that Kirk, because of his empathic bond with Spock, can sense when Spock is about to go into pon farr, which even causes Kirk to suffer some of its symptoms himself; and "lingering death", the fate of a Vulcan male in pon farr who is unable to claim a mate. Another key element in "first time" stories and in established relationship stories is the mind meld, either as a way to break the barriers between the men, or as a plot device. Shore leave is also a common setting as the plot can focus on the characters themselves rather than their responsibilities aboard a starship. “Hurt/comfort” is also a common trope, wherein one character is hurt in some manner and the other character tends to them. This trope tends to be paired with “first time” plots and often functions to make the characters realize their feelings towards each other. Backlash In general, fans have often been shamed and attacked by writers from both the media and academia. This would isolate those fans and their interpretations, often nonconforming to traditional perspectives, of their media of interest. In England, slash was an arrestable offence that violated obscenity laws. As a result, participants of K/S subculture were often outcast from the mainstream fan community. Female participants of slash fiction subculture were especially mocked due to gender stereotypes and discrimination. Fans of K/S were further rejected due to stigmas against homosexuality at the time. After the 2009 film reboot In the 2009 feature film Star Trek, Spock and Nyota Uhura are depicted as a romantic couple. This resulted in some Kirk/Spock slash fans to dislike Uhura, including Henry Jenkins who expressed the opinion that in the 2009 film, Uhura's character is largely there to be the "love object" in "some kind of still to be explored romantic triangle" between Kirk and Spock, and to explicitly "discourage" slashers. Margaret A. Weitekamp and Christine Scodari expressed the opinion that the portrayal of Uhura's character in the reboot is a step forward in terms of the representation of women of color. On August 24, 2013, at the Fan Expo Canada, actor Zachary Quinto (who plays Spock in the rebooted Star Trek, and who is himself gay) replied to a fan asking him about whether his fictional character (and him and Chris Pine, the actor who plays Jim Kirk in the reboot) are lovers: Notes References Alexander, A.,