Culture
Teen Girls + Boy Love Dolls = Tru (heart) + $ 4Ever
Pop-sensation lifespans have been shrinking since the dawn of pop sensations, but the power of the boy band has proved enduring. These prefab crews of scrubbed, smiling teens busting a synchronized move to manufactured beats have a special place in pop – music history and in the hearts—and... Read more »
Bad(ass) Brains: An Interview with Filmmaker Marina Zurkow, Creator of the Web's Freaky, Fiesty Cerebelle du Jour, Braingirl
I met Marina Zurkow in 1986 on the set of a horror film called Matt Riker: Mutant Hunt. I was the art director. She was hired to be my assistant. It was an entirely inappropriate crewing decision, typical of the low-low budget B-movie genre. I’d never studied art, never been on a film set,... Read more »
Sister Outsider Headbanger: On Being a Black Feminist Metalhead
“I wasn’t ashamed of my love for metal (well, except for maybe hair metal). I just couldn’t explain it to most people.”
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Solid Gold Dancer
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... Read more »
Editors' Letter: Issue 10: "How Do You Feel About Porn?"
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... Read more »
The Washingtonienne: Blogs, Boys and Bad Manners
"I have a 'glamour job' on the Hill. That is, I could not care less about gov or politics, but working for a Senator looks good on my resume. And these marble hallways are such great places for meeting boys and showing off my outfits." So begins The Washingtonienne, the short-lived blog of one... Read more »
Humor in the Heartland: Tales of a small-town feminist
Imagine the jolt to my feminist sensibilities when I arrived, ready to serve, at the local Taste of the County dinner event and was presented with a plastic apron that had housewife emblazoned under my name. Shame heaped upon humiliation when I noticed—slack-jawed—that a potted plant, needle and... Read more »
My Cups Runneth Over
I didn't start out in the world a hard-ass, I swear. I was the nice girl, Little Mary Sunshine—turning the other cheek and searching for the good in all people. But you know what finally pushed me over the edge? I'll sum it up for you in one word: breasts. More specifically, my‑breasts. I am a... Read more »
Scrambled Signals: Rivka Ketzel Solomon reflects on a childhood defined by her parents’ activism, Ms. magazine, and TV
When I was growing up in the '60s and '70s, it didn't matter that my parents were some of the earliest feminist leaders on the East Coast, that I grew up watching their activism from up close, or that I saw them live (not just profess) equality between the sexes. It didn't matter that I was a girl... Read more »
The Collapsible Woman: Cultural response to rape and sexual abuse
the collapsible woman—one model of mental health for an uncountable number of individuals. She is too weak to hear debate, too soft to speak openly about her experience, and too fragile to expect much from. This definition doesn't come close to accounting for the grit and character that can be... Read more »
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