Also.Also.Also: Earring Magic Ken, An Ode to a Whole Entire Queer Icon

This is going to be quick and dirty because I’m 48 hours back from Thanksgiving break and no lie — they’ve been the longest 48 hours of my life! BUT! There is wine at the end of this tunnel! And a very fancy butternut squash dinner being prepared for me by someone who loves me. And you know what? Sometimes, that is enough.

Queer as in F*ck You

CONGRATULATIONS TO Amy Schneider! The out trans woman is the reigning Jeopardy champion!! And I believe she’s also moved on to the tournament of champions?? (I don’t watch, so if she’s lost by the time this has published please be kind in the comments) OK LET’S FUCKING GO!!!

When Mattel Said ‘No Homo’: How Earring Magic Ken Became an Accidental Queer Icon. And this link comes with a delightful conversation from the Autostraddle staff:

Pizza Party Ken in his box

Ro: I wanted Earring Magic Ken but instead I got Pizza Party Kevin

Nicole: I used to just pierce my Ken dolls with a safety pin and fill the hole with glitter glue to make earrings.

(Speaking of which, want more Autostraddle queer Ken Doll content? Here’s a flashback to 75 Lesbian Ken Dolls, Ranked By Lesbianism and Your “Lesbian Ken” Community Photo Gallery)

From Heather: “I am furious – FURIOUS! — that a newspaper used the headline “is this cheese lesbian” before we did.” Is This Cheese Lesbian? How a Feta at SF’s Rainbow Grocery Turned Into an Unlikely Queer Icon

WNBA Legend Seimone Augustus Wants to Be the Role Model She Never Had

Announcing Oestrogeneration, “we are a magazine platform highlighting the voices of trans women and transfeminine writers.” (!!!)

Saw This, Thought of You

Stef: “just thinking about when lesbians are always trying to steal sperm” (lol) Sperm Is Being Used to Create an Eco-Friendly Alternative to Plastic

I saw King Richard over the weekend, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it! King Richard Is an Ode to the Power of Believing in Black Girls

An Encyclopedia of Celebrity Beauty Brands. Here are over 50 products that famous people have made for your face.

Political Snacks

Barbados Becomes a Republic and and Parts Ways With the Queen.

First of all, f*ck colonialism forever and yesssssssssssssss to this news.

Second of all, congratulations to my favorite Black woman today, Sandra Mason, who is now the first President, and said she wants to “fully leave our colonial past behind.”

Third, hahahaahaaa guess who was in attendance? Rihanna, who else?

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

9 Comments

  1. I still have my Magic Earring Ken in its box untouched. I figured that someday it would become a collector’s item.

  2. Yes my fave local food critic Soleil Ho with the Lesbian feta article! Highly recommend her writing – not just what’s good to eat, but really thoughtful investigations of the ways culture, tradition, and power intertwine with food.

  3. Have you read that Josephine Baker is being honered with a spot in the Pantheon for her work in the French resistance and her social activism?

    Such wonderful news.

  5. The Lesbian feta cheese article was all fun and games until the ending sentence, which crumbled my stone-cold heart 😳😭

  6. I have my own earring magic Ken and I love him so much! I bought him secondhand from someone’s basement for a fraction of the prices on Ebay. He is the envy of all my friends.

  7. i think some people may not have jumped over to the lesbian cheese article, and so here (emphasis me):

    The existence of lesbian ewes is, apocryphally, harder to gauge: They stand still when they’re aroused, so their queerness remains immeasurable with current scientific methods.

    • I indeed did skip it and thanks to you I’ve now read it and it really a gem and I want some cheese now.

      I’m in the EU and fake feta is indeed sold as “Greek style cheese” or even more budget “white salad cheese” and if artisanal feta is lesbian, boring as hell “salad cheese” must be for the straights.

  8. To tell the truth, it was really entertaining to read this article and you were able to fill me up with exciting emotions. I can say that I was able to feel nostalgia because I remembered my childhood. I have collected a lot of Barbie and I remembered how I played with Magic Earring Ken. It was my favourite doll and I stood out among the others. Of course, this doll can be characterized as queer Icon because it is an ambiguous doll with an interesting story. I can say that it is so cool that this article is devoted to queer women and trans people of all genders because it is really important to pay them due attention and give them support, showing their value in our world no matter what.

Comments are closed.