Riot Grrrl Mag Team Jacqueline Wu Co-founder & Editorin-chief Genevieve Cordery Co-founder & Social media director Xavier Layne Copy editor
How to be a Good Ally: How to Stand against Anti-Blackness for White People Article By: Senia Hardwick A few months ago, I wrote an article on how to be a good ally. In light of more white people becoming involved and aware of protests against the existence of anti blackness, both in society and specifically the police (i.e. Mike Brown’s murder and the protests in Ferguson and elsewhere are one of the many examples of this, but these are simply specific manifestations of an overall pattern of anti blackness), I’ve chosen to do some writing on what we as white allies can do. I’ve included links to some articles by black writers and some resources on what you can do and where to inform yourself both scattered throughout the article and at the end.
The first and most important thing I can say is to prioritize black voices and black experience. That includes this article. If someone says that what you learned from me here is wrong, listen to them. When you’re sharing
articles online, try to post stuff from actual black people. If you’re in a protest, follow the lead of black participants. Similarly, do not go against people’s wishes because you think you know better or are “trying to help.” If people want to have a meeting without white participants please respect that. If people don’t want people reblogging or reposting content please respect that.
Some of the things you’re going to hear, you might not like. You might be uncomfortable. Frankly, that doesn’t really matter. Our white discomfort isn’t comparable to the systematic devaluation, literal murder, and oppression of black lives. Being ignorant because you don’t want to feel uncomfortable is a form of violence and endangers people. Also, people’s tone doesn’t change whether or not they deserve to be treated like human beings.
Being ignorant isn’t just not knowing anything about something. Ignorance includes having misinformed opinions about a topic. Here are some things to keep in mind:
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This is not a new and sudden shift in America or the world. Nothing has happened that has made America suddenly turn against black people. This is just white people finally noticing. Please don’t turn this into lamenting the decline of America or some sort of white savior pity fest.
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The words people use matter. Thug and urban are damaging and racially coded words. When people say riot when something is actually a peaceful protest it’s to further the idea that black people are dangerous and some how inhuman.
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There is a difference between general racism and anti blackness. This movement is specifically about anti blackness. Racism affects all people of color, but the experiences of people of color and the kinds of systematic actions they’re struggling against are different. People of color aren’t just all one big lump of unwhiteness. This is one of the many problems with #AllLivesMatter as opposed to
#BlackLivesMatter. It conflates PoC, places emphasis on white people, and deemphasizes what is actually happening to black people. •
Saying that you “don’t see race”, are “colorblind,” “post-racial” or asking “why can’t we all get along?” etc is ignorant. Even if you some how literally, magically don’t see race, this ignores/denies that the society we live in does. People have different lives and experiences because of race, and saying or wishing they don’t doesn’t actually make anyone’s lives any better. If you want to actually be a good ally, you have to see race. You have to look at race and look at yourself and do some hardthinking about the subtle ways it’s affected your thinking and perception.
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Question presentation of stories and their sources. Do not trust the police. Do not trust the mainstream news. If you really want a more organized/traditional news source, Al-Jazeera News is actually pretty good. Democracy Now is also pretty good.
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It doesn’t matter if Michael Brown was a “good” victim. While demonizing black people is obviously bad, someone shouldn’t have to be a perfect person to not got murdered.
How you undo your ignorance is also important. We live in an era where there are things like google, social media, and the internet resources. This means that if you really want to learn about black people’s lives and experiences it’s really not that difficult. Forcing people to educate you when you can easily do it yourself, just reinforces the idea that black people should be beholden to your time and needs as a white person. Black people also don’t owe us anything for “going out of our way” to work at not being racist. We don’t receive gold stars for treating black people like human beings. In short, educate yourself and others on your own time. Read stuff online. Share it. If you don’t know where to start check out these:
Digital
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here is a tumblr with some pretty good posts (tumblr blog: reverseracism).
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Here is a blog to read (Black Girl Dangerous).
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Here is a fairly well known article on understanding white privilege (Unpacking the Invisible Nap Sack).
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Here is a worksheet on working with privilege I wrote for this website.
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This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr
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Justice While Black by Robbin Shipp and Nick Chiles
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Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
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The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
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Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition by Lewis Perry
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Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
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Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts
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Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage by Daria Roithmayr
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My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain by Aaron Dixon
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Fire The Cops! by Kristin Williams
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The Black Panthers Speak edited by Philip S. Foner
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The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
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After the Revolution Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation by Sekou M. Franklin
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Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
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Crimes of Dissent by Jarret S. Lovell
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The Post-Racial Mystique: Media and Race in the Twenty-First Century by Catherine R. Squires
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Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology edited by E. Patrick
[Thanks, Bluestockings!]
Reading MLK’s wikipedia page is not educating yourself. Reading sanitized and de-radicalized versions of people’s lives is not educating yourself (this is a big problem with discussions of MLK especially). Reading about well known figures and then just leaving it is not educating yourself either. Go out of your way to find out about figures that you might not otherwise learn about. Read about Kimberlé Crenshaw, read about black women (especially trans women), read about queer black people.
What you do at protests and the kinds of activism you do is also incredibly important. Whatever you do, do not agitate police or damage things. I can not possibly stress this enough. There are so many reasons why this is bad. Firstly, if you successfully do these things, black people will be the one’s to take take the negative repercussions of your actions and will likely be blamed if not arrested or injured. Secondly, this strongly relates to the way society frames white
people legitimately rioting and destroying things over things like sports (mainly writing them off as fluke occurrences or harmless) versus black people trying to protest oppression and children literally being murdered (calling people thugs, animals, etc).
In the same way that you should listen to and prioritize black voices and experience in conversations do this at protests. This requires some critical thinking as there are certain things white people should hold off from doing. Don’t do the black power fist, it comes off as you appropriating the struggle as your own. Think carefully about what statements you’re chanting that involve the first person. Don’t do things that evoke you as a stand in for black people, especially black victims. The whole point of this is that this doesn’t happen to white people. For those of us who it applies to, you can be in another marginalized group and stand by black people without conflating your experiences. This is a unique problem for black people, and when police violence happens to white people it is more likely to be punished (though it is often not for people in other marginalized groups,
sex workers, trans people, disabled people, Jewish people, and several other groups). If you’re not sure what you can or should do here are some master posts made by people. I’ve tried to include a variety of types of activism as to keep in mind that physical activism is not safe or accessible for everyone. •
Donate to the Legal Support Fund for Justice For Mike Brown
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Donate to the Ferguson Defense Fund
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Donate to Ferguson’s Library
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Leaked Addresses of KKK Members
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NAACP’s Petition to the DOJ
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Have Some Facts Ready About The Jury, Darren Wilson, Mike Brown
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Watch and Share these Live Streams
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Remember and discuss DeAndre Joshua
Another thing to keep in mind is that your displays of solidarity need to be obvious and explicit. Part of the problem is that people ignore black lives and things related to blackness so you need to be incredibly clear and purposeful. People will ignore and deny that things are related
to blackness and black lives unless you hit them over the head with it. Your solidarity is not obvious unless you make it obvious. How sympathetic you feel doesn’t show anything.
When showing solidarity or discussing events do not compare things to fictional revolutions. Do not bring up the Hunger Games, Les Mis, or anything else like that. These are real people dying and it happens all the time. Conflating fictional and real revolutions and deaths shows how utterly removed you are from people’s actual struggles.
I hope this has been helpful, but please do not stop at just reading this article. There’s a ton of resources here and being committed to actually doing something requires further internal and external action from all of us.
Lady Jams for Every Riot Grrrl Article By: Courtney Mae Cochran
This playlist is a selection of the songs that can get me through any day. These are all the bands that I have discovered in the past year that channel the raw emotion I feel after facing obvious instances of sexism and harassment in a maledominated society. I have not included some of the classic Riot Grrrl bands, but will likely be making a kicking it 90s playlist later on. These songs have often stirred me from indignant stagnancy to action, and I hope they will do the same for you.
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“Girls Like Us” by PINS
PINS delivers this title track that channels the experience of being objectified. PINS is a Manchester band that features four rocking ladies. The build-up of this song channels the teenage rage that can easily bring to mind of the Runaways. Their music can be difficult to find and they seemed to be little more than an internet whisper until their 2013 debut Album “Girls Like Us”. •
“Infinity Guitars” by Sleigh Bells
This song is true femme rock. There is no denying that Sleigh Bells kicks ass. Sleigh Bells is a
Brooklyn based noise pop band, but it’s not an allfemale band. •
“Cry Baby” by Kitten Forever
This all lady feminist-punk trio hits close to home for me as they are based out Minneapolis. They often wear crazy costumes, and have a name often questioned for its silliness, but there is no doubt that they seriously rock and are reviving the long dormant Minnesota Riot Grrrl music scene. •
“Trade Your Brains” by Skinny Girl Diet
These noisy ladies deliver the sheer anger of being a woman in a world where your diet plan is often a topic of conversation more than your passions. With their first EP released in July, 2014, Skinny Girl Diet are just emerging on the scene and have already been referred to as the Bikini Kill of the Millennials. Skinny Girl Diet hails from London. •
“Don’t Call Me Fabulous” by Hunx & His Punx
This song is short and powerful. I recommend listening to it twice in a row. Hunx (Seth Bogart) formed this group in 2008 after a tenure of performing as a member of Gravy Train!!!. Hunx &
His Punx is based out of San Francisco. Hunx has some solo music and some with his back-up lady singers—the Punx. They have been cited as a key band in the Queercore Movement. •
“Gonna Make My Own Money” by Deap Vally
This song belts out powerful screeches about the frustrations of familial expectations to adhere to traditions of finding a husband to be the head of your household. This LA rock duo formed in 2011 and put out their debut album in 2012. •
“Healthy Punk” by Chastity Belt
This song is for every punk girl who has ever been pushed out of mosh pit by men or been told to drink appletinis instead of whiskey and beer. Chastity Belt is Seattle-based girl rock trio with deep gravelly lyrics that even Joan Jett would tip her hat to. •
“1994” by Slutever
“1994” is a ballad for every 90s grunge girl who never wants to grow-up, cut their hair, throw out their ripped up flannel, or take down their Hole poster. The album artwork alone screams Riot
Grrrl. These two rocking ladies, calling themselves Slutever, are based out of Philadelphia. •
“Blah Blah Blah” by Girlpool
This is an anthem is for any lady who has ever been cheated on or ever been at the brunt of unrequited affections. Girlpool is often criticized for being too whiny and is classified as BratPunk music. This young duo from LA is one of the newer bands on the scene and is already making some noise. *Pro-tip: Slutever & Girlpool have a shared album on Bandcamp.com covering each other’s songs.* •
“Husbands” by Savages
Savages delivers a song that balances the anxiety of being a woman who is expected to be a wife and homemaker with the pure angst of shaking off these expectations. This all lady post-punk band formed in 2011 in London and is still thriving in the London Punk-scene. •
“Crimson Wave” by TacoCat
Feeling menstrual? TacoCat has the perfect hormonal jam to get you thought the day. Tacocat was founded in 2007 in Seattle and though most of their tracks are not as heavy as “Crimson Wave”
they still hold feminist messaging throughout. Tacocat is most often described as surf pop or acid pop music. •
“Looking for a Fight” by Bleached
This song speaks for itself and lays out classic Bleached relationship themes. Another LA lady rock duo. (LA must be the new Olympia.) •
“Beetles” by Warpaint
With poetic use of profanity, this song takes you on a therapeutic journey of stress relief. Warpaint is an LA based band that features four women performing ambient rock music. They have often stated in interviews that it just doesn’t work for them to have men in their band and they always sound better with an all lady lineup.
Sensational Flesh Review Review by Senia Hardwick Rating: 4 out of 5 Sensation Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism by Amber Jamilla Musser is an intense and extensive examination of masochism, race, and sexuality in America. The book draws from a wide definitions of masochism, including works by Freud, Fanon, Von Masoch, Audre Lorde, and Glenn Lignon. She makes a complex study of masochism, illustrating how it can be used to both reify pre-existing and problematic ideas of power or challenge the status quo and create new definitions of autonomy. The end question of the book is how can black women interact with masochism and is there a form of masochism for black women that gives them agency and power in the situation. This is not simply a question about BDSM or sexual practices but a
question of power, the erotic, disidentifications and reclaiming one’s own flesh. Musser analyzes blackness, femininity, ability, submission, and power both together as intersecting structures and on their own. She contrasts Audre Lorde’s experience with cancer and the loss of her breast, The Body Without Organs, and the erotically charged art of Bob Flanagan. All three discuss processes of grappling with the body and ideas of illness, ability, power and autonomy, but to very different ends. As far as more erotic definitions of masochism, Musser draws from the words and world of Mollena Williams, a black BDSM practitioner, to highlight that it is impossible to engage erotically without gender and blackness being relevant (Williams writes “I do ‘race play’ whether I want to or not.”). In fact, Musser goes on to explore the idea that all BDSM (in the US) is implicitly tied to ideas about and the history of race in America. Though sometimes ignored or invisible to white participants the idea of a “slave” is racially charged.
Similarly, throughout the text, Musser’s analyses and arguments point out some of the subtler functions of racism and power that often go unobserved or unrealized for white participants. The idea of blackness is in fact formed by white objectification and imperialism. Previous to encounters with white people “blackness” would be seen as a the default physicality of a person. Otherness has only been prescribed to the black body because of outside white viewers. Musser does not agree or disagree with the objects of her analysis, but instead is looking at what the document tells us both about the creator of that document and the society it exists within. Her premise is not that these things are right or wrong, but that flesh matters and affects experience, especially for black women. The text a bit disappointingly only speaks to the experiences of dyadic and cis people. Flesh and outside people’s assumptions about the way flesh should or should not be is a large component to the way both intersex and trans people are treated.
Another area of study that would tie interestingly into Musser’s writings is sex work. One of her explanations of sadomasochistic interactions, specifically in the case of white cis men as submissives, describes the partner receiving pain as both still having control in the scene and reifying their own strength through endurance. The person inflicting pain is in fact still functioning as a fantastical object. Serving a “Mistress” figure is not necessarily about the person’s actual pleasure, but a performance of pleasure for the submissive’s enjoyment. Sex work as selling a fantastical performance of self also ties to Masser’s explorations of hypersexualized fantasies created about the black body. In the case of black men these stereotypes are historically tied to rape fantasies and cuckolding as a fetish, and for black women constant sexual interest/availability. Sex work also ties into the labor of black bodies, and the way it has been systematically devalued. Despite the fetishization of blackness by white consumers, black sex workers are still paid less just as in other fields.
Overall Musser’s lens and analysis are sound and compelling, but there is a multitude of further topics for her yet to explore. Sensational Flesh at NYU Press Related Readings: Disidentifications The Cancer Journals Black Skin White Masks PDF Black Skin White Masks on Amazon
Can’t Afford Sex Review Review by Jacqueline Wu Short story collection published by Brooke Segarra The first thing I noticed about Can't Afford Sex is that it's hilariously self-aware. To enjoy this collection, you'll need to be equipped with a sense of humor. There is a total of five short stories that are all suitably named, which revolve around twenty-something college student Shannon and her less than enthusiastic boyfriend. Can't Afford Sex tells a tale about well sex, but it also goes into Shannon navigating her way through the impending consequences of her previous actions that were an attempt to be closer with said boyfriend. She also deals with experiences many of us can relate to such as lack of sexual confidence, buying Plan B, taking pregnancy tests, and comparing ourselves to our friends.
Prayers Over Pizza is no doubt my favorite story. Not only is it a great title, the pregnancy test scene is incredibly awkward. And I mean that in the best way, really. Overall, I would recommend this collection. It's a short read, but good for laughs. I could see myself showing this to my best friend and pointing out specific lines. I'd probably say something like, "This is so accurate. It hurts." You can buy Can’t Afford Sex on Amazon. Find out more about Brooke on her website.
Prayers Over Pizza Originally published from Can't Afford Sex by Brooke Segarra
“So I ordered us a vegetable pizza with gluten free crust,” Felicity said to Shannon as they walked
single file up the apartment’s narrow staircase. “The pizza will come, you’ll see that Adam didn’t knock you up, we’ll get dressed, and then we go out.” “Shhh!” Shannon whispered while hustling past Felicity on the stairs. “People can hear you!” “Oh my god,” Felicity continued not to whisper, “As long as there’s sex, there will be knocked up tests.” Shannon scuttled into her studio and quickly closed the door behind Felicity who walked straight in, turned on her heel, and dropped her shopping bags and purse onto the hardwood floor. “Okay, so Gina says she knows this photographer who can get us into that club on Macdougal I’ll pay for your drinks,” Felicity added suddenly expecting a rebuttal, “but wear a little lipstick so I’ll just have to pay for your first one,” she giggled. Whenever talking about guys Felicity always acted like she was already playing footsies. “Oh god!” Shannon suddenly stood rigid. “What?” “Fuck, I peed just before I went down to let you in,” Shannon said with her hand on her head, forgetting that pee doesn’t happen just once every twenty-four hours.
Felicity was already sitting on the floor, shuffling through her bags of optional outfits for the evening. “Why would you do that?” she answered unamused at the tedious drama. Shannon, with her arms at her sides, started shaking her wrists so her hands started flopping about her thighs. “I pee when I get really nervous.” Felicity looked up from her pieces of ensemble for the first time since she opened her bags, “Good,” she surveyed Shannon, “just keep doing what you’re doing then.” Shannon ceased flailing and walked just a few steps behind Felicity to the kitchen table. From the floor, Felicity turned around, “Oh god.” A Clearblue pregnancy test box stood upright in the center of the small round table. With initiative, Shannon grabbed the box, stepped over Felicity’s three pairs of heels on the floor, and walked into the bathroom. Through the closed door there was a muffled, “Let me know if you need anything,” and then a, “pizza should be coming soon.” A new purpose was now given to the toilet. The box was sealed with masking tape after the first time she had done something stupid. Like ripping a three day old BandAid, Shannon shut her eyes and ripped the lid off the cardboard box spilling all the
contents onto the linoleum floor. “Shit!” Is it still going to work? “Felicity, if you drop a pregnancy test is it still going to read accurately?” “I dunno. I can honestly say I’ve never done that before.” Felicity’s tone suggested that it would read accurately. Unfolded, the test’s directions looked like the iTunes agreement that she had never read, printed. None of the words were registering. “Felicity how do I do this?” she called through the door. “Didn’t you use the first one in the pack?” Felicity asked. “Adam read the directions!” There was a short pause after which she added, “And did everything else.” “Oh god, have some agency over your body. Just stick it between your legs and pee on the part that it looks like you pee on.” There was a pause and then Felicity added, “You got the good kind. It just tells you yes or no.” Shannon felt better knowing now that she got the good kind. She had been wrong about every other test prior. This was the test that stood between her and smiling at graduation.
Realizing she was going to need more spreading room, Shannon shuffled to get her pants over her ankles. Tossed the jeans and the painties into the corner. At first, she took the test in her hand like a pencil. Then like a chopstick. Until, finally, she just grabbed hold of it like a poking stick. Thinking of something relaxing was challenging. Sex can be relaxing. She could always think of that one time, but— Ding! Ding! Ding! “I’ll get it!” Felicity called on her way out the door. Seeing the pregnancy test between her thighs, she realized sex may not be the most terrific thing to think about at the moment. Less was this about relaxing than peeing anyway. Waterfalls, waterfalls in the rain forest, (are there waterfalls in the rainforest?), waterfalls with rainbows above them-“The pizza is here!” Felicity reported. Creeks are calming and they’re bodies of water. “Hey how’s it going in there?” Felicity asked from the other side of the bathroom door. “I can’t pee.”
“Run the water,” Felicity suggested. “What?” “Run the bathroom faucet.” “I can’t do that! I pay for water!” Felicity tapped her knuckles gently against the door, “Can I come in?” She tried the knob of the bathroom door. “You locked it?” “Yea.” “You’re just taking the test right?... You don’t have any sharp objects near, do you?” “No. What the fuck?” “Sorry!” Felicity said in flustered selfconsciousness. “I watch a lot of TV,” sounded like a shoddy cover up for the real story. Shannon leaned over and unlocked the door. She kept her legs closed. Felicity had only ever seen her vag through lace at this point. Felicity clonked in with her 3 inch heels and started futzing with her eyelashes in the mirror. “Felicity, you being here is not going to get me to pee any faster.”
Bzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzz. Felicity patted Shannon’s jeans on the floor. “Your mom’s calling,” Felicity said as she handed the phone over. As Shannon hesitated to answer the call, Felicity walked out. “Hi mom,” Shannon tried to sound happy, but not too happy. How does she usually sound on the phone with her mother? When does she ever sound too happy? “Hi, Shannon. How are you?” Her mom sounded like she could be grocery shopping. Felicity walked back in with a slice of pizza and sat on Shannon’s pants and underwear. “Good.” In her uncertainty, she dragged out the word. Her mom would probably construe that for cockiness. “Hi Mrs. Crowning!” Felicity loudly interjected from the corner, pizza in hand. “Oh, is that Felicity?” Shannon’s mom asked. Once you hit twenty, and in some cases even earlier, moms like when your friends make them feel like they would be friends if they were twenty. “Yea, Felicity is here,” Shannon said. “Oh, okay, well I’ll let you go then. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sending coupons in the mail. Things you use.”
Shannon suddenly spread her legs open wider. She couldn’t see where to stick the test. “The envelope is lavender and has a Marie Curie stamp on it cause that’s all they had at the post office.” Shannon pulled the test out from between her legs and handed it over to Felicity. “Thank you so much, Mom,” Shannon said with great elation. “Okay, I’ll let you girls go then.” “Okay, bye Mom.” Shannon hung up the phone. “Yes or no?” Shannon leaned towards the corner where Felicity sat. From the floor, Felicity tossed the test into the wastebasket next to Shannon. Arms open wide Shannon asked in elated disbelief, “I’m not pregnant!?” Felicity took a large bite of her pizza, “You can’t pee three drops on it, Shannon.”Shannon’s head dropped onto her knees. That’s another ten bucks. That’s a family-sized box of cheerios and milk. That’s like eight meals.
“Here how about we get ready, go out, and while we’re out, I’ll pick it up for you with my Gatorade purchase,” Felicity suggested as she picked all the mushrooms from her pizza and placed them on a piece of toilet paper laid out on the bathroom floor as if Shannon didn’t have an ant problem already. “Felicity, I’m not taking a pregnancy test in some club bathroom,” Shannon said with her head her hands. Suddenly, she felt some odd feeling of guilt for going out to the club, but then she remembered that she had almost had this exact same feeling earlier when she told Felicity she’d rather stay in. “Oh no, honey you don’t want to do that,” Felicity said as if Shannon had even thought for a millisecond that she would even consider doing such. “We can just try it out in the morning,” noticing Shannon’s look of distress she elaborated, “if you are pregnant,” Felicity raised her hands, “and you really probably aren’t you can have one more night with none of this on your mind.” Shannon dropped her head onto her knees again. She saw a spot she forgot to shave on her leg and began to run her finger back and forth across the stubble. It would be nice to put off knowing. After all, they had never stopped each time and weighed the odds that the condom they were using would break. At twenty-two, what is nice is often foregone for what is convenient, and conveniently, she wasn’t the only person to blame for her circumstance. “I think we should call, Adam,” Shannon told Felicity.
From where she sat, Felicity tossed her pizza crust into the trashcan. “Gina is going to be so pissed,” she sighed. “Okay call Adam-baby. How are you going to tell him?” “Expressionlessly,” Shannon said as she found Adam in her recent chat history. “What?” “I’m going to text him. Okay, so I’m saying, ‘Adam, I’m taking a pregnancy test now because of that one time (I know you know what time). Can you come over?’ What do you think? Should I add a smiley face? It seems insensitive.” Felicity looked right at Shannon, raised her eyebrows and said, “It’s fine. He’ll be fine. Smile at him when he gets here.” “Should I put some mascara on before he comes over?” Shannon asked. “No. Well, it’s up to you.” “Oh my god! He texted back! He said he’ll be right over,” the elation building in her voice, “just to give him twenty minutes to get here.” Felicity seemed unamused outlining the detail of the cabinet door of the bathroom sink with her finger.
“I’m going to ask him to pick a test up on his way. I’ll explain the situation to him. Are you going to stay?” “Yea,” Felicity answered. Then, still outlining the detail of the cabinet, she let out an entertained sigh and said, “You guys are going to take this so personally.”
An Early Look at Cleis Press’ Autumn 2014 and Winter 2015 Titles Article by Senia Hardwick Cleis Press is a publisher of “literary fiction, human rights, mystery, romance, erotica, LGBTQ studies, sex guides, pulp fiction, [and] memoir,” and is one of the few sources for sex positive, kink positive, and trans and/or queer inclusive instructional books and erotica (Greenery Press is another such press). Some of their titles are less radical than others (instructions assuming cisnormativity and heteronormativity), but their titles either edited or written by Tristan Taormino, Alison Tyler, Rachel Kramer Bussel,
and Sinclair Sexsmith all tend to be more in line with intersectional feminist thought. The following two titles caught my eye and I’ll talk about my hope and fears for each, then come back to this list after reading them. Black Mail, My Love by Katie Gilmartin: This a piece of neo-noir fiction looking at the time before Stonewall in the 50s and a series of murders of LGBTQ people in San Franciso. I’m hoping it’ll provide a relevant dialogue on police brutality and negligence and the way that relates to current issues. I’m a little nervous that the book will gloss over the existence of bisexuality, and perhaps ignore entirely WoC, especially trans WoC. I personally am very invested in queering genre fiction, so I hope this turns out not to be the case. As Kinky as You Wanna Be Your Guide to Safe, Sane and Smart BDSM by Shanna Germain: This is pretty straight forward. I’m basically going to read this to see how inclusive it is, but I suspect it’ll have sound advice. I’m generally for any titles that teach
people have to have safer sex, be it emotionally or more physically.
On Dating a Feminist By Courtney Mae Cochran You mock me telling me my hands are masculine. Later you objectify me. Degrade me for my femininity. It’s all a Catch 22— perpetuated by so many. You want strong women, but not stronger than you. Not too strong to dominate, manipulate, control. My hands are strong from gripping my cellphone in one hand, And my keys between fingers in the other hand. Because you are too much of a “feminist” to walk me home. You talk in manifestos of equality, but no, manifestos suggest action. Your actions disregard not only chivalry, but all mechanisms of safety. Your privilege has shrouded your perception of feminism,
Diluting it to propaganda used mostly to get you dates. You look at me and see a strong woman—a feminist, But cannot see beneath the anger in my eyes to uncover the pain. You ask me what my deepest fear is, but you don’t want to know the truth. You want me to perpetuate the feminine image you have created of me. You want a hollow answer that falls in your categorized box. Spiders, of course. Spiders are my greatest fear. Even I start to believe it. But, no. You like the idea of me more than the reality of being with me. You ask me what my greatest fear is & I want to tell you. I want to yell, I want to shout, I want to cry, I want to be held, When I tell you that, no, no, no spiders are not my greatest fear. My greatest fear is being assaulted again,
Having my dignity taken from me once again, Being robbed of my personhood again, Losing all power again, Being minimized to an object again. My greatest fear is the use of male privilege at my expense again. But no, I lie to you because you are a “feminist”. Because when I need you, When I need to cry, When I need to be held, I am weak in your eyes. In your eyes, I am less of a woman because of these tears. But, no. I show no vulnerability because you are a “feminist”.
Contributors Senia Hardwick is a writer and activist living in the NY Metro area. She is a staffer at Bluestockings, an independent bookstore in NYC. She describes her writing as neo-romantic, taking a post-modern and queered approach to the artistic and aesthetic values of romanticism, concerned with emotion, nature, and the transmutation of each into the other. Her poetry and fiction can be found here. Courtney Mae Cochran resides in Duluth, Minnesota currently & is originally from River Falls, Wisconsin. Courtney is a contributor to Duluth's women's empowerment zine, Minerva and often writes with the moniker SeatbeltHands (based on the song by Listener). Courtney works as an interfaith-congregation-based community organizer for Churches United in Ministry (chumduluth.org) and is involved in the Loaves & Fishes Catholic Worker Community. Courtney is in the process of completing a master's degree in Social Work at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Featuring:
Brooke Segarra has written for online publications and sites such as CMJ, Blare Magazine, Cyber PR, and others. Brooke’s short story collection, “Can’t Afford Sex”, is available on Amazon. She is looking forward to publishing another collection of short fiction and has a novella in the works. Currently, Brooke is campaigns manager at Cyber PR where she enjoys making the visions of others a reality.