Latest Articles

Sister Outsider Headbanger: On Being a Black Feminist Metalhead

by Keidra Chaney
November 30, 2000 at 4:00pm

“I wasn’t ashamed of my love for metal (well, except for maybe hair metal). I just couldn’t explain it to most people.”

Tea Time: Michelle Tea Likes it Caffeinated

by Andi Zeisler
August 31, 2000 at 9:00pm

Michelle Tea loves words, and it shows.

Editors' Letter: Issue 12

May 31, 2000 at 9:00pm

"I hear there's a bunch of angry women in town."

this lovely sentiment was reportedly overheard on the street during Feminist Expo 2000, a global gathering over 7,000 strong that was held in Baltimore the first weekend of April. Other reactions to the event ran along the same lines: A reception bartender told the Washington Post that "My boss said they're just a bunch of man-...

Solid Gold Dancer

by Siobhan Brooks
January 1, 2000 at 4:20pm

gina gold is a writer and filmmaker who spent five years in San Francisco's sex industry, starting out as a phone sex operator, then becoming an exotic dancer at the Lusty Lady, the Market Street Cinema, and the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theater. Her first film, Do You Want Me to Stay?, grew out of an autobiographical one-woman show that she wrote, directed, and performed at the...

Why Don't We Do it in the Road?: Seven weeks on the Sister Spit tour

by Kira Garcia
January 1, 2000 at 3:28pm

the traveling spoken-word gang Sister Spit started five years ago as a weekly open mike where grrrly-type poets and performers could ply their trade at San Francisco bars and coffeehouses. In 1997, co-ringleader Michelle Tea, author of the charming and intimate memoir The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America, and her partner-in-crime Sini Anderson, who...

Go Forth and Multiply: Pronatalist imperatives on film

by Eve Kushner
January 1, 2000 at 2:14pm

ah, movie magic. hollywood always manages to make difficult situations turn out well after two hours—and nowhere is this more apparent than with cinematic treatments of unplanned pregnancy.


Unexpected conceptions occur onscreen with surprising frequency, but filmmakers routinely play it safe, avoiding substantial discussions of a pregnancy's pros and cons. They keep abortion out of...
Luscious Jackson

Action Jackson: Luscious Jackson's Kate Schellenbach on Blondie, basketball, and building her own musical all-star team

December 31, 1999 at 9:00pm

Kate Schellenbach is cool. Cool not because, after starting the fanzine Cheap Garbage for Snotty Kids in the early '80s, she was the first to take a seat behind the drum set for the Beastie Boys. Not because nearly 10 years later Luscious Jackson, the band she formed with friends from New York clubs like Hurrah and Tier 3, was the first band signed to the Beasties' Grand Royal label....

Editors' Letter: Issue 11

by Lisa Jervis
December 31, 1999 at 9:00pm

"So, what do you think we should write the ed note about this time?"


"Oh, I don't know. Marketing? There's a lot of marketing in this issue. Or we could print another butt-on-the-head photo."


"Yes, from our vast archive of them. But I was thinkin' maybe discomfort would be a good topic."


"Discomfort? Explain."


"Well,...

The Buffy Effect: Or, a tale of cleavage and marketing

by Rachel Fudge
June 1, 1999 at 12:00am

In the early 1990s, vampire mythology, horror revival, teen angst, and kick-ass grrlness congealed in a new figure in the pop culture pantheon of the paranormal: the vampire slayer. Not just any vampire hunter, mind you, but Buffy, the Valley-dwelling teenage slayer.

Before Buffy, vampire stories and horror movies alike focused primarily on the male monster antagonists who preyed on...

Editors' Letter: Issue 10: “How Do You Feel About Porn?”

May 31, 1999 at 9:00pm

When we put this question into our reader survey, we expected a wide variety of responses. And we got them. 


"I write it/act in it": 6 percent


"I like to look at it": 36 percent


"It's ok for other people, but it's not my bag": 30 percent


"I don't like it, but what other people do is their business": 20 percent


"I hate it and think it should be stamped...

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