond asked. ‘The doc loves Carter. Carter loves the doc. It’s as simple as that,’ O’Neill said. Hammond looked down at the two women in the room below them. Realization suddenly dawned. He was not watching two friends, one comforting the other. He was watching lovers. ‘Did Captain Carter tell you that?’ he asked O’Neill. O’Neill shook his head. ‘Nope,’ he said. ‘She and the doc try to pretend it’s not happening. They don’t try real hard,’ he smiled, ‘but they try.

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But you just have to see Carter’s face light up when she enters the infirmary.’ (sjslashfan 2010)

O’Neill, Hammond and Dr Michaels discuss whether to contact Frasier’s offi- cial next of kin, her homophobic brother, which would be the expected process under DADT because her actual partner cannot be acknowledged under the Directive. O’Neill recommends against this course of action:

Hammond looked at him, and then at Michaels. ‘I’m prepared to take your recommendation Colonel. And if there should be any comeback, anything at all, Dr Michaels, you tell whoever asks that it was my decision.’ ‘Isn’t that a breach of policy, Sir?’ Michaels asked. ‘Damned straight it is,’ O’Neill said. (sjslashfan 2010)

Elizabeth Woledge (2006) has coined the term ‘intimatopia’ to describe slash fanfiction that values and foregrounds intimacy between men above and beyond sex. In mapping the subversive power of slash, Woledge argues it ‘is not erotics but intimacy that has the potential to subvert current assumptions about interpersonal relationships’ (2006: 97). She quotes George Haggerty’s assessment of contemporary culture, in which he argues that what is forbidden is ‘not sexual desire, but love’ (quoted in Woledge 2006: 100). Many science fiction source texts, including Stargate SG-1, represent a largely homosocial world in a warlike setting in which social and sexual relations are severely constrained by military discipline, constraints that make no sense to aliens or non-military people. In ‘Not What It Looks Like’ (Glinda n.d.), Sam tries to explain DADT to teammate Teal’c, who has recognized that Sam and Janet are in love even if they are not lovers. Sam’s attempt to explain DADT to Cassie only serves to renew her efforts as matchmaker for her mothers. In response to her boyfriend’s comment that ‘it’s hot that your parents are totally gay’, Cassie says, ‘They aren’t. Not yet anyway’ (sHa YcH n.d.b). These stories suggest the utopian promise of love between women that inspires other characters to question and defy rules, regulations and expectations as much as it defines the relationship between Sam and Janet. Reports of the lived experience of many serving lesbian and bisexual women soldiers under DADT, both positive and negative, are here reflected in the femslash when the stories foreground the impact of serving in silence for intimate partners, families and co-workers.

The reports of my death … The death of Janet during an off-world mission to planet P3X-666 in Season 7 bitterly disappointed many fans, and femslash writers took up the challenge posed by this storyline. The Dark Matters fanfiction website includes specific reference to the online debates regarding the episode ‘Heroes, Part 2’ (Episode 7.18):

Rewriting Heroes – The death of Janet Fraiser on the show (Season Seven: ‘Heroes’) was a very contentious event amongst fans, especially

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the writers of femslash. As a result, ‘Heroes’ has been one of the most reworked episodes and many writers of femslash have either ignored it completely – it never happened so Janet never died – or have rewritten it so that Janet survives. (Celievamp and Elizabeth Carter n.d.)

Several authors used the specific science fiction elements from the canon to explore the Sam/Janet relationship after the events of ‘Heroes’. In the post-‘Heroes’ stories ‘For the Love of a Child’ (Elizabeth Carter 2004a) and ‘Pulling the String’ (sHa YcH n.d.b), Sam is able to use a Goa’uld healing device to restore Janet’s life after she is declared dead on arrival at the SGC infirmary. In ‘Back from the Abyss’ (romansilence 2006) and ‘Delayed for a While’ (psychicvanity 2010), Janet has ascended like an Ancient. The ascension storylines borrow from the series’ depiction of the ‘death’ of the main character Daniel at the end of Season 5 in the episode ‘Meridian’ (Episode 5.21). In that episode, he ascends and joins the Ancients, but he returns as a living person in the Season 7 episode ‘Fallen’ (Episode 7.1). In the fanfiction, utilizing the same idea, Janet is restored to Sam with the inter- vention of the Ancients in order to save the world. In ‘A Dawn in Every Darkness’ (ocean gazer n.d.a), ‘ascended’ Janet is able to see Sam and Cassie as they grieve her death, but she must learn not to interfere in their lives, in the same way that ‘ascended’ Daniel was supposed to remain a passive onlooker on the show. Another post-‘Heroes’ story shows Sam adjusting to life without Janet, caring for their daughter alone:

It was late when Sam got home. Home. That word had taken on a whole new meaning since Janet had been killed. Sam had always felt at home at Janet’s house, even before they became lovers; however, she could never officially call it home. It would have drawn too much attention to them, attention that neither of them could afford as military officers. Ironically, after Janet had been killed eight months ago, Sam officially moved into her lover’s house. As Cassie’s legal guardian it made the most sense. (Dhamphir n.d., original emphasis)

But Janet has been the subject of Asgard cloning experiments, in the same way that, in the show, Jack O’Neill is cloned in the Season 7 episode ‘Fragile Balance’ (Episode 7.3). In Dhamphir’s tale, it is the clone of Janet who died on P3X-666. The women are reunited, although Janet has to accept that neither her lover nor her daughter realized, before her apparent death, that they were living with a clone. The Asgard ability to time travel is used to turn back time to undo the events on P3X-666 in ‘When You Feel Longing’ (romansilence 2010). ‘Another Break in the Wall’ (sHaYcH n.d.a) depicts the rogue Asgard scientist Odin restoring Janet to life so that she can assist with his genetic cloning experiments. Several years pass before the Asgard leader Thor returns Janet to the SGC, where she quickly acts on her previously suppressed feelings for Sam. Willis argues that fanfiction seems to intertwine the pleasure of queer textuality with a deeply political project of resistance and in-sistence that people must have the right to make and circulate meanings outside the circuit of ideologically or

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institutionally guaranteed transparency, provability and, ultimately, enforceability. (Willis 2006: 156, original emphasis)

In this sense, the idea of the multiverse seems particularly important to fanfiction writers because it offers unlimited concurrent presents through which all variations on the here-and-now can be explored. The series includes the quantum mirror, which permits passage between multiverses and shows alternate versions of the present where characters are in different relationships with each other because they have made different choices. This device appeals to fanfiction writers who want to explore multiple possible worlds, in some of which DADT was never enacted, homophobia is unthinkable and Janet has not died. In ‘Unasked’ (Glinda 2012), Sam understands the physics that explain parallel universes but she must accept as a gift the chance to be with Janet that the multiverse affords:

There are billions of different universes, billions of different futures, potential or otherwise. Not every single decision creates a new one but any one of them might. Sam’s not sure what set of circumstances brought them together, which confluence of events led to her sitting in the medical bay of some other universe facing a Janet who’d loved as she’d loved and lost as she’d lost. (Glinda 2012)

In ‘Never the Same, Always Right’ (Merfilly 2010), a rewrite of the quantum- mirror-heavy episode ‘Ripple Effect’ (Episode 9.13), Sam is able to speak of her love to a Janet from another reality, something she never had the courage to do with the now-dead Janet from her own reality. In ‘As One’ (Harriet 2004), Sam and Janet were lovers in one reality but Sam is unsure whether the (still-living) Janet she can see through the quantum mirror is also a lesbian. Challenging the claim that unit cohesion and effectiveness requires heterosexuality, in many SG-1 stories it is the restoration of the Sam/Janet pair- ing that also restores the SG-1 team, unit cohesion, scientific expertise and military effectiveness. In ‘Back from the Abyss’ (romansilence 2006), the Ancients realize that Sam is required to fight the enemies of earth, and a fully functional Sam requires the return of Janet to the SGC. In ‘The Unabridged Lockdown’ (Elizabeth Carter 2004b), when Sam and Janet work together to solve a Goa’uld ‘infection’ of the SGC, Jack comments that he is glad to have the Carter–Fraiser tag team back in order.

Conclusions: Femslash vs The United States Air Force Femslash writers have made evident the cost of DADT, for everyone, by using the science fiction elements available in the canon. Bronwen Thomas reminds us that fanfiction ‘highlights the motivations and desires of readers – in ways that theorists of narrative need to take into account’ (2011: 6). Ika Willis, in discussing the effacement of queerness from the Harry Potter series, echoes Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s claim that through queer reading ‘sites of oblique meaning are “a prime resource for survival”’ (quoted in Willis 2006: 158). In addressing DADT, the femslash community challenges the homophobic tactic of cutting off lesbian and gay military personnel from ‘information about the possibility, the validity and the liveability of queer desires and lives’ (Willis

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2006: 160). Those lives include the ordinary relationship conflicts that arise for any couple. In ‘Conversations at Daybreak’ (Geonn 2011a), Sam and Janet, two women with demanding jobs, quarrel about Sam leaving their bed to work at her computer. The constant need for Sam and Janet to negotiate their perceived sexuality and to engage with decisions about ‘coming out’ is specific to the time and place of the source text (1997–2007) within the cultural context of DADT (1993–2011). This tension is not universal to femslash derived from science fiction television series, however. What is significant in these stories is that, first, they reveal familiarity with the lived conditions under DADT as claimed by the scholarly studies. That is, they flesh out the human cost of this institutionalized homophobia. Second, the science fiction approach defamiliarizes and renders absurd this specific form of homophobia. The fanfiction discussed herein does not merely represent individual, isolated responses to frustrations over DADT or the limitations of the canonical stories told in Stargate SG-1. Community affirmation of a queer reading of the canon establishes and maintains the intertextual nature of the dialogues and critiques about DADT. Although we did not conduct a detailed analysis of readers’ comments about the stories, we did see evidence to support our sense of community engagement in the responses. Such evidence included, for example, the comment that ‘This is an awesome THUMBS UP to the death of DADT. Our two ladies, together at last for all to see’ by return2zero, in response to Geonn’s (2010) story ‘I Read the News Today’. While our study is limited to Sam/Janet femslash, this is not the only fan community to take up the DADT policy. In 2010, LiveJournal held a ‘DADT Repeal Coming-Out-a-Thon’, and in 2011 DreamWidth held a ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Ficathon’ open to all fandoms. As might be expected, the invitation was answered by fanfiction writers for television shows in which military or paramilitary organizations are featured and for which the repeal was most relevant (e.g. Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Chuck [2007–12, NBC], NCIS [2003–, CBS] and Hawaii Five-0 [2010–, CBS]). All of this fanfiction challenges the cultural discourse of military effectiveness and unit cohesion being dependent upon sexual discipline and compulsory heterosexuality: the writers explore the negative outcomes of social isolation for the health of individuals and the well-being of their colleagues. Much of the onus for enforcement of DADT fell to commanding officers, and femslash writers have reflected both the positive (protection) and negative (exposure) aspects of the chain of command in their scenarios. The stories parallel the sociological studies in identifying that the most serious threat to unit cohesion is the mistrust that secrecy breeds. Finally, femslash restores the hope and possibility of a valid lesbian existence within the US military (and beyond). It starts by challenging the ‘death of the lesbian’ discourse present in the canon and builds from that, using many creative science fiction strategies to restore Janet to the fanon. Femslash, therefore, can be seen as resisting the parts of the canon that negate lesbian lives while insisting that lesbian desire be present as a real possibility.

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SUGGESTED CITATION Millward, L. and Dodd, J. G. (2016), ‘Mid-course correction: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ and Stargate SG-1 femslash’, Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 1: 1, pp. 41–59, doi: 10.1386/qsmpc.1.1.41_1

Contributor details Liz Millward is an associate professor of women’s and gender studies at the University of Manitoba. She is the author of the books Women in British Imperial Airspace, 1922–1937 (McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2007) and Making a Scene: Lesbians and Community across Canada, 1964–84 (UBC Press, 2015). Contact: Women’s and Gender Studies Program, 114 Isbister Building, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

Janice Dodd is a professor of women’s and gender studies, and a professor of physiology pathophysiology in the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Manitoba. She has studied the participation of women in science and, in collaboration with Liz Millward, the representation of women scientists in popular culture. Contact: Women’s and Gender Studies Program, 114 Isbister Building, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

Liz Millward and Janice G. Dodd have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

QSMPC_1.1_Millward+Dodd_41-59.indd 59 10/9/15 10:06:33 AM intellect www.intellectbooks.com publishers of original thinking

Principal Editor Joseph H. Hancock II Drexel University Fashion, Style & [email protected] Associate Editors Shaun Cole Popular Culture London College of Fashion Patricia A. Cunningham Ohio State University ISSN 2050-0726 | Online ISSN 2050-0734 Susan Kaiser 3 issues per volume | Volume 1, 2014 University of California, Davis Anne Peirson-Smith City University Aims and scopes of Hong Kong Fashion, Style & Popular Culture is a ground breaking peer-reviewed journal Reviews Editor specifically dedicated to the area of fashion scholarship and its interfacings with Jessica Strubel popular culture. The journal offers a broad range of written and visual scholarship University of North Texas and includes works done through various methods of research. We welcome [email protected] conceptual, theoretical and translational applied research in the area of fashion and popular culture. This journal hopes to stimulate new discussions in the Half Price HALF PRICE fashion disciplines and to push the envelope of scholarship by welcoming new and Personal subscription Print only*: £18 / $34 USD established scholars to submit their works. (Full price: £36 / $68 USD) Please contact Call for papers Turpin Distribution, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture is concerned with style, fashion, clothing, design, and quoting ‘HALF PRICE PC’: :+44 (0) 1767 604 951 (UK & ROW) related trends, as well as appearances and consumption as they relate to popular :+1 860 350 0041 (US & Canada) culture. Scholarship using and/or including: historical, manufacturing, aesthetics, :[email protected] marketing, branding, merchandising, retailing, psychological/ sociological aspects of Institutional subscription dress, body image, and cultural identities, in addition to any topics such as purchasing, Print and online*: £132 / $185 USD shopping, and the ways in which consumers construct identities are welcome. Online only: £99 / $140 USD

* Postage is included for UK, US This journal is not available through any other channels, to find out how to order and Canadian orders. Please visit the subscription information page of the Intellect website add £9 postage for EU orders and £12 for ROW orders. www.intellectbooks.co.uk

Intellect is an independent academic publisher of books and journals, to view our catalogue or order our titles visit www.intellectbooks.com or E-mail: [email protected]. Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, UK, BS16 3JG.

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