feature image via Taylor Hatmaker
Everything is going to be just fine! It is! You’re doing great, especially considering [thing to consider]. Have you decided what movie you want to watch tonight? I’m leaning toward Wall-E but I’m keeping my options open. You have to stay flexible in times like these. Stay loose. Also hydrated. I don’t know why lemon water works the way all those lifestyle blogs tell you it works, but damn it really works. Try some! Turn to the person on your left and tell them to try some. They’re gonna be so glad you sat down next to them today. Lemon water! You’re doing great!
Queer as in F*ck You
+ In Praise of Barb, the Best Character in Stranger Things. Barrrrrrb! BARB.
::barb::
The sequel @ShannonPurser7 deserves. @Stranger_Things @DavidKHarbour leave some Trapper Keepers in that box, too? pic.twitter.com/XYngbpYI5n
— Cory D.S.K. (@dieskae) July 28, 2016
+ Steven Universe Made Me Gay.
+ LGBTQ Students Feel Safer at Schools with Gay/Straight Alliances. Wow I don’t know about you but I need to lie down from shock after this news. Do you have any ginger chews because I’m just nauseous from the dizzying and unexpected findings presented here. Next they’re gonna tell us that state recognition of marriage is associated with improved well-being for same-sex couples OH MY GOD WHAT. Can you open a window I need some air.
+ How I Made Peace With Being the Queer Mixed Kid in White Evangelical Oklahoma.
+ QUEER PUNK JAMZ BY PWR BTTM.
+ How Will Openly Gay Athletes Be Received at Rio Olympics? I don’t know because I poured banana pudding on my eyes and shoved slugs into my ears when this video autoplayed so maybe y’all can tell me.
+ Gay Night Life is Dying and Grindr and Gentrification are to Blame. Feels right.
+ The Trans Community of Christopher Street.
+ W.H.O. Weighs Dropping Transgender Identity From List of Mental Disorders.
+ Meet the Agender Alternative Queer Nightlife That’s Replacing the Lesbian Bar Scene.
Doll Parts
+ The Research is Clear: Electing More Women Changes How Government Works.
+ Disney’s Working on a Rocketeer Reboot With a Black Female Lead.
+ Missing White Girl Syndrome: Whose Disappearances Make National Headlines.
+ What the Democratic Party Really Owes Black Women.
+ Radical Empathy: Death is Stupid.
+ Meet the Mothers Who’ve Been Fighting Police Brutality for Decades.
Saw This, Thought of You
+ I can’t actually talk about this with real words and feelings or I’ll turn into dust and blow away. Eight of Our Favorite Bob, Gordon and Luis Moments from Sesame Street. ?
+ Walmart Will Sell Ugly Produce.
+ Stranger Things Side-by-Side with Every Excellent Film it Borrows From. Look I’ll stop talking about Stranger Things when I’m good and damn ready.
And Finally
You’re made of stardust. Don’t forget it.
I haven’t read any of the articles yet, but I’m grinning ear to ear just from reading the descriptions – thank you Laneia!
I just watched the first two Stranger Things eps last night! Barb! BAAAAAAAAAAAARBBBBBBBBBBBBB!!!!
BAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRBBBBBB ?
LANEIA I FINISHED STRANGER THINGS-THEY DID BARB WRONG! SO WRONG!!!!
ERICA I KNOW. I KNOW BABE.
What a fabulous fox in that header photo! HI KAT!
I realize it was linked as “UGGGGGGGHHHHHHH” but I still feel you didn’t appropriately warn us for that ‘drill baby drill’ headline, Laneia
I almost clicked on that link out of curiosity, but then I saw that the url was brobible.com so I decided against it.
The SU article shows why it’s so important to have representation, especially when we’re not growing up around people like ourselves, thus getting models from our daily lives. I think people who have role models outside of the media don’t get this, and I’m glad to see it being talked about more.
“Late Night with Seth Meyers” told lesbian jokes during the “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment last night. I actually found it funny, and I can’t decide whether that’s because it was in fact funny or if I just like representation.
I LOVE Barb, and am still pretty peeved about what happens in the last episodes, but I do take umbrage with this :
“We all wanted to be Nancy, the pretty one with the good grades, stable family, and easy fashion sense, who had boys falling at her feet when she didn’t even try. But know what? Nancy is a myth. Nancy does not exist in the real world, and if you think she does, you have spent too much time reading Teen Vogue and watching Gossip Girl on Netflix.”
You can like Barb without tearing down Nancy. And I actually *did* know a girl like this is school, who was also exceptionally nice. rabble rabble rabble.
re: ‘Meet the Agender Alternative Queer Nightlife That’s Replacing the Lesbian Bar Scene’ I’ve started noticing that in SF as well! It’s nice because I’ve found a lot of the ‘lesbian’ dance parties seem to be pretty homonormative, which is fine because some people want that, but it’s not where I feel most comfortable.
I’m going to marry the crap out of that vested queer babe in the header. ❤️❤️❤️
I have a bag, how many do you want?
Like two? One for now, one for later. Thanks Al!
*slides three Laneia’s way* you are welcome awesome friend!
“Why are we getting our oil from countries that don’t think lesbians are hot?”
I don’t know … maybe because we get our bad ideas from places that don’t like logical arguments?
Um, Walmart is the nation’s largest supermarket chain? Ugh. That does sound right, but it makes me want to vomit.
Real talk though- if I’m made of stardust where can I cash it in to power up my Flareon?
(Also, excellent articles, as always)
MORE PWR BTTM COVERAGE ON AUTOSTRADDLE PLZ
The article about what the democratic party owes black women is flippin everything. All my feels laid out about why Hillary and the democratic platform are making me incredibly ambivalent (or most of ’em, anyway). The DNComittee is benefitting a lot from having such regressive opponents, but are POC really going to benefit from having Hillary as president? Holding ground against a flood of sewer people is not the same thing as actually *progressing.*
If the dems win, a lot of people are going to be celebrating that Trump lost rather than Hillary winning.
I don’t understand how more people aren’t reading Barb as queer. Is it normal for straight girls to mope around outside while their best friend is getting laid?
I stopped liking Diane Arbus years ago when I learned that she was really into shooting “freaks” and never saw herself as one of them. That article made me even dislike her work. What a privileged louse.
“The sideshow “freaks” held a special place for Diane. She felt herself lured in by these men and women physically branded as outsiders; those born with abnormalities, who had not chosen their brand, she thought of as a peculiar kind of royalty. She once said:
Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They’ve already passed their test in life. They’re aristocrats.”
also this:
In choosing these people to shoot, she said, “I don’t mean I wish I looked like that. I don’t mean I wish my children looked like that … But I mean that’s amazingly, undeniably something” — an image worth snatching. She also knew, intuitively, that there was a cost to being on the other side of her lens. “This photographing,” she writes, “is really the business of stealing.”
Thanks for the reminder that it’s gonna be fine. I keep listening to Mal Blum’s song “Fine!” It’s been a rough month. But upwards and on wards.
“…these changes accompany the rejection of a specifically lesbian identity, in terms of both preferred terminology and the types of social spaces our community creates. It’s a trend that shows no signs of stopping, in Los Angeles or across the country. Today, gay women’s nightlife no longer means female-only sanctuaries. The heterogeneous, co-ed, and adaptable alternatives that have replaced it are a breath of fresh air for those who have been waiting all their lives to finally be themselves.” – from the “queer nightlife” article
I’m sorry but what?? Yes, all-inclusive spaces are a beautiful and necessary thing, but tbh painting those as a better or more modern alternative to lesbian spaces totally rubs me the wrong way. Can’t we mourn the loss of those spaces without feeling the need to constantly paint lesbian identities as archaic? Can’t we please stop calling lesbian women “queers”?