Also.Also.Also: Lesbians Can’t Exist After 1895, So Says Hollywood

What are the things your brain can’t seem to stop hyper-fixating on today? For me, it’s that I need new underwear. That’s random and probably a little personal, but hey! We’re all friends here!

Queer as in F*ck You

Hmmm, Why Do All the Movie Lesbians Exist in the Past?

I can’t quite remember if I linked this longread by Tre’Vell Anderson for Xtra when it first came out, but it’s been burning up my circles again over the weekend so just in case: What Does It Really Mean to Be Non-Binary? (it’s all so thoughtful and excellent, much like Tre’Vell)

“The first time I had lesbian sex, I expected something more. I don’t mean from the act itself — that was intensely pleasurable. What I mean is the afternoon after I left her place, sitting outside on my stoop processing the experience with two of my close queer women friends, I realized I didn’t feel any different.

That surprised me. Every major shift in identity I’d gone through before that morning had brought with it some sort of revelation or catharsis.”

Musings on ‘No Labels’ by Harron Walker’ for W (I also linked Harron’s One of My Friends Is in Her Flop Era last month, this new piece is from the same series. Is it too early in the year to crown Harron my favorite essayist of 2021? Possibly. But also?…)

Ummmm, this is AMAZING!! No — but seriously, Amazing. I mean it. SOPHIEfest, February 27, on Twitch. Go to this!!

“Singer-songwriter Sarah Walk has teamed up with Meshell Ndegeocello and Abe Rounds to release a slow-burning cover of one of the most famous love songs of all time: ‘Nothing Compares 2 U'”. (I really don’t know what this is about, but it has Meshell Ndegeocello, so I’m there!)

‘We Wanted People to See We Exist’: The Photographer Who Recorded Lesbian Life in the 70s

Saw This, Thought of You

“In all radical labor movements, history is made when ordinary workers disrupt the system that seeks to exploit and silence them.” Dispatch from the California Stripper Strike

Wait, What’s Going on With Cara Delevingne and Jaden Smith?

Am I the only one still thinking about this? Why Were We So Cruel to Britney Spears?

Valentine’s Day is over, but this sweet comic is filled with warm reminders good for every day of the year: 9 Steps to Becoming the Love of Your Own Life

As Tribal Nations in Montana Are Threatened by COVID, Women Health Leaders Have Stepped Up

Most Americans Are Doing Pods Wrong. A very instructive and straight-forward (but not unreasonable!) How To Guide on how to have tough conversations with those you love most, to keep you all safe.

Political Snacks

The Senate Acquitted Trump. His Legal Problems Are Just Starting.

And while we’re here: ‘I’m Running for My Life. I Cannot Talk to You Right Now’: 23 Women in Congress Recall the Capitol Riot

And then to top us off, The Founders Were Wrong About Democracy.

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

15 Comments

  1. so will the next iteration of the AS scissor sweatshirt have “who needs electricity when you have scissoring to keep you warm” written on it somewhere??

  3. “Wait, What’s Going on With Cara Delevingne and Jaden Smith? Don’t get mad at me! I just work here!” is panphobic.

    • Hi! That wasn’t my intention with the joke — far from it, I was referencing that both Cara and Jaden have a certain type of annoying reputation in celebrity gossip sphere, not in any way Cara’s sexuality (or Jaden’s, for that matter).

      However, I recognize that intention and impact are not always the same, and I can see how you read the joke differently. I’m going to adjust my wording. Thank you for pointing it out.

    • Hi! I changed the title early this morning because when we brainstormed the joke yesterday evening, I wasn’t yet fully aware of the devastating extent of the blackouts in Texas and other parts of the country. The more I learned and sat with it over night, the more the joke felt ill-timed and not in good taste, given the circumstances.

      Thanks for asking!

      • Oh! That makes total sense, yeah. Thanks for thinking of that and changing it.

        (I was worried that the problem was with the scissoring part of the headline, and was readying myself to go to bat for scissoring references / jokes in headlines.)

  5. Thank you for this interesting roundup of links!! The link for the women in congress article leads to an article about tribal nations in Montana. It was a fascinating read, thank you!, but I was also interested in reading the article about the 23 women in congress. Thanks for putting this list together!

  6. Having a lot of feelings about the meaning of non-binary! As someone who has been wondering whether I am some flavor of cis non-binary/non-binary woman, it’s from an attitude of not wanting to co-opt and appropriate transness when I’m in a very privileged position in how I move through the world and others read me. I have a lot of thinking to do about gender and how I relate to it, and this piece gave me a new perspective.

    • I extremely relate to this comment. I have been trying to articulate some things to myself so I can articulate them to others, and I think this article has given me the framework I needed to do that.

    • I’m nonbinary but I have a hard time calling myself trans, for a few reasons. My partner’s nervous about the whole thing and I don’t want to freak them out further. I’m more interested in medical transition than social transition. And some parts of binary trans experience, like passing, aren’t really possible. And yeah, giving up privilege I guess. I feel like once I start identifying as trans life will get really really hard.

  7. I was excited about those cookies but from the reviews it sounds like they don’t taste very good!

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