Culture

Are You Ready for the Sex, Girls?: The Mixed Messages of Kids

Kids has been hailed as a film that breaks the teen-movie mold and shows a long-hidden side of young life. But, while it may be more graphic and harsh than other movies, it basically covers the same ground: voracious young male sexuality. The only innovative element of the movie—an honest portrayal... Read more »

Bait and Switch Sassy

Back in March a horrible thing happened. After a few months of checking the newsstands for my beloved Sassy, wondering what the hell was up and why I couldn’t find it anywhere, suddenly there it was—mutilated almost beyond recognition. Peterson Publishing (they also own Guns & Ammo)... Read more »

"Subversion on a Massive Level": Gender as Constructed Spectacle

When I rented Sleep With Me, I was expecting a silly angst-ridden Gen-X romantic comedy. I’d read the back of the box, so I knew that Joe and Sarah were married but that Frank, Joe’s best friend, was in love with her. Instead of an entertaining but benign and forgettable 90 minutes, I... Read more »

Editors' Letter: Premiere: Introduction

This magazine is about speaking up. I’ve always been a media junkie. Magazines, movies, television—I love them all and tend to consume them voraciously. But indiscriminate media consumption, maybe more than any other binge, can make you sick. When I was twelve years old I was looking for... Read more »

Mad As A Wet Hen #1: A Roundup of Media Affronts

How about that new Taco Bell ad featuring 11-year-old boys on the beach ogling a shapely lifeguard… Guess what? According to Cosmopolitan you’ll never get a date without duct tape and a “No Trespassing” sign… When Camille Paglia addresses the defunct pedophilic Calvin... Read more »

Whee! #1: Some Cockle-Warming Tidbits

We love Claire from 90210. She's so brainy; she's so hot. She never plays dumb for the boys and she gets to fuck them anyway... Yay for the recent changes in Ms. Not that we didn't adore it before, but now we're foaming at the mouth with love... Good for NBC for making visible the... Read more »

Pages

Why You Should Pay for Porn

If you’re a progressive middle-class individual, chances are you think about where your food comes from. Maybe you try to buy shoes that are... Read more »

"Moonlight" is an Essential Work of Art for the Current Political Moment

Moonlight displays the kind of empathy and humanity that we desperately need right now. Read more »

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. Read more »