feature image by Robin Roemer for Autostraddle
I had spinach ravioli for breakfast! I hope that you, too, are living your best life on this day.
You Should Go or Do or Give
+ Attend the 35th Anniversary of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman: Distortions of Black Feminism as a Concept on November 14 in Milwaukee.
+ Support Scissr: Season One!
+ Support Season 2 of The Lavender Collective!
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Why Keeping the T in LGBT is so Very Important by Vivianna.
+ Why Are Bathrooms Segregated by Sex in the First Place? by Katherine Ripley.
+ The Bi-Curious Generation: How Same-Sex Encounters Has Become the Norm for Today’s Youth, according to a BBC documentary.
+ Dear Qantas, Do You Have a Problem With Lesbians?, in which a lesbian couple was repeatedly asked to move seats to make way for a heterosexual couple.
Kristina Antoniades and Merrin Hicks
+ Melissa Etheridge Talks New Music and Falling for Wife Linda Wallem.
+ When Coming Out Means Rewriting Your Story.
+ Excuse me, The Dark Secrets of Australia’s Lesbian Vampire Killer.
+ Are you reading Ladybeard magazine? YOU PROBABLY SHOULD BE. “This magazine champions sex for the post-Cosmo generation.” Ahem.
+ Death is Way More Complicated When You’re Polyamorous.
Doll Parts
+ 81 Year-Old Native Woman Creates Dictionary of Her Tribe’s Language. Badass.
+ I’m sorry about the rock you’ve been living under, but Mallory Ortberg is the New Dear Prudence, which means that I’ll be able to enjoy Dear Prudence now.
+ Female Link Now a Playable Zelda Character!! I almost don’t even care that they named her Linkle! ALMOST.
+ Meagan Taylor has I Was Arrested Just for Being Who I Am.
+ How to Run a Back-Alley Abortion Service by Rachel Wilson.
+ One Million Moms is Butt-Hurt Over American Girl Dolls. Culture war!!!!
+ Margaret Cho On Sex Worker Rights.
+ The Right Fit: How one Midwestern boutique is evolving with the trans community, by Alizah Salario.
+ Alone in the Kitchen with an Infant by Emily Gould.
+ Uber for Breakups. What.
+ The latest episode of Brand New Podcast is out and features Gaby Dunn!
Saw This, Thought of You
+ YOUR CAT DOESN’T REALLY WANT TO KILL YOU. Barbara J. King is gonna need you to slow your roll, ok?
+ Native American Heritage Month: 6 Tips for Educators, Parents compiled by Sarah Sunshine Manning.
+ The Case for Melancholy by Laren Stover.
+ How Richard Scarry Updated His Children’s Book to be More Progressive and Inclusive. I wouldn’t mind if the comments of this AAA just became a Richard Scarry Appreciation Party to be honest.
hair bows for everyone!
+ Study Reveals How Yelp Reviews and Gentrification Go Hand-in-Hand by Cierra Bailey.
+ San Diego Zoo and a Sanctuary in Kenya Announce Plan to Save Northern White Rhinos.
+ The Sociology Behind Tinder’s New Profiles.
+ Y’all what in the hell: Playwright Katori Hall Expresses Rage Over “Revisionist Casting” of Mountaintop with White Dr. Martin Luther King.
+ The Cow Tipping Point: Is America ready for a post-cow economy?
+ Save the Waterbeds! Five Pieces of Furniture That Are All But Extinct. This article is basically pointless but there’s a Waterbed Outlet ad that you’ll probably like. Real talk, my mom had a waterbed in the 80s and it was the best fucking thing in our entire house.
+ Maria Konnikova with Bringing the Rural Poor Into the Digital Economy.
+ 13 Reasons People Think the Number 13 is Unlucky.
+ Photographer Creates Realistic Star Wars Scenes in Lego. Oooooh.
by Vesa LehtimƤki, aka Avanaut
+ Mallory Ortberg brings you Sexual Overtures from an Alien Unfamiliar with the Human Body. Beautiful.
And Finally
12 Good Reminders to Help You Let Go of Guilt. I don’t know, I needed this today and thought you could maybe use it, too.
Can we all, as a community (I’m talking to the lesbians here), agree not to use The Breakup Shop? It just seems … so unlesbian. I mean, where would all ‘those’ conversations go? I feel like an essential aspect of lesbianism is being excised here.
Hey, these all look great and like I have lots of weekend reading to do. Is the link for the coming out story supposed to go to getpocket.com? I feel like not, but if it’s free, I’ll probs sign up b/c that piece sounds neat and is related to my thesis research (which I will hopefully work on this weekend…)
I’ve been apart of the group that joked about them having a yt person play MLK, but didn’t really think it’d happen…I stand corrected.
I have a sudden urge to tie a yellow ribbon in my hair and go use a steamroller! Rad!
Also I’m glad Dear Prudence is changing hands! The last person was giving out some super iffy advice about gay stuff and sex in general. It was baaaad.
yes! so awful
I LOVE YOU RICHARD SCARRY
Also FYI there has been a response petition to the whole “Drop the T from LGBT” thing that is now “Drop the L” under the logic that since LGBT activism isn’t solely about lesbians it is wholly useless to us, and then immediately goes right back into transphobic hate speech. Also, TERF and Cis are slurs, apparently. It’s called F.U. GBT or something like that. Not wanting to link to limit the exposure of such a bad thing
Maybe if we ignore the divisive bullshit it will go away.
One of my BFFs growing up had a giant waterbed. Her name was Alyssa and she was Italian and her parents had a side business selling dried herbs, so sleepovers always meant sharing the giant waterbed with her in a marvelous cloud of thyme and rosemary and basil and garlic!
AJA THIS PARAGRAPH IS BETTER THAN ANNE OF GREEN GABLES.
I get unreasonably passionate and defensive over three things in this world: Girl Scouts, summer camp, and the American Girl brand. I grew up beyond obsessed with those dolls/books/the magazine/the clothes/EVERYTHING and there’s a small fortune (including 6 dolls…eek) in my parents basement. The fact that they pissed off one million moms makes me love them more than I possibly thought I could. HOORAY AMERICAN GIRL!
(Please try not to judge).
cosigning all of this, amen
Hi, my girlfriend and I both work for Girl Scouts (she’s the summer camp director), we both have multiple AG dolls, and our department at work has a subscription to American Girl magazine, and I just want to say thanks for being passionate and defensive of our existence, fuck One Million Moms, and also I feel like we could all be friends. :)
I also work for Girl Scouts! I work as a program person at a camp in the summer
Aw yay I love seeing stores about Melissa Etheridge. I’m the only one out of my group of friends who listens to her. My mom is actually the only other person I know who listens to her. I’m aalso always the youngest one at her concerts. C’mon, y’all! This is (some of) the music of our people!
I also really like her, and am pretty sure I’m the only one who listens to her music in my group of friends too ;)
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve known about Melissa since the 90s (I was born in 1991 but I remember hearing the “Bring Me Some Water” when they played her music videos on MTV around 1999-back when MTV played really good music <3).
And also during that scene in "But I'm A Cheerleader" when the poster was shown of Melissa.
I want to listen to music (besides "Bring Me Some Water". Anyone care to help me out on what album(s) to start with? Please? I need some new (ish) music in my life right now. Also, other singers and bands are appreciated :)
Her Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled album has all her great classics. Her newest album, This is M.E., is pretty good. Also “Fearless Love” will probably be relevant to your interests.
I LOVE MALLORY ORTBERG AND I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS.
Someday, my university will be in the news for something positive. But when they cast a white guy as MLK on a campus that is so incredibly diverse, I realize that day is still a long ways away.
I had mushroom ravioli for breakfast this morning. :)