LESBIAN PSYCHOS:
Someone other than AfterEllen decided to write an article about how lesbians are portrayed poorly on film, like as psycho killers, in a little piece called Sapphic Psycho. BREAKING NEWS!! Here’s some tidbits:

“Sex, violence and Sappho make for an explosive mix on screen, and reap dividends at the box office. But, increasingly, lesbian and bisexual women are upset by what they see as negative stereotypes perpetuated by Hollywood.”

“Chloe portrays its bisexual character as stereotypically [in film lore] psychotic,” said Jane Czyzselska, editor of the lesbian magazine Diva. “It is their sexuality that is presented as a cause of psychotic or suspect behaviour,” she added. Critics cite Jennifer’s Body, in which Megan Fox plays a bisexual man-killer, and Cracks, in which a teacher’s crush on a pupil leads to the girl’s disappearance. They argue that gay men are more positively represented, citing Tom Ford’s A Single Man and, among others, the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain.”

Honestly, the lack of strong female leads in mainstream cinema and the lack of women in Hollywood overall is more concerning to me than anything about lesbians specifically being portrayed as psycho killers. When we accept women on screen telling stories that aren’t about men, we’ll be infinitely closer to a broader space for GOOD lesbian movies. It’s an old trope, to be sure, but mainstream film is mostly old tropes these days anyhow. We could think of ten good queer girl films and then ten more that don’t suck, though none of them are as good as the one Julie & Brandy are working on (they’ll be reviewing The Runaways for you next Monday!)

Also; are we really okay with movies about gay men, or just movies about gay men that take place in the past, when everyone was closeted or ended up dead? (@guardian uk)

QUEER VISIBILITY:
The Sydney Morning Herald says that despite progress in bringing queer themes to mainstream cinema, there’s “still a long way to go.”

So often do we see gay themes embraced by mainstream cinema and television, some might see the Melbourne Queer Film Festival as an anachronism.

After all, a roll-call of Oscar nominees turns up all manner of queer protagonists, from Colin Firth’s repressed academic in A Single Man, to bisexual cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, gay writers in Capote, pre-op trannies in Transamerica and gay rights activists in Milk.

With so much queer content on the screen, the issue of relevance looms large for the festival as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. If the invisible has become the ubiquitous, is there still a need for the festival?

Well, clearly Sausage Festivals are no longer necessary, but she eventually determines that yes indeed, queer film festivals are necessary. That is where sausages begin their long road to assassination, HIV, lawsuits and misery, except for the woman in Transamerica. That had a nice happy ending.

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival features many of the films that have been doing the festival rounds recently such as Jill Bennett & Cathy DeBouno‘s And Then Came Lola and We Have to Stop Now as well as El Nino Pez, Girl Seeks Girl, Je Te Mangerais and Drool.

BOOKS:
The Lambda Literary Award finalists were announced this weekend. Rachel is going to write a longer article about it for you so for now we will just say ARIEL SCHRAG! (@lambda)

ANGELIA JOLIE:
If you’re an Angelina Jolie fan with like a billion extra bucks, you could own her original modeling pictures from when she was 15! (@celeb-gossip)

KE$HA

Feminist Intersection: Ke$ha and the ongoing cultural appropriation and sexualization of Native women from bitch magazine:

There is a whole bunch of wrong going on with Ke$ha, with Juliette Lewis, and since I’m on a roll I’ll say it, Twilight and Avatar even, when we talk about the specifics of sexualization and how Native women are represented (anyone have any thoughts about Emily in Twilight: New Moon? And to quote Sandra Hale Shulman from News from Indian Country “would the Na’vi have been doomed if their women had been ugly and unsexual?”)

I’ve also heard a lot of people in the Native community ask why these types of things are getting so much attention when we have real live issues within the community like no running water and extreme poverty going on that people aren’t paying half as much attention to. But when millions of people are watching a supposed “reference” to your culture/ethnicity/race that is totally wrong – there is a bit of erasure of our people to address when they continually do it to the most insulting of extremes (sports mascots, anyone?)

GIRL BANDS:
Five Female Fronted Bands Who Work Like The Runaways Used To. (@queersighted)

EYELINER TIPS:
Your Eyeliner Woes, Solved. (@jezebel)

ADAM LAMBERT:
Interviewed in Metro UK:

What’s been your worst moment on stage?

The American Music Awards performance. I fell on to a metal staircase and hurt my knees but managed to cover it up. Most people didn’t notice.

Maybe the viewers were distracted by you rubbing your crotch in the dancers’ faces?

Yeah, I suppose they had other things to worry about.

REAL WOMEN:
Study Shows: That Dove Real Women campaign doesn’t work because women just don;t like pictures of other women it makes them feel bad about themselves. They should’ve surveyed more lesbians! (@the frisky)

TINA FEY: This is a different article than the one from a few days ago. It’s a reaction article. So you know give it a chance.

Isn’t it time we all admit that Tina Fey is conventionally attractive? “It’s probably time we all just stop acting surprised whenever Fey shows up looking absolutely gorgeous. That should really be the territory of every dumb magazine that can’t get over the fact that yes, women can be smart, funny, and pretty. I know, right? Madness.” (@jezebel)

THE RUNAWAYS:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains: Whatever “The Runaways” is, it’s not “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains,” an early eighties cult film that relates the fictional story of three girls who invent a punk band to get out of their dead-end town and become, briefly, a sensation. (@thenewyorker)

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