Lesbian Gaydar is Real, Cat Cora is a Sexy Chef, and Equality California has a Plan: Daily Fix

today_on_autostraddle

Carlytron, aka your Tuesday Televisionary, is back — but we liked the team posts so much that we’ll continue to pitch in, search engine optimization be damned! So if you have any feelings about the Teen Choice Awards ’09, So You Think You Can Dance, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, True Blood, America’s Best Dance Crew (Vogue Evolution!), Defying Gravity, My Life on the D-Llist, Drop Dead Diva, Intervention or Toddlers & Tiaras … this is your lucky day!

Also, if you haven’t read Intercaine Katrina’s piece about how when the Philippines says “gay-friendly,” they aren’t talking about the ladies … then you should do that ASAP: In “Gay Friendly” Philippines, Lesbians Lead Secret Lives.

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LESBIAN GAYDAR: Gaydar is Real: Subjects Correctly Identify Lesbians Soley on Facial Features: “It remains unknown what aspects of the face and its features may underlie these judgments,” the researchers write. “One hypothesis would be that lesbian women’s faces are somehow more masculine, whether by nature, nurture or both.” (@millermccune)

SEXY PEOPLE: Two important lists of sexy people: The 21 Sexiest Elderly (and yes! It’s about 50% women! Go internet!) and Top Ten Sexiest Chefs (includes lesbian Cat Cora).

BISEXUALS: We have so many feelings about this, a roundtable could be in order … Why Are People So Afraid of Bisexuals?“We are society’s shape-shifters. Partnered with a member of the opposite sex, we appear straight. Partnering with a member of our own sex renders us gay, at least in the eyes of the world. We can choose the degree of freedom and oppression we choose to accept. Hence, we are not to be trusted.” (@alternet)

BETH DITTO: Lesbian Michelle Tea followed Lesbian Beth Ditto around during Fashion Week. It’s all in The Believer, which you should buy ASAP, but in the meantime, Jezebel wrote about it: Beth in The Believer Or, When Queer Feminist Punk Bands Meet Paris. (@jezebel)

WOMYN: The Income Gap Keeps on Growing: “…more study is needed to conclusively determine a cause for this pattern, but the implication is chilling: Once women break into a field in noteworthy numbers, its value goes down.” (@salon’s broadsheet)

ALTERNATIVELIFESTYLEHAIRCUT: Chris Rock Investigates the Social Construction of Good Hair,” and for the love of all that is good in the world, this film combines everything we love: investigating micro issues in a broader sociological context, documentaries, funny people, and That’s So Raven:

SANDRA BERNHARD: Sandra Bernhard’s New Album “Whatever It Takes”: “I kissed a girl … oooo! … It’s totally unsexy. That’s my biggest complaint about it. If you’re going to kiss a girl, let’s see some action. Let’s see Fanny Ardant and Marianne Faithfull kissing. Let’s see some European hot sexy. Let’s see some real women going at it. It’s all these little “Oh, I kissed a girl, oops” … it’s just such a turnoff.” (@spinner) [Unfortunately, it does not include the world-famous degrassi theme song “whatever it takes” – Hot Laura, “I’m gonna make it through” – Riese]

GAY PIMP: Johnny McGovern is starting somethin’: “Ericka fans unite! Ask Wendy…why a professional drag queen- Miss Erickatoure who came to her show dressed to the nines (at 7am no less) was told by Wendy’s producers that if she tried to comment or get on camera she would be removed from the audience? For a show that takes so much from Drag Queen and Gay Lingo and shitck ( the diva fan anyone?) this is VERY disapointing. tell her how YOU doin’ with that.…”

WOMYN: “Maybe I’m a cranky feminist who needs to get laid more, but I think it is really important to have language to talk about sexuality that isn’t itself coded as sexual.” (@feministe)

PROP 8: Leaders of Equality California, one of the state’s largest gay rights groups, will host a conference call today to discuss their timeline for going back to the ballot to try to amend the California Constitution to permit same-sex marriage. (@latimes)

BEST NEWS EVER: Focus on the Family Gots No Moneys: Everyone’s favorite Gang of Douchebags has a 6 million dollar shortfall, which threatens their ability “to reach out to parents, families and married couples who count on our help [informing them on how to be hateful asshats]” (@pam’s house blend)

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Auto-Straddler of the Day

read-a-book-wednesday

Are you alive? Are you living & breathing? Yes? Okay, then you should probs be reading this book. Literally one of the best books of all time, lesbian Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina is the fictionalized memoir of the author’s “white trash” coming-of-age in 1950’s Greenville County, South Carolina. She contends with a sprawling family of alcoholics and hard-living fighters, sexual abuse, and harrowing poverty.  There was a movie about it too, but we recommend the book.

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carly-icon2from Carly:

Readymech are free paper toys that you can assemble in about 10-15 minutes. You just print them off of the website and voila! They also have pinhole cameras. I plan to have my desk covered in these by the end of the week. Cute city!

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stef-iconfrom Stef:

Did you know the food system is responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions? I did, actually, but I did not know that my tofu scramble contributed so significantly to my carbon footprint! Check out this Carbon Footprint Calculator and be immediately horrified by what you’re doing to the planet.

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hot-laura-icon2from Intern Hot Laura:

this is all kinds of hilarious. some girl forgot that her boyfriend was in europe for two weeks and sent him many MANY emails of the crazy variety. he made them into a video, but you can read the transcript if you’re too impatient [it’s ok, i was].

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3164 articles for us.

25 Comments

  1. and then, after you read Bastard Out of Carolina, you should runnn to your local indie bookseller and pick up Trash and Cavedweller and power through them by Sunday! then you should probs work on a collage featuring your favorite Allison quotes and then reread Bastard just for good measure and then CALL ME and let’s talk about her for hours and hours and hours. ok? ok.

    • Yes! Trash is super skinny BTW so it ain’t not thang you guys should get itttt, I’m reading it now! Also I’d like to mention “Two or Three Things I Know for Sure,” and I have several quotes underlined to share ASAP!

      • Two or Three Things I Know for Sure is one of my all time favorite books. Dorothy Allison does such an amazing job exploring issues of class.

        • i’ve not read Two or Three Things! whaaaaat!?

          what would you do if you could meet Dorothy Allison? what would you say to her? i would make such an ass of myself. i should get some comments/questions together, just in case.

          i had to come back and edit my original comment to add this: I AM SO MAD THAT I HAVEN’T READ TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE! damn it.

          • I have always loved the quote from her aunt that inspired the title:

            “Lord girl, there’s only two or three things I know for sure. Only two or three things. That’s right. Of course it’s never the same things, and I’m never as sure as I’d like to be.”

    • I own Bastard Out Of Carolina (but have not read it) and a book of her poetry called The Women Who Hate Me (which I have read). I keep meaning to read it. But I get distracted by books easily… I’m in the middle of like 6 now and I just started another today…

  2. Love that julia child is one of the top 10 sexiest chefs!
    And also, obvs, the hps doppelganger, ms. Giada!

  3. The gaydar article was super interesting! I always think it’s way harder to distinguish lesbians than gay men. And oooh, Bastard Out of Carolina makes me happy (by happy I mean depressed but fulfilled and enlightened). I took a class this spring where I had to write a paper comparing the portrayals of gender in Bastard and Beloved. Best assignment EVER.

  4. I don’t know, I’m a bit dubious about the merits of the lesbian gaydar study. I mean, only 21 research participants? I wouldn’t think that’s all that statistically meaningful. They should put the test on the internet like the Harvard Implicit Project.

      • i hate these gaydar studies… they pop up every few months and i’m SO SICK of them. all the studies seem to come to the general consensus that lesbians are “manly” and gay guys are “feminine.” the small sample sizes are obvs sketchy, but i feel like the studies just reinforce stupid gender stereotypes and are just kind of offensive in general. personally, i think that queer people are more willing to express themselves gender-wise than straight people and these studies just reinforce the idea that being gay means you want to change sexes.

        • ^ I’ll have to agree with that. I quote: “…lesbian women’s faces are somehow more masculine.” I immediately rolled my eyes and was left with that uncomfortable, knocking my head against the desk saying “you just don’t get it!” – feeling. I think there’s definitely more of a swagger that goes with it.

  5. Where is Helen Mirren on the elderly sexy time list? I never feel the need to nit pick about list because they’re you know subjective, duh.

    BUT I LOVE ME SOME HELEN MIRREN! CAN I GET A WITNESS!

    • I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I saw the list. Like seriously that woman is ridiculously amazing in every way shape and form.

      • I believe you guys are backed up by all the commenters at nerve … who also didn’t read the intro paragraph which states that all the people on the list are 65+ and therefore – “Sadly, at age sixty-four, Helen Mirren just missed the boat.”

        • Oh you expect me to “read” things when there are pictures of sexy people.

          you overestimate my focus.

  6. What is this gaydar you speak of and where might I purchase one? I believe mine is somewhat malfunctioned… (that’s actually really interesting, I hope they have follow-up tests)

    P.S. All the team picks are awesome today! Not that they’re not everyday… yaknow they’re just even more noteworthy today! (:

  7. I think Stan’s article is the most (slash maybe the only) intelligent and reasonable thing I have read on bisexuality? Good call on that one.

    • i liked this one too! bisexuals take so much shit from the gays and the straights; they need a little love. i don’t see how anyone can claim to be lgtqqiawtfmilf&c and think it makes sense/is alright to beat up on someone’s sexual identity.

      • can’t think of anything intelligent to add but wanted to totally second what you guys both said. big fan of the article. also a roundtable on that kind of subject would be ace!

Comments are closed.