Letter From Your Editors

Hello peaches and creams!

Wow, can you believe how many months January has lasted? Neither can we. Here we are doing something slightly more complicated than just being in front of the camera:

1st: Kayla // KaeLyn + Remi // Al(aina) // Drew // Kamala 2nd: Casey // Stef // Dani // Vanessa // Malic 3rd: Heather // Molly Adams // Adrian // Sarah // Nicole 4th: Valerie Anne // Meg // Laneia // Riese // Rachel

This month we had some significant staffing changes that we’re excited to talk to you about! As of January 1st, Carmen Phillips has stepped up into a role as Senior Editor. Carmen started in the comments and now she’s here — since beginning her work for us as a writer in June 2017 and eventually becoming Associate Editor in 2018, she’s published viral pieces on pressing Janelle Monae related news stories, executed lauded film and TV criticism, project managed some of the TV Team’s most successful content, including last year’s Gay Emmys and the weekly hit, Boobs on Your Tube; edited so many freelancers on our theme issues; implemented best practices around editing and social media to ensure our POC writers are set up for success; led the Speakeasy with so much passion and skill; and facilitated and collaborated in the hiring process for all of our new Contributors and our new Deputy Editor, Kamala. She and Kamala are hard at work on new initiatives and projects from the Speakeasy that we’re excited to roll out in the coming weeks and months.

Secondly, Heather Hogan and I have been working together to redefine her role here at this website she loves so much. She needs to cut back on her hours to focus on giving her body and mind the care it deserves, including making space for physical therapy to address growing health concerns as well as plenty of time for actual rest and relaxation. Heather’s always been here to burn the midnight oil and/or the candle at both ends, but one cannot do such things forever! Thus, Heather has stepped down from the Senior Editorial Team and is taking on a new role called Senior Writer, which will also entail managing the TV Team and Social Media Team in the ways that she always has done (but with more time to devote to each). She’ll still be at Autostraddle as a full-time employee, but with even more time to devote to the writing we all love and to expanding and enhancing the breadth of our film and television coverage.

This shift also has, equal parts incidentally and intentionally, gotten us to a place we’ve dreamed of being for a while: a Senior Staff that is no longer majority-white. Along with our majority-POC team of contributors/writers, upcoming anti-racist training for our white staff and ongoing initiatives in place that have increased our deliberate investment in work by POC writers, we’re hoping to see more transformation in that area in the coming months (and hopefully, years).

Now, this is the part of the letter where I tell you about A+ content we’ve published this month and there is one very specific project I wanted to draw your attention to, which’s that if you live in the Chicago area and are an A+ member, you have a chance to do what all of us at Autostraddle wish we could do which is HANG OUT WITH SHELLI. While we all sit around in Slack periodically noting, “I love Shelli” and “I wish I could meet Shelli IRL,” you can grab coffee and go to the bookstore with this bona-fide extrovert who loves creating queer community. On our recent money survey, many of you expressed an interest in more in-person opportunities to connect, and this is our first step in that direction! So y’all should do that.

Additional A+ content this month included Heather interviewing her ex-girlfriend, 100 Ways People Found Autostraddle Last Week: Sex Edition and a roundtable on the sex we had that taught us what we really, really like.

Love,

Riese / Kamala / Sarah / Laneia / Rachel / Carmen

Top 10 Most Popular Posts From December 2019

These posts were hella popular last month.

1. L Word Generation Q Episode 101 Recap: Let’s Do It Again, by Riese
2. The L Word: Generation Q Episode 104 Recap: L.A. Times, by Riese
3. The 50 Best Queer Sex Toys, by Carolyn + Archie
4. The L Word Generation Q Episode 102 Recap: Less is More, by Riese
5. The L Word: Generation Q Episode 103 Recap: Lost Love, by Riese
6. The 50 Best Lesbian, Queer and Bisexual Movies of the Decade, by Drew
7. Queer Horoscopes for December 2019: Choose What Matters and Commit to Doing Better, by Corina
8. The Best TV Shows of 2019 With LGBT Women Characters, by Riese + Team –
9. Kate McKinnon Finally Gets to Play an Actual Lesbian in Bombshell, by Heather
10. Generation Q Showrunner Marja Lewis-Ryan on Period Sex, Why Carmen’s Not Coming Back and Dating Your Neighbor, by Riese

Nine Important Excerpts From Editorial Conversations

Riese: it looks like there are some new lesbians on hashtag you on netflix
Carmen: Nope! Not it!
Riese: and one of them looks like [person]’s ex-wife 😕
but isn’t 😕
her name is… sunrise 😞
Natalie: Peach and Sunrise. Those writers are really inventive.
Riese: yeah they went to Walgreens and just wrote down all the different flavors of Suave Body Wash

…

Riese: I did it
I watched hashtag you on Netflix
Heather: on purpose??

Shelli: Also did we all see the chart in last night’s finale?
Drew: No!
Shelli: on the wall in alices office right before she gives the pep talk!
Natalie: the guest chart.

Archie: Omg the details wow
Drew: I know this is just her guest list randomly placed on intersecting lines but I’m going to pretend that Ani DiFranco and Janelle Monáe have hooked up
Shelli: I will follow you into that stop at imagination station

Heather: FINALLY a still of renee montoya

omg she has brass knuckles if you hashtag her name on twitter ALL MY DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE

Sarah: 

View this post on Instagram

you know who you are.

A post shared by 🔥 FiRE SiGN OPEN SWiM ⚒ 🛠 (@xenaworrierprincess) on Sep 11, 2019 at 3:20pm PDT

Carmen: quick dinner break!
SARAH I PROMISE I DRANK WATER!
Sarah: how much

Drew: the people in this photo are gay right

Sometimes with people my age it’s like are you gay or do you just live in a major city

Natalie: Did anyone else catch the editing error in last night’s episode?
Carmen: No! but please share!
Natalie: Bette puts the lid on her tagine and goes to take a sip of wine to celebrate her culinary success.

Drew: hahahahaha
Natalie: Then, surprise, as she sips, the lid is off!
Drew: Oh those two screenshots made my brain think she puts down the wine and it’s turned into the lid.
Natalie: With respect to the wine, though, BETTE FUCKIN’ PORTER is not drinking wine with a screw top. I do not believe it.
Drew: Agreed

Riese: do we have a contact at USA
Heather: i have lots. what are you looking for specifically?
Riese: Dare Me
i applied to NBC universal media village and got in, but i don’t have screener access
Heather: [insert contact info here] also this is on valerie’s radar for writing about when it gets gay! she’s watching it!
Riese: 👍🏻
Valerie: i want to march into that show wearing a “who all’s gay here” shirt so bad
Riese: They are all gay!
I mean the last ep was certified gay
If that’s not gay then I’m not gay
The last scene???????
What must we endure

Drew: Someone tonight told me their friend Roberta was in I Love Dick and I was like … and then she was like oh she was also in the musical based on the Alison Bechdel book and I was like Fun Home yes I saw it twice, once at the Public, once on Broadway both times with the original cast, I interviewed Roberta last year on the Vida red carpet do you watch Vida
And she was like Oh cool! and seemed confused
And I was like…
I’m a gay

Rachel: morning everyone
some heartfelt words from Gary

Laneia: gary
needs a minute
to himself
Riese: Thems the breaks Gary!!
The pathway to success is paved with a series of harsh rejections and cold regards

Best Laid Plan(ner)s

Every month a different writer will give you a sneak peak into their notebook organization situation. This month Kamala’s giving a sneak peak into her journal / planning / calendar system.

Pinch Me

Heather: excuse me, i’ve received my press credentials to sit by the runway at the 2020 new york pet fashion show. i would like to cover it for autostraddle dot com on instagram stories and with a post.

Laneia: heather hogan
literally nothing on this planet and likely within this entire universe would make me happier
Heather: OKAY LANEIA!
THANK YOU!
Laneia: I AM SO HAPPY
Heather: me too!
Rachel: heather I thought I was hallucinating this at first
mazel!
Laneia: i had to read it 4 entire times
the last time was really just to savor it
Heather: that’s how i felt when i got the press release last week
i was like “well if someone is punking me, it’s very specific. click to apply”

What We’ve Been Reading

Heather: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Malic: Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Roadby Kate Harris

Casey: Get a Life, Chloe Brownby Talia Hibbert and Legacy by Charlotte Greene

Valerie Anne: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Al(aina): White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue… and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson

Sarah: The Whole Lesbian Sex Book: A Passionate Guide for All of Us by Felice Newman

Meg: You Were Born For This by Chani NIcholas

Natalie: Homie by Danez Smith

Nicole:The Fifth Seasonby N.K. Jemisin, and In the Dream House: A Memoirby Carmen Maria Machado

Drew: Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown

Kamala: In The Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado, and Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2) by Ann Leckie

Stef: Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Riese: Females, by Andrea Long Chu

Molly Adams: The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

Rachel: Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative, Jane Alison

Meet A New Contributor!

Get to know some of our newest faces.

Bailey, Writer

Instagram: Baileyonemoretime

What is your favorite kind of sandwich?

I’m a “seafood salad” or a “BLT” kinda gyal. Nothing like a £3 meal deal.

What’s something you’ve been really proud of lately?

Quitting my shitty non-profit job and starting a Masters. My brain constantly feels on fire and I’m into it.

If you could only use one emoji for the rest of your life, what would it be?

💫 / Dizzy star gets me everytime

Who was your first woman celebrity crush?

Winona Ryder in Mermaids running to the top of that clock tower to make out with bell ringer Joe.

What’s your favorite sex toy?

My partners’ thigh harness.

What’s your #1 turn-off?

Projecting.

Niche Movie List Retro-Reading

Drew is currently working on updating our #1 Smash Hit All-Time Best Lesbian Movies list and I thought, why not take a look back at some smaller, more niche movie lists we’ve published over the years!

via 20 Movies About Friendship and Misandry For When You Want to Burn it All Down by Carmen (2018)

Top Five Movies Featuring Cats, by Mey (2014)  – Not my bag but you know…might be yours…

Top Five Classic Horror Films with Queer Subtext, by Desirae (2015) – “Nothing provides plausible deniability like the supernatural, and so classic Hollywood horror films were practically primed for representations of homoeroticism and heterosexual anxieties about queer life, which was already horrifying to the mainstream. ”

The 8 Sexiest Non-Sex Film Scenes of 2017, by Kayla (2017) – “I saw a lot of movies this year (thanks, MoviePass!), and a good number of them ruined my life by supplying me with GIFs I can’t stop watching on a loop. ”

15 Horror Movies with Queer Women Who Aren’t Just Psycho Killers or Slasher Victims by Rachel (2017) – One thing I realized looking through our archives is wow we have a lot of lists of horror movies!

15 Best Trans Woman Movies According to Trans Women, by Mey (2015) with input from Devan Diaz, Lexi Adsit, Gabby Bellot, Raquel Willis, Savannah, Drew, Nicole, Sadie Edwards, Jamie Berrout, Ryka Aoki, Cherno Biko, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Annie Mok, Sydney Freeland, Princess Harmony Rodriguez, Eli Erlick and Trace Lysette.

15 Lesbian(ish) Books Made into Lesbian(ish) Movies to Read This Weekend, by Rachel (2016) – A great service we provided on a very snowy weekend.

Top Ten Movies You Watched for the Brief Nudity, by Laneia (2011) – “Here are some movies from the 80s, 90s and early 00s that we watched as pre-teens / teens / last week because of the 0.3 seconds of nudity, whether we knew it or not.”

25 Streaming Movies With Hot Lesbian Sex Scenes, by Riese (2018) – This one really keeps being popular for some reason?!?!?

15 QTPOC Women’s History Month Films You Should Watch Right Now, by Kaelyn (2018) “Everyone should know the stories of the lesbian, bisexual, queer and/or trans women of color who’ve been the backbones of LGBT communities forever and ever.”

10 Sad (But Non-Lethal) Movies for the Casually Depressed Queer Woman, by Drew (2020) – Okay, this one was published a few weeks ago but … have you read it yet?

25 Female-Fronted Comedies You Should See (Rom-Com Free!), by Riese (2011)  When Bridesmaids came out everybody acted like it was the first female fronted comedy ever and I was like…. what.

Five Posts Rachel Can’t Believe You Motherf*ckers Didn’t Read Last Month

Respect Your Elders: Tea With Two-Spirit African-American and Haudenosaunee Writer M. Carmen Lane, by Lou Barrett

I legitimately had to take breaks while reading this because I was so overwhelmed with intense feeling at Carmen’s observations and also at the fact that this interview exists, and it would bring me such deep joy to share the experience with you of also having to take breaks to process your feelings about this piece and the series it will be a part of!

Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: January’s Uses of the Erotic, by Jehan

This series was something Jehan initially pitched during the hiring process and that we were SO excited about, and I could not be more thrilled that it now exists in a form we can all read and share and discuss with one another! Jehan is engaging with Audre Lorde for AN ENTIRE YEAR and we’re invited to come along; I think this kind of deep reading and communing over shared text and history is something a lot of us want more of in our lives and often feel is inaccessible outside academic/elite spaces, so let’s take the opportunity to get into it now!

Welcome to the Dyke Kitchen, by Kamala

I could not be more thrilled that Kamala has joined us and I think getting to know someone over food — especially their own food and their own kitchen — is so deeply intimate and special, and it’s so lovely that Kamala has invited us to do that with her in this column. Also, it made me very hungry, which is so nice! Writing is magic.

I Tried These Smart Sex Toys and All I Got Was All This Data about My Orgasms, by Shelli

I will not rest until everyone who reads this website adores Shelli and her work as much as I do. I have wanted someone to write about ‘smart’ toys for so long, ere these many moons, and when Shelli joined us I knew the time had come. This piece exceeds my wildest expectations — it’s hilarious, informative, analytical, and includes MTV’s Undressed.

I Remain A “Catfish” Queer: On Love, The Midwest, and What We Think We Deserve, by Maddy

This is some of the best and smartest writing on reality tv I’ve read, and it’s also very moving and true! We can joke about how we, as a people, are unable to cease meeting from across the country on Instagram and facetiming our way into a codependent lifetime of shared streaming memberships, but it’s true for a reason and there are few shows as uniquely positioned to look at it with some modicum of generosity and understanding as Catfish. Also, Maddy! Hello. Come for the memes, stay for the catfishing.

When Does The Gay Start

Valerie: related, i watched the first two episodes of Dare Me and somehow it’s the gayest show without actually having any confirmed gayness at all
like it opens with one girl being like “you like the tampons with the tapered tips, right babe?” but then turns out they’re just best friends and not girlfriends somehow?
Natalie: when i was reading about the show, it said the book was similar…like it took a long time before the truth about them came out
Kayla: i’ve seen every episode but i won’t say anything because i still feel bad about that time i spoiled mrs. fletcher
Valerie: 👀
Kayla: this is a rare case when I actually wish the whole show had dropped at once instead of airing weekly
Drew: Would you recommend waiting to start until more episodes are out?
Heather: we should make a, like, almanac of shows and it will just say what episode the gay stuff starts
like doesthedogdie but the opposite and for gays
what a service
Valerie: that would be great because i finally started Atypical and the girl i was promised would be gay kissed a boy and punched real life queer girl ariela barer in the face within the first two eps and i am feeling mislead
Heather:oh! keep watching!
Valerie: i mean i will
Heather: lol
Valerie: because even if she was straight i was charmed by casey
Heather: yes though, the almanac would help set expectations!
Valerie: i just almost wish i didn’t know there was going to be gay because now i’m feeling foot-tappy about it
or, yes, that i knew when it would happen
Riese: WAIT
HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING ABUT DARE ME
i felt like the end of episode 2 when she was at the house that the coach was 100% clearly like angling for it
Drew: YES BUT WE ARE KEEPING IT VERY SPOILER FREE
Riese: oh
lol

XOXO

Team Autostraddle

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