A woman sits, center stage. She is surrounded by towers of stacked books, as far as the eye can see. One tome is open in her lap, and she reads and highlights. Occasionally she takes off her glasses to rub her eyes, or stands to stretch before returning to sit cross-legged, reading. Exhausted, she closes […]
Play a Day: Don’t Touch
What at first glance looks like a library. In front of the bookshelves are velvet ropes, and a sign stage right that says, “Do not touch.” It is actually a museum display. Guests come and go, taking pictures or just staring as if looking at paintings.
On Books and Identity
I try to go through my possessions on a regular basis to pare them down. I do my best to adhere to the adage, “Own nothing that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Books and clothing are the two most difficult categories for me. For this post, I will […]
Play a Day: New Friends
A woman sits in a library (a home library rather than a public library). She is surrounded by books. Each book is held by the personification of itself, (possibly the personification of the author or protagonist). Several Books surround her in a circle, holding themselves open and turning their own pages for her. She swivels […]
Book Review: Not My Father’s Son
Not My Father’s Son, a new memoir by bisexual actor Alan Cumming, is at once poignant, honest, heart-wrenching, hopeful, humerous, devastating, and affirming. That may seem like too many contradictory emotions all at once, but in the book, Cumming details a particularly difficult and emotional span of time in his life. The book centers around […]
Book Review: PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights
If I got pregnant today, I would have an abortion. That’s not a popular thing for a woman to say in this country. But if it’s true for me, I’m sure it’s true for a lot of other women, too. In fact, I know it is. Because statistically, 1 in 3 women will have an […]
Book Review: More Than Two
More Than Two is a new, comprehensive guide to polyamory by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert. For years, Veaux has blogged about polyamory on http://www.morethantwo.com/, and the book is an outgrowth of that work. More Than Two is divided into both sections and chapters, providing advice on multiple aspects of polyamory. After answering the question, […]
Book Review: Testo Junkie
Beatriz Preciado’s Testo Junkie is half theoretical treatise on gender, half performative autobiography. Preciado self-administered doses of black market testosterone for a year, chronicling its effects on her body and psyche. Preciado did this without the intention to use the hormones as an aid for transitioning from female to male, meaning her actions were technically […]
Book Review: The S&M Feminist
A friend recently lent me The S&M Feminist, a collection of articles by sex-positive blogger and activist Clarisse Thorn.
I’m going to start off by saying, everyone should read this book. Seriously. Everyone. Read it if you are into S&M or identify as a feminist. Read it if you are sex-positive or polyamorous. Read it if you are a PUA or an activist. Read it if you are friends with anyone listed above.
Or, even if you don’t identify in any of those ways or know anyone who does, still read it. Because we don’t have enough frank and honest conversations about sex or feminism in our culture, and Thorn is incredibly articulate about both. You won’t be disappointed. (It’s also super easy to pick up and put down since the book is full of bite-size articles).
Book Review: Excluded
I was excited to read Julia Serano’s Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. I touched on exclusion in my Master’s thesis on queer utopian communities, as well as experiencing it first-hand during all of my time participating in the LGBTQ community as a bisexual femme. It’s an important issue that I firmly believe […]