If somebody (for example) caricatures Kes and 7of9 as Lesbian lovers in a parody with the intention of entertaining people with something funny, it shouldn't be judged to be disrespectful to the vision or to the characters. Comedy has its own rules. It's a kind of pornography. Porn doesn't have to be great art, it only has to make you feel horny to do its job. Comedy doesn't have to make sense or be right: it only has to make you laugh. If somebody is laughing then comedy has done its job. What makes you horny, what makes you laugh, what works for you is a very personal thing.
Some people are sickened by the thought of bondage, others love it. The different kinds of porn and comedy don't have to appeal to everybody to be justified: all kinds of subgroups need to be served.
We love the TREK universe and characters, but that doesn't mean we have no right to play with them in our imaginations any way we want to. We have the right to publish whatever lunacy results from these musings, yes. Free speech does have rules, however. Free speech rules say that no one has the right to libel or slander Gene, Bill, Leonard, or any of the fine *real people* who worked so hard to entertain us. We also do not have the right to libel each other via the net, nor to casts aspersions upon each other, nor to cast our fellow fanfic writers in a false light or in any other way attempt to tarnish their reputations and spoil their social and professional chances, simply because we might disagree with their vision, or style. There's a law against that sort of thing. Behaving emotionally is one thing, but acting in a criminal manner is something else.
Considered criticism is just as valuable as praise to a serious writer. It's not an insult to a writer to disagree with a detail in a story, or question their reasons for a particular bit. In the real world, professional writers have to tolerate lots of nitpicking of this sort. Spelling and grammar corrections are niggling and petty, but also useful. Anyone who is serious about writing should welcome feedback of all kinds. I have changed things in many of my works because one of my readers had a good reason for being bothered by it. If I agree with a critic I'll take their advice, and my work is better for it. I care what people think. I just refuse to care too much!
I advise you all to honor your own vision first. It's your own spark of divine fire: cherish it. But respect other people's rights to have a different vision. That's what freedom is about. Freedom does not mean mighty, moneyed Paramount has a right to stifle a poor little person's artistic self-expression. Freedom does not mean the majority may freely bully the minority into silence. That is not an exercise in freedom, but in tyranny. Gene wouldn't go for THAT, I know!
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