Say Hello to RITUALS, an Autostraddle End of Year Miniseries

The eight writers who contributed to this miniseries will share all sorts of rituals: rituals for love, rituals for grief, rituals for forgiveness, rituals for inner peace. My wish is that it will help us all feel somewhat less alone this December, more connected to our community, and more ready for whatever January 2022 delivers.

First Person Identity

I’m Tired of Apologizing for My Intersex Trans Body

Within a binary understanding of sex, a binary understanding of gender, or a binary separation between sex and gender, I am impossible.

First Person Food and Drink

Wild Cravings: Chicken Salad, Shrimp, and Soup

For my final (for now) installment of Wild Cravings, I leave you with three food memories set in Virginia, Norway, and New York.

First Person

Dispatches From My First Few Weeks in Florida

Everyone keeps telling me the correct way to outrun an alligator, but I keep forgetting. Also, everything about Disney World sounds made up.

A Fat Black woman is standing behind orange flowers and greenery

First Person Sex

Strapping As A Fat Femme Was My Black Queer Sexual Liberation

A fat Black femme explores the relationship with her body and shares how strapping became part of her sexual liberation.

A collage of a Black Light skin woman with curly hair touching a green shrub with pinkish flowers. A small handheld mirror is beside her.

First Person Sex

I Always (Never) Feel Like — Somebody’s Watching Me

Are you gonna let them watch you strap up or are you a “BRB” kinda babe?

A pair of legs wearing white high heels stands in front of a pink pattern background with florals. A mouth with a tongue sits next to the legs to the left

First Person Sex

Suck My Silicone Or Save Your Mouth For Me?

Should you play suck and blow or what’s the point?

First Person Sex

One Strap To Rule Them All Or Nah — Not So Much?

Do you only need one strap or is variety truly the spice of life?

A Black woman sits on a large leaf surrounded by plants and flowers while looking down at her unzipped pants.

First Person Sex

To Strap Or Not To Strap — That Is The Question

It’s the age-old queer question — Are you strapping or nah?

First Person Food and Drink

Wild Cravings: The Lonely Cheeseburger

When I think of that time and place, those seven months in a Lakeview walkup, I think of those cheeseburgers, and I think of that friendship. Neither are really in my life anymore.

Illustration of a brown femme in a purple wig and frilly purple dress walking along a residential street at night. In the corner is a small circle depicting the brown femme kissing another person.

First Person Love + Sex

Scenes from a Gender 05: The Prehatching Years

I was mortified, to be sure, but also honored and validated, to be on the girls’ team. And oh yes, honey – I’ve never left.

An illustration of different body parts, including eyes, lips, ears, nose, hands, waist, hair, and fingers.

First Person

This is My Body, and I Decide Its Meaning

As a person with polycystic ovarian syndrome, my journey to self-acceptance as a non-binary, healthy individual has been long and winding.

A bowl of green soup with a little sour cream drizzle

First Person Food and Drink

Wild Cravings: Memory Soup

For over two years, I’ve been searching for soup. A specific soup. A watercress soup I ate maybe a handful of times spread out over a handful of weeks in the spring of 2015.

A person with long brown hair in a white shirt is in a bed with white sheets. They hold a black phone and look concerned.

First Person

Asshole, Autistic and Other A-Words of My Love Life

Something was deeply wrong with me, something shameful. Turns out, the truth is more complicated.

An empty classroom, which includes wooden desks, a green chalkboard, a clock and a podium at the front of the room.

First Person

Well, That’s Mortifying: That Time I Didn’t Know About Roger Clemens

The class erupted in wide-eyed giggles and guffaws and I continued smiling at the front of the room, confident and certain that I’d made a very smooth move.

A sign reads "Leo's Coney Island: Family Dining" against a blue sky

First Person

Wild Cravings: Nothing Tastes The Same

The Leo’s group changes from visit to visit. It all depends who’s up in time, who’s ready to go, who’s the right amount of hungover (hungover enough to crave greasy, salty food but not so hungover as to not be able to handle fluorescent light).