The Touch Issue

Issue #93 | Spring 2022
$12.95 print | $5.00 digital

The power of touch is that it extends beyond the physical. More than two years of social distancing have taught us that we don’t have to breathe the same air to share experiences. Touch can provoke all kinds of emotions and complications. It can help heal body and soul, as we explore through massage therapy; it can drive ugly and alienating beliefs, like harmful myths about menstruation; it can force a cultural revisioning of desire and sexuality, as we see in contemporary romance novels rejecting ableism. Our Touch issue investigates intimacy and connection online, on screen, and behind the scenes. These stories challenge us to be more open-minded, more forthright, and always true to our emotions. 

FIRST OF ALL

Letter from the Editors
Snaps or Scraps
Advice from Rogue 
7 on Touch
Feminist Fill-In: Jessamyn Stanley 

DISPATCHES

Watch the Crown: What’s Next for the Natural Hair Movement | St. Clair Detrick-Jules 
Access Denied: How ASMR Redefines Digital Intimacy | Gianna Ferrarin
Sidelined: Title IX Leveled the Playing Field. But Did It Miss the Goal? | Britni de la Cretaz 

FEATURES

Graphic Design: The Uncomfortable History of Sex Onscreen | Beatrice Loayza 
Bloody Lies: The Never-Ending Cycle of Menstrual Mythmaking | Gabrielle Merite 
Tongue-Tied: “Politically Correct” Has Always Been the Wrong Term | s.e. smith
Knock It Down: Journalism’s Barrier-Breaking Leaders of Color on the Past, Present, and Future of the Whitewashed Industry | Jenna Wortham
In Safe Hands: During Times of Crisis, Massage Therapy Becomes Activism | Nikki Gordon 
Refreshing Our Memory: How Algorithms Are Warping the Power of Recall | Jenna Mahale 

FROM THE HQ

Letter from the HQ 
Fellowship Frequency: Jenna Mahale 
Rage Report 
Community Focus Staff Sound Off 

CULTURE

Open-Minded: Rachel Krantz on Nonmonogamy as a Labor of Love | Andi Zeisler 
Magical Medicine: 6 Fictional Healers Who Eased Our Pain | Marina Watanabe

BOOKS

Hot and Unbothered: The Romance Novels Rewriting Disability and Sex | Gabriela Ramos Tavárez  
BitchReads  
What We’re Reading: Body Work | Laura LeMoon 

SCREEN

Battle Cry: Sailor Moon the Supersensitive Superhero | Rosa Cartagena  
What We’re Watching: Black Film Archive | Rosa Cartagena  
Our Body Swaps, Ourselves  

MUSIC

Pretty Horrifying: Maegan Houang’s Visceral Vision | Oliver Haug   
What We’re Listening To: Keep It | Rosa Cartagena  
Featured Podcast: La Brega | Rosa Cartagena 

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Back Issues

 
93: Touch
92: Wild
90: Legacy
88: Power
86: Sick
83: Heat
82: Broke
80: Ghosts
79: Travel
76: Facts
73: Chaos
71: Money