Review: Come As You Are

Everything you think you know about sex, desire, and sexuality is wrong. Probably. That’s one of many lessons to take away from Emily Nagoski’s new book Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life. Combining science and psychology with the stories of women she has helped over decades of […]

OUTsider Fest: Queerness Past, Present, and Future

The creators of OUTsider Festival in Austin really did their homework as far as covering a large scope and breadth of queer art and performance in the programming. Which on the one hand, is refreshing and inspiring. But on the other hand, means that there is just so, so much to discuss. Festivals, conferences, art, […]

Lactate Intolerance

2015 is a bad time to be a worker. Not only is the minimum wage well below a living wage, but corporations seem determined to erode the rights of laborers wherever and however they can, and the government keeps siding with them. In December, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Amazon, saying that […]

Period Talk

Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, we can’t completely rid ourselves of the negative messages we internalize from our native cultures. Even when we know better, even when we’ve done the self-work, even when on a good day we love and accept ourselves, there are still moments which elicit knee-jerk, immediate reactions to stimuli. Moments where […]

Ebb and Flow

Still getting back in touch with my sexuality at the moment. To catch everyone up to speed, I’ve been on birth control since 2010 to control pre-menstrual symptoms. I always had rough periods, even as a teenager. The kind which necessitate curling up with a heating pad and blanket on the couch and taking copious […]

Behind BedPost Confessions

What happens when several women writing about sex-positive issues on-line start talking to each another? In this particular case, it resulted in the long-running, sex-positive, monthly live performance event BedPost Confessions here in Austin. Co-producers Mia Martina, Sadie Smythe, and Julie Gillis all met virtually through their podcasts and blogs. Sadie knew co-producerRosie Q from […]

Review: Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn

Peter de Rome Grandfather of Gay Porn is a new documentary by Ethan Reid. It chronicles the life and work of British filmmaker Peter de Rome, who began shooting erotic gay shorts in the 1960s, at a time when homosexual sex (and pornography itself) was still illegal. What most struck me about the film was how […]

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 […]