Issue 17

Issue 17

The Power Issue

The Power Issue is full of stories that explore the micro and macro ways that power does its work in our world.

When Walking It Off Stops Working

This was the way we found power over pain: Move.

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The Power of Change

“I told myself that moving was not going to actually fix my life, that living in a different state didn’t mean that my personality was going to change. It wouldn’t fix my depression and anxiety. I told myself this, all the while secretly hoping this move did have the power to fix me, to break me down to an elemental level and rebuild me.”

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I Want Co-Star to Tell Me What to Do

Astrology was too complicated. I decided to place my trust in Co–Star.

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Small Waves

I don’t think anyone looks at the introverted, disabled woman, and thinks she’s powerful. But my family chose to. They are the reason that I can pushback against the stereotypes society holds for a quiet blind woman, and assert my place in this world. They taught me to swim in the waves.

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Anatomy of a Power Lesbian

I don’t think there was a specific cultural inception, but rather a percolation of various feminist ideals that bubbled over during the 1980s, the decade that female masculinity went mainstream.

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How to Fry Potatoes

When Thanksgiving rolled around I spent all my money on alcohol, and was left eating potatoes every meal for two weeks.

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The Unfortunate Power to Confuse

An autobiographical comic.

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The Color of the Sky

I could be anything, my mother taught me. I could be anyone I wanted. Except for being an atheist lesbian — that wasn’t really on the menu.

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Warning: Someone’s Body

I am coming to believe that my body is where my knowledge of the Divine lives—even when intellectual belief in God eludes me. My body has known for years that to live it would have to change.

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Writing Queer Ugandan Futures into the Present

The story of queerness in Uganda, bound as it has been to fictions about who we are and who we ought to be, is a story of resilience, love and community.

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Finding Personal Power and Magic in Tarot

Church leaders wielded the idea of “the will of the Lord” in ways that forced me to surrender power and agency — but when I started reading tarot, I found a new way to move through the world.

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On Saying No

Saying yes almost destroyed me, but I was still afraid to say no.

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Clockbeat

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

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Toward an Applicable Theory of Just Not

On refusal, rest, and resistance.

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8 Amazing Books about Queer/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Women with Superpowers

Is it too obvious to say that reading books about queer women with superpowers can be very… empowering?

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The Burlesque Show

Minutes before I saw Poison Ivory pour champagne down her back and watch it drip between her legs, I knew seeing this black burlesque performer would evoke Power.

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“Tired!” or How I Ran For, and Queered, My Union’s Politics

After my frustrations grew, I ran for a seat in SAG-AFTRA’s delegation and became our first elected non-binary delegate, learning life lessons and queering up the world of labor union politics along the way.

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Trans Women of Color Organizers Are Building a Movement to Decriminalize Sex Work in D.C.

These trans women activists have banded together in support of a city council bill that, if passed, would decriminalize consensual sex work in D.C. for people who are 18 and older, building grassroots power for their own communities.

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Summer of 1990

I remember it all because for that one hour of that one day in that horribly long summer, I could see part of myself reflected in someone else and I felt less alone.

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Dykes Rule the Night

Lesbian bars may be dying, but lesbian nightlife is more alive than ever

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