Lesbian Films: Alien No More
January 10, 2012 by Joan Lipkin · 1 Comment
What a banner few weeks it has been for lesbian-themed films gaining general release: Albert Nobbs by Roderigo Garcia, Pariah by Dee Rees and Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same by Madeleine Olnek. With rare exceptions such as Donna Deitch’s iconic Desert Hearts (1985), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001–written and coproduced by its stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen) and [...]
“Circumstance” Explores LGBT Oppression in Modern Iran
August 18, 2011 by Christie Thompson · 1 Comment
Iranian American director Maryam Keshavarz had a story of modern-day Iran that she thought needed telling. A story for which she and her cast were willing to give up the right to revisit their homeland after the film came out. Fortunately, the film Circumstance, an Audience Award-winner at the Sundance Film Festival which will open [...]
Ending the Cold War With My Father
June 18, 2011 by Leslie Absher · 9 Comments
When my father was honored for his 32-year career in the CIA–a career that spanned the Cuban Missile Crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall–he invited me to the ceremony. At 23, I didn’t know what to say. Not because his being in the CIA was new information–it wasn’t–but because we were so different. [...]
Loving the L Life
March 4, 2011 by Audrey Bilger · Leave a Comment
You know you’ve arrived and are here to stay when you get your own coffee table book–and Erin McHugh’s photo-album tribute to out-proud gay women, The L Life: Extraordinary Lesbians Making a Difference, begs to be put on display. On the cover, Jane Lynch, identified within as the “lesbian ‘it’ girl,” gazes confidently at the viewer, [...]
Kanye’s Black Monsters, Pakistan’s Secret Lesbians and Lessons From Kermit Gosnell: Editors’ Picks, 1/16-1/22
January 23, 2011 by Annie Shields · 2 Comments
This week brought us one of the most unabashedly stupid infographics ever to go viral, “Which Female Tech Influencer Are You?” The Frisky‘s Jessica Wakeman fires back. You can regain your faith in humanity over at feminist academic Minh-Ha T. Pham’s new blog Of Another Fashion: an amazing “alternative archive of the not-quite-hidden but too [...]
Whatever Happened to 1970s Lesbian-Feminism?
October 18, 2010 by Emily Douglas · 2 Comments
A montage of faces–”Women We Remember”–looking at turns impish, contented, self-assured and reflective appeared one after another on a screen. After the slideshow concluded, people in the standing-room-only audience shouted out names of other women they’d lost. As the chorus of voices died down, Sarah Chinn, director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies [...]
Jill Johnston Taught Me to Be a Lesbian
October 11, 2010 by Michele Kort · 5 Comments
Jill Johnston was the boldest lesbian of her time. I religiously read her Village Voice columns in the 1970s and ’80s, and her classic book Lesbian Nation was probably the first I ever saw with the word “lesbian” in the title.That was my coming-of-age time as a lesbian feminist, and push-the-envelope Jill Johnston serving as [...]
Boobies, Birthers and WikiSexism: Editors’ Picks 8/29-9/3
September 4, 2010 by Annie Shields · Leave a Comment
Just in time for the long weekend, Ms. brings you the must-reads you might have missed this week–from a Pocahontas-poetry mash-up, to gender inequality on Wikipedia, to live reporting from Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally. Happy reading, and enjoy the holiday! The Wall Street Journal talked to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president and chairman of [...]
