ABSTRACT
Fanfiction, especially slash fiction, offers a critical space in fan, gender, and media studies for rethinking gender and sexuality. Focused on same-sex relationships, these narratives challenge dominant cultural norms and propose alternative ways of seeing and being. Central to this is the concept of the ‘queer gaze’, a reinterpretation of Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ (1975), shifting desire from objectification to consent, intimacy, and fluid queer relationality, particularly regarding male-coded bodies. My doctoral research on Star Trek slash fiction explores how the queer gaze functions in both narrative and community practices. Using a mixed methodology—public fanfiction from Archive of Our Own and interviews with writers and readers—the study examines how fans affirm queer identities through storytelling. Fanfiction emerges as a transformative medium that reshapes narrative norms and expresses queer subjectivities, offering resistance to heteronormativity and reimagining gender and sexuality.
