Arts, Travel, Politics, Trends

The Glamour Factor and the Fiji Effect

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:28:51 -0500

I love “The ‘L’ Word.” Saying that in the company of other lesbian feminists feels about as comfortable as saying, “I love oppression,” or “Give me some more patriarchy, please,” but I remain undaunted. Sure, there are issues with the show. Every television show has issues. You can’t name one ground-breaking show that doesn’t. But I think that “The ‘L’ Word” is the best publicist that the lesbian community can have. It spins us into something more glamorous, more gorgeous, more intriguing

Imaginary Borders/CFP

Wed, 3 Mar 1999 21:22:03 -0500

Recently, one of my best friends from college returned from a year in Argentina. I felt an almost physical relief—finally she was home, I could talk with her again!—and told her so. She snapped back at me, "You could have called, you know. International rates aren't that awful. And you hardly ever wrote." She asked me why that was, and I didn't have an answer. But now I do. I think that those of us who are not "world travelers" are not so partly because of an obstacle of imagination. It wo

Do like the Detectives/Muse for Children

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:19:45 -0400

Television and the movies make it look so easy. A crime happens. The detectives and forensic experts come to the scene and collect evidence, often evidence that others have overlooked. Maybe there’s a stray hair on the seat of a car, or a fingerprint on a doorknob. Perhaps there’s a small bit of blood on the floor. The experts bring their evidence back to the lab, do a few tests and voila! They’ve found the killer. They have no doubt about who did it. Unfortunately, in the real world there’s

Frida Kahlo/CFP

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:18:48 -0500

Once you learn about her, you can’t help but be a little bit in love with Frida Kahlo. “A lot of communities love her,” said Eva Penar, the marketing and media director for the Mexican Fine Arts Center and Museum. “She was Mexican and Mexicans love her; she was Jewish and they love her; she was disabled—she painted in her bed while in a body cast—so that community loves her. She was a socialist, and so that political community loves her. And of course, she was married to Diego [Rivera] but she

(Lesbian) Pulp Fiction/CFP

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:16:45 -0500

“ ‘Come here Laura.’ She looked unearthly as she spoke, with her black hair tumbled, her cheeks crimson . . . . Laura shook all over. She couldn’t talk except to repeat the other girl’s name over and over, as if she were in a trance . . . .Neither of them heard the phone ring, felt the chill of the rainy night, knew of anything except each other.” That’s a passage from one of the more famous lesbian pulp fiction novels of the 1950s, Ann Bannon’s “I Am a Woman.” Lesbian pulps—especially the pro