One of the best things I’ve discovered recently is The Seventeen Magazine Project. Eighteen year old high school senior Jamie Keiles is spending one month living according to Seventeen Magazine, and reporting back on her experience with a great mixture of insight, humor, and feminism. Totally badass, especially for a high school senior! I’m really impressed with her level of writing and analysis.
feminism
10
Jun 10
“We knew we were courting violence”
I’ve been more than a little in love with Joan Nestle lately. She co-founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1972, and is a beautiful and fabulous activist, writer, historian, and all-around lesbian. Watch this clip from a documentary about her called Hand on the Pulse (that I will hopefully be able to one day locate and see):
She’s so confident, so articulate about her desires and her entitlement to them. And trust me, that’s not something that lesbians are taught to be. I love this quote by her, from her essay “Butch-Fem Relationships: Sexual Courage in the 1950s,” which I found a few years ago in a book called Queering Religion, and found so moving much that I wrote it down right on my folder, and hadn’t realized until recently that it was by her:
In the fifties, when we walked in the Village holding hands, we knew we were courting violence, but we also knew the political implications of how we were courting each other and chose not to sacrifice our need to their anger.
That last part is my favorite: “we…chose not to sacrifice our need to their anger.” That’s something that queers of all stripes would do well to keep remembering today, as assimilation has become the new order. We’re allowing our identities to become subsumed under the umbrella of capitalistic identity politics, something that we consume, rather than something that we carve out ourselves and wear proudly in the world. Oh, but for a few more Joan Nestles in the world!
16
May 10
I can’t believe I’ve never seen a joke about a BRONTËSAURUS before
(Thanks again to Caitlin, who somehow finds the best stuff)
20
Apr 10
“I’ve seen you naked. Chanel would look great on you.”
I remember in high school, for some reason, doing an Altavista search for Courtney Love + cheese. And locating an amazing interview where she vituperously decried cheese, blaming it for America’s obesity. I adore Courtney Love– there aren’t that many great Courtneys in the world, and I love that the most famous is an amazing, talented, oft-trainwrecked sometimes-third-wave-feminist rock and roll musician. I also love cheese, and thought it was hilarious that she hated it so much.
Today, I had the brilliant idea of again searching for that interview, and lo and behold, I found it. It’s from 1993, the same year as the photo above (I find that picture really moving– Kurt and Courtney look so much like a lot of my friends). I hadn’t realized it was an interview with Lisa Crystal Carver, for Rollerderby, an awesome and influential 90s zine. This so rarely happens, but the interview is even better than I remembered it. Mostly because Lisa’s unflappable tone really underscores how amazing, beautifully batshit Courtney Love can be. Some choice quotes: Continue reading →
8
Jan 10
Ten minutes later, it was dry-hump heaven
My friend Peggy is kind of a genius sometimes. Like when she told me that every couple of months she checks in with Sarah Haskins “Target Women” shorts:
Haskins deconstructs advertising in the truest sense of the word: she dismantles the ridiculous tactics used by advertisers to manipulate women (and sometimes men) and reveals them for the pathetic attempts at pseudo-psychology and bald finagling that they really are. This is feminism at its finest, welding wit with anger and intelligence with accessibility.
And also, it’s hilarious. You can watch these at parties. Well, at least I’ve watched them at parties. Maybe my parties are different than yours. Hey, want to come over later and watch some Sarah Haskins? Then maybe we could play pin the tail on the patriarchy. And pour one out for Mary Daly. Sounds good? Awesome. See you later.
