I May Not be Straight, but I Don't Want a Curve
There are few things I really remember about the academic side of my study abroad experience at Stockholm University; that is, of course, except for my completely shitastic women's studies class. Who knows why I took the class, probably because I had just come out the previous year, arrived in Sweden still sporting white girl dreads, and knew I would never waste a precious credit at my actual U.S. college on some hocus-pocus gender studying. Whatever my thinking was, I found myself in this women's studies class with a Finnish profesor who refused to call people men, women, or anything besides, "the body" (pronounced: the boady), reading Judith Butler and a bunch of other texts that, if packaged a little bit differently, could probably put Ambien out of business.
I really got nothing out of the class except for two things: 1. A great stash of memories of me and my roommate - both who happened to be lady gay members of our respective US college improv troupes - bounding around our elderly, suburban apartment spouting impromptu and factually inaccurate, yet hilarious, stories about "the boady"; and 2. A hard-nosed dislike for the "lesbian magazine," Curve. Mind you, I put lesbian magazine in quotes not because the Finnish body convinced me that there really are no lesbots, just different types of bodies, but because I think it's a joke to call Curve a lesbian magazine. In my opinion, Curve would be better advertised as Curve: The Magazine for People Who Like Pictures of Subarus, and Scrapbookers who Only Scrapbook about the Olivia Cruise Line.
My dislike began when, for my final project, I decided to compare the popular American dyke magazine Curve to the popular European dyke magazine Diva, specifically looking at how inclusive each magazine is of different genders and sexualities. I'm pretty sure I decided on this topic for two reasons: I thought it would let my professor know I was a gay body and, thus, hopefully give me a grading edge over my straight classmates, and also because I had been doing a lot of traveling and had a fair share of Divas stacked around my apartment and enjoyed ogling the euro-chic ladies inside of them. Perfect.
What did I find? Basically, I concluded that Curve is inclusive of NO ONE (aside from marketing reps for all things lesbionic stereotype). The crap that covers the pages of Curve is so bad that I'm convinced I could pick up a National Enquirer, replace all occurances of the words "alien" and "Oprah" with "lesbian" and "Katherine Moennig," and come out with amazingly similar content. Of course, this isn't exactly what I wrote in my final paper. I don't even really remember what I wrote my paper on - I think it was something about how Diva has content that interests gay, bi, and trans readers, while Curve only caters to the boring-as-fuck straight-up homas.
This is not to say that Diva is perfect, but comparatively it's pretty damn splendid. It's a little more expensive than Curve, and, like Curve, its covers might make the ignorant think that the L Word stars are the only famous lesbians; however, the extra dollars and front-cover repetition are worth it, because the content is actually interesting. For example, the August issue - the "gender issue" - had a huge variety of content, discussing everything from choosing a perfume that suits you to the campaign to end gender divisions in toy stores to "lesbophobia" in women's sports. Plus, the issue is 114 pages, and I would venture to say that less than 10 of them are adverts for bizarre sex toys and lesbian cruise lines.
Having lived in DC for over a year now, I am coming to terms with the fact that I will never find a magazine for lesbians on the shelves of any drug store or bookstore in the city, and that if I want some lazy lesbot reading, I will have to trek over to Lambda Rising in Dupont. Unless I'm blind, or an anomaly in my aversion to "women's magazines" that only feature gingerbread houses and blow job advice, this must be the case for many other lesbians in DC. So, tell me fellow dykes: Do any of you actually buy Curve after making a special trip just for some glossy reading? (Or maybe you get it mailed to you in a CIA-esque envelope that says, "Mr.Postman, I'm gay.") Am I the only one who would rather go to a Subaru dealer and just grab a handful of pamphlets than actually pay for a Curve?
3 comments:
I got a subscription this past year from a friend. I've decided it is by far the worst waste of trees ever.
I'm much more prone to reading the wonderful bitch magazine which isn't necessarily gay, but more prone to take interesting standpoints on queer issues.
Not just constant gushing of the l word cast.
http://bitchmagazine.org/
I have to echo the bitch magazine sentiment. A very inclusive feminist magazine that regularly discusses queer issues. The thing is, Bitch is not necessarily strictly oriented or targeted towards lesbians though. They do have ongoing discussions on a number of queer issues, often from the magazines editorial perspective (which is very third wave and trans inclusive thanks to Julia Serano's ongoing contributions to the magazine). To me it is probably the best magazine being printed today, and you can find it in bookstores on occasion.
Make/Shift, which is a combination of a feminist mag and DiY crafters mag, is also similarly wonderful.
There are some other good ones out there as well. Good magazines are not in shortage here, just don't expect glossy pages and extensive photography. The magazines tend to be of the more serious variety, and as such fall under different sections in the bookstores magazine racks.
Haha, this is so true. Curve is the worst piece of publication I've ever laid my eyes upon. The magazine is like Tiger Beat or Bop! magazine following the lives of only The L Word cast members.
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