letter Sackett sent to a UK fan club president, commenting on the debate about the acceptability of including K/S fiction in zines: "Susan Sackett, assistant to Gene Roddenberry, stated in a letter to Janet dated February 27th - 'Gene and the executives at Paramount feel that this is harmful to the STAR TREK concept, since this was never the intention in creating the series." Star Trek: The Original Series writer David Gerrold, has also spoken about K/S slash sometimes. In 1985, Gerrold commented: When asked about whether there was intentional homoerotic content between K/S in the show, and in particular in the episode "Amok Time", Star Trek's writer D.C. Fontana replied, "In answer to your question, NO — there were no homosexual double-entendres in the script — at least none that were deliberate. If some viewers chose to read that into the dialogue, etc., that's their point of view, but certainly not ours. Writer Theodore Sturgeon was trying to reveal Spock's inner human in a struggle with what his culture, his upbringing and his half-human/half-Vulcan heritage had instilled in him about emotion and controlling it in an out-of-control situation. It also was a peek into the Vulcan culture that no one had seen before. That's ALL we were doing. I've heard this nonsense (especially about Kirk/Spock) for years. There is no basis to it. I hope this answer is helpful to you." Slash subculture Academic interest As one of the earliest "fandom" subcultures to emerge, Star Trek and K/S have attracted the attention of academics, particularly those of slash fiction. Henry Jenkins argued that "fandom" subculture, including fan writing, allows underrepresented groups to express their own interests and anxieties via a dominant cultural phenomenon. In this process, fan writings rewrite the original media by expanding on, emphasizing, and filtering the content to various extents. Jenkins claims that the way K/S reappropriates the Star Trek narrative and characters to the fan’s own interpretation is thus done by all fan writings, not just K/S. Many academics have suggested that K/S slash fiction is not about homosexuality or sex at all. Joanna Russ argued that the women who wrote K/S slash fiction were exploring a want for an idealized relationship where both partners were truly equal, unbound by gender norms. This kind of relationship was difficult to imagine in a heterosexual relationship, and thus K/S was born. Lamb and Veith similarly claimed that