MISC
I need some suggestions for websites to frequent. I am in a slump where I only check fb, autostraddle, and my email obsessively (sometimes npr) while I do work and a variety of podcasts that I listen too. AS is so good & feels like my personal homepage but I know other sites need love, too!
Riese: I have no idea why you’d need to read any websites besides Autostraddle, that is just BONKERS. But other websites I read include The Awl, Brain Pickings, The New Inquiry, Racked, Guernica, Black Girl Dangerous, Narrative.ly and Messy Nessy Chic.
Could there be a page with descriptions of all your regular columns and past regularly columns? I think it would be helpful for me (someone who’s been reading for years) but especially useful for those new to Autostraddle.
Riese: There is! I’m not super-wonderful at updating it (I need an assistant so bad) but that page exists and it is here (scroll down).
Do you think you guys, as well as other similar organizations would be interested in sharing your web server logs to assist in the cases of LGBT asylum seekers trying to flee intolerant countries?
Riese: I don’t see why not? Is this a Cee question.
Why don’t lesbians have the same in-group vocabularies as gay men?
Riese: Haven’t you ever heard of “nipple confidence” though
Some friends and I were hanging out this past weekend, and we started talking about how much we love this website. That led us to a discussion on how to support the website with donations or buying merch, which led us to tossing around ideas on how y’all could make more profit. We we came up with an idea that the more I thought about it, the more I loved it and wanted to share with you. Have you ever thought about doing Skype Writing Lessons? Hear me out…in college I would have considered myself a B+ writer, because I did it ALL the time. Now? I’d say C- for sure. As a songwriter I’ve been trained to put my ideas into a 3-4 minute song – not enough for an article by a long shot. I have ideas and stories I’d love to submit to Autostraddle, but I know I’m not putting it together correctly. I’d LOVE to be able to pay for a 30-60 minute lesson with one of my favorite writers on Autostraddle for feedback, Q&A Session, tips, etc. People pay for lessons all the time. I pay for professional songwriters to critique my songs and help make them better (over Skype 90% of the time). It wouldn’t be something you’d necessarily bank on for major profit, but it couldn’t hurt! I used to give music lessons at a retail music store – They kept 25% of my earnings on the lesson and I kept the rest – I was basically paying them for the space to use and for signing up people for lessons. I had the skill set, and they had the ability to bring in the people. Maybe something like that could work for Autostraddle? Just wanted to share, we all agreed that it was something we’d be interested in, but then again we’re all writers in one way or another, so….. :)
Riese: Yes! This is a wonderful idea we’ve had ourselves. Unfortunately, accomplishing even just 75% of our jobs any given day already takes 12 hours, and there’s just no time for anything like that. I wish there was, but we are already spread so thin we can hardly see ourselves in the mirror.
This’s for Mey, and all you witchy straddlers–I’ve been listening to Cannons for the past week, and every time the song Spells comes up I think of you! Thank you for your lovely articles; my middle school self (and let’s be real, current me as well) is always delighted to read them!
MEY SAYS: Thanks so much and you’re welcome for the articles! I’m glad that I could be here for both your middle school self and for your current self. I had never heard this song before but I’m always looking for new witchy songs and this one is so good! I’ve been listening to it on repeat for the last fifteen minutes!
Can we have a photoshopped image of Riese, Rachel, and Laneia’s faces on the Girl Group from the basement casino episode of Bob’s Burgers with the caption ‘Gals being Pals, being Pals, being PALS — GAL PALS!’ please — I need this in my life.
We don’t want to set a dangerous precedent wrt being able to make graphics willy nilly because we are all so busy that we barely have time to shower but since you asked nicely, you can have this THIS ONE TIME.
We love you.
Well, gosh. I was so optimistic about this show at one point. Anyway YOUR RECAPS WILL ALWAYS BE FUNNY until you stop doing them because all of the queer characters are gone and somehow this is a show about Liam living in New York as a male model in order to fund his dream of banging on large pieces of metal for art.
Riese: Yes hopefully his roommate would be Matt Saracen and Julie Cooper, for poetic justice. I also had high hopes for this show. Just once honestly I’d like a show to be good enough and responsible enough about its depictions of people of all sexual orientations in a way that does not inspire rabid fandoms on both sides of the aisle to take out their frustration over the show’s inadequacies upon me, you know? Sorry this thing happened on twitter today and I’m JUST VENTING.
She lost her show, she lost her career, she lost her agents, she lost her money, no one would touch her. Now she is a powerhouse. Ellen DeGeneres: greatest comeback in Hollywood history?
Heather says: Yes.
Laneia- I just want to recognize the 12 Tribes rabbit hole I descended into upon your suggestion…and how it is amplified by the fact that I am now living in New England and soon Vermont, and not very far from one of their epicenters (Rutland!) WTF.
Laneia says: YOU’RE WELCOME. Also WTF indeed.
I’m pitching you something about internalized homophobia, bodies, and farming. I’m just saying. Because I’m ready to talk about it. How farming let me love my body’s feminine grace and strength and care, and how that, finally that, allowed me to not just desire another woman but enjoy and get off on the sex of two feminine bodies. Farms, yo. Farming is the best. Farming is the queerest.
Riese: I can’t wait! My fiancé is a farmer and my whole Dad’s side of the family were farmers and so I feel farming in my heart and look SO DO YOU and I can’t wait to read about it! Also my fiance would like to know if you would like to be her friend.
Omg. My submission was featured in “some answers to some things you’ve been asking us #2”. Thank you for believing in me! Some days all I can manage is getting out of bed to eat and then read aggregated news content. This means a lot to me. (just mdd things,bleargh)
Heather says: And now your submission has been featured on Issue #3! Some days are surprises, in a good way!
Hi, I just wanted to make sure Heather knew how much I appreciate her incessant Harry Potter references!
Heather says: Oh! You’re like an anti-Boggart! I cast a cheering charm on your day, as you have on mine!
Wow, I don’t know why I took a screenshot of Autostraddle’s front page back on February 15, 2010 but I did.
Riese: Honestly, this is magical and a huge help because we don’t have a lot of good screenshots of our old designs!
Riese I took your advice and made a Tumblr for my best friend and she loved it. So thank you! Also, it was really fun.
Riese says: WELL THAT IS SO CUTE! I’m so glad that she loved it. I think it’s so fun, I love making tumblrs and scrapbooks and things for people. I wonder if that could be my job in the next life.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR AUTOSTRADDLE CAPTAIN RIESE!! I celebrated by having a ginger beer in your honor. It was great. Even my mom liked it and asked for seconds. Cheers.
Riese says: Tell your Mom Hi for me! Thank you! I think I pretty much drank an entire bottle of wine on my birthday. It was great.
I thought that was a cute boyish lesbian but it was just a teenage boy
Rachel says: ugh ME TOO
Remember Kreayshawn? Nathan Rabin did a fun “My World of Flops” piece on her debut album that y’all might be interested in and/or amused by
Rachel says: I DO remember Kreayshawn and I AM interested in this, HOW DID YOU KNOW
Really loving your STEM coverage recently, its awesome
Heather says: Hey, thank you! Thank you for telling us what you love! It helps us do more of what you love!
How to Get Away With Murder!!!
Heather says: Right?! Come back, Famke! Make out with Viole Davis’ face some more! Try doing it with the lights on next time!
I would watch the hell out of a version of the Golden Girls with old gay guys. Who would you cast as the Golden Guys? Or Golden Gays?
Rachel: I would like to cast it with all beagles. Elderly gay beagles. Maybe one corgi, but mostly beagles.
Synchronized kittens
Heather says: My heart is growing three sizes like the Grinch right now. Perhaps it will burst free from my chest.
Do you think it’s easier or harder to scissor in outer space?
Laneia says: I’m gonna go with infinitely easier, but only if you have a bar to hold onto for leverage.
Loving all the money-themed articles!
Heather says: We’re loving writing them for you!
I just heard the funniest thing, thought you might appreciate. My best friend’s boyfriend says he’s an Aquarius but he identifies as a Capricorn. Can cusp babies choose their identity? You know, live their most #authentic self? #yoga
Riese: I’m a cusp baby who mostly identifies as a Libra but you know sometimes I really do also identify as a Virgo. But mostly a Libra. This was more relevant when I used to read the horoscopes in Seventeen Magazine.
So…..do you guys think we’ll ever get Otterstraddle back on or was that like a one time thing….
Heather says: The ones we love never truly leave us.
STORY IDEAS:
Do you have any plans to write anything about queer female youtubers? I love Rose and Rosie, and Shannon and Cammie!
Riese: I think Haley (Queer Mama) was working on this but I don’t know the status.
Idea for an article: Id would love to see a discussion of how our queer community defines virginity and the loss thereof. I know that not all of us define it as first time PIV penetration!
Riese: That’s an interesting idea, my friend! I am one of those people who talks about losing my “boy-virginity” and also my “girl-virginity,” which I feel is not correct terminology. But I’m also not entirely sure what counts as losing my girl-virginity ’cause my memory is kinda hazy. Now I feel as I type this that I’ve told this story before… we must have written about it… we made a flowchart… I have numbers somewhere…
I just noticed that it says in the bottom bio thing that Riese has written, like, 1993 articles? Could we have some sort of retrospective best-of extravaganza celebration when Riese hits 2000 articles?
Riese: Alas this time has already passed and I don’t even know what the 2,000th was! Do you think people would like a best-of extravaganza? I would be embarrassed if everyone was like “why are you talking about yourself again, go to the zoo and talk to a penguin!” The other (funny?) thing is that there are at least another 100-200 articles in the archives attributed to the team or to somebody else that I basically wrote myself. It’s a complicated operation over here.
Can there be another documentary roundtable like there was in July 2010? I feel like this is an article that could totally use a reboot. Also I have a documentary addiction and I want to be enabled.
Riese: Yeah that would be fun!
I’m not sure if this would be possible, but it would be really cool to have an interview of or first person essay by Sarah Warn, on what it was like founding AfterEllen, what it was like to write and talk about queer entertainment and issues in the early 2000s, and just her experiences in general. The article on lesbian kisses on TV reminded me of how different her experiences must have been writing on the internet about these things in 2002 and beyond. Also, thanks as always for all the great work you guys do!
Riese: “See if Sarah Warn will talk to me about everything” has been on my to-do list since she left AfterEllen, maybe one of these days I will cross that shit right off!
Suggestion: a roundup of people’s favourite planners and how they organize. I’m in Planner Porn mode and I’ve noticed that there’s not a lot of queer/alternative planners out there, asides from maybe Slingshot’s. Would love to see how y’all plan :)
Rachel says: What a coincidence we were just talking about how we wanted to do this too! Were you thinking like a shopping guide or like a roundtable of how people use their planner situations? The Slingshot planner is so neat!
Know what would be really really awesome? If Mey were able to get an interview with Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe!!! Pretty please may the stars align to make this happen?
Rachel: Gosh that would be awesome. We will put this on our vision board.
Would love to read an essay on special topics and questions faced by bisexual women in long-term relationships with women.
Riese: This is a good idea!
Can someone who went to A-Camp write an article about how to overcome your nerves about going to A-Camp / advice for people going for the first time and alone?
Rachel: Possibly! I can tell you the short version right now, which is to Just Do It because You’re Worth It, and you can calm your nerves by thinking about all the snacks you can buy at TJ’s before going up the mountain. Anyways though this is a good idea!
Hey! I don’t know how you guys decide on the Friday Open Thread topics but an appropriate/fun one soon might be What Are You Fighting For? about the things we stand up for and the things we fight against. :-) Cheers!
Riese: This is a great idea.
I’ve been thinking about this for a little while, but have been too shy to ask. I have an idea for a column, pretty similar to Liquor In The Flask, but about beer specifically. I recently discovered beer was an enjoyable thing and read a book on it, and was shocked to find that there are literally hundreds of unique types of beer, all with different flavors and histories and brewing methods. I also noted that beer brewing, an industry that was originally considered women’s work, has in recent history become known as Man Thing: Real Men (TM) brewing a Man Beverage. Even craft brews, which are super creative and challenge the mainstream beer industry to step up their game, are seen as a hipster-guy thing. I love venturing into so-called “men’s spaces” and turning them on their heads, however, so I thought it would be cool to have a column about queer women and beer (not to mention all the ways you can riff off of “beer” and “queer” rhyming). I could describe the history of beer making, give a rundown of common styles and flavors, and review 2-3 beers per week (they’re cheap and not likely to get me smashed! Yay!) based on a theme or highlighting a specific style. My desire to do this also comes from the fact that my queer girl friends don’t know anything about beer, see it as a disgusting frat boy drink, and call it “piss” or “wheat tea”. Most people I know who hate beer with such vitriol do so because either they’ve been told beer is a “men’s drink” by some idiot or have only ever tried a sip of one style of beer–usually crappy, run-of-the-mill pilsners or lagers. But I think there is a beer style for every special snowflake out there, and I would love to introduce more queer women to this drink as I put my newfound knowledge and curiosity into practice! Would this be something people would like? I want to blog about it regardless, and would write the column for free if Autostraddle was interested.
Riese: You know, I used to leave my apartment sometimes and when I did, I often noticed lesbians doing things like DRINKING BEER. Which is why I was confused that more of you humans weren’t reading things like Cheers, Queers! (a series we did about beer) and You Brew You (also about beer). I don’t know anything about beer though so I’m gonna leave this one to Heather.
Heather:
I just wanted to say I love what you guys are doing, please don’t give up. After I read the latest Business of Art Fix, I was like, shit, get yer damn wallet out and help these good people. We cannot have an internet without AS in it. So I gave what I can. But mostly I just called to say I love everything about what you’re doing here.
