As you can see, subtlety is a valued principle in today’s contemporary art.
 
Graphic designer Kimberly Linn and writer/actor Katie Streeter have breached the latest frontier in gay liberation—lesbian emojis. It was in the midst of Linn’s post-break-up depression that the idea was hatched, and now their rapidly growing Instagram account has almost 7,400 followers. There are a lot of lesbians with smart phones—the gay agenda is at hand!

The are the immediately recognizable emojis of stereotypical aesthetics, like the bow tie and the flannel. Then there are cultural signifiers that might go over the heads of the unaffiliated—the Home Depot, for the girl who can swing a hammer, and the moving van, a nod to the ladies’ rep for rapid cohabitation.  I (naturally) favor the vulgar ones—the pillow princess, the turkey baster, lesbian bed death, the double-clicked mouse, and, cleverly, the scissors.

The fish taco though… bold move, ladies.
 

moving van
 

flannel shirt
 

scissors
 
See more after the jump…
 

 
New York magazine’s music critic Jody Rosen posted this gem on his Twitter and added, “...priceless period piece unearthed yesterday by a friend packing for a move.”

#OMG: Circa 1988 UW-Madison Women's Studies 103 Handout: "When You Meet a Lesbian: Hints for the Heterosexual Women." pic.twitter.com/ZhzE0cK4VQ

— Jody Rosen (@jodyrosen) April 7, 2014

 
Man, how times have changed since 1988. My favorite “hints” and tips are:

1.  Do not run from the room. This is rude.

2.  If you must back away, do so slowly and with discretion.

15. Do respect her Individuality. She is a lesbian, but she is also Mary, Pam and Lori…

h/t Gawker

 
These fabulous pulp covers come from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library‘s collection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials representing “the fields of history, literature, cultural studies, popular culture, the arts, and design.”

This selection come from the “Golden Age” of lesbian pulp fiction between 1950 and 1965, when several hundred lesbian pulp novels were published and sold in their millions. The covers often mixed lurid and sensationalist images with suggestive tag-lines. Authors were said to have “frequently complained that the illustrations rarely matched plots.”

You can read more about the “Golden Age” of lesbian pulp fiction here.
 

 

 
H/T Retronaut, via Beinecke Library
 
More lesbian pulp covers, after the jump…
 

 
Via the website kickstarter.com, director Leilah Weinraub is looking to raise $25,000 to finish the final cut of her film Shakedown, before the deadline of Monday 7th of February. Focusing on three main performers, the film is a look inside a black, lesbian strip club in L.A. called, appropriately, Shakedown, and also looks at the history of queer strip clubs in Los Angeles. From the Shakedown2011.com website:

SHAKEDOWN emphasizes the symbiotic nature of how things work in a system. Shakedown’s system functions like a family, put into motion for all the reasons that people need a family, support (financial and emotional), a place of self-growth and a place of self-expression. Through the lens of family, a desire for stability and love, the film meditates on dense topics like three generations of teenage pregnancy, lesbian motherhood, chosen family, and money as a symbol of that love.

Director Weinraub says:

I videotaped the shows at Shakedown every Thursday and Friday night for six years. The first two years I recorded the performances and created video installations at the club. The closed-circuit media making was parallel to the by-women for-women performances that were happening on stage, channeling back an instant history to the creators of the moment. On stage at Shakedown there is a narrative being performed, about sex and sexuality and pop music and the emotional interior of the performers. There is the narrative on the stage, then there is the narrative that is told by the stories of the protagonists in the film, then there is the story that is put together when I edit the film. They all work together.

I’m donating to this film, and so should you - it looks great, and has interest for viewers not just black or queer-identified. You can donate at the Kickstarter website , and there’s an interesting range of gifts for donors too. If you liked Paris Is Burning, check it out:

 
For a Catholic country that’s endured more coups in the past century than a Tea Party rank-and-filer can conceive of, Argentina seems to have come into its democratic own this week as it joined the other nine nations that have legalized same-sex marriage.

Andrés Duque’s great Blabbeando blog has provided great coverage, including some enlightened sport-star involvement in the issue and the segment below featuring baby-dyke blogstar Cumbio. In a report for Buenos Aires TV magazine Vertigo, homegirl and her camera crew walk right up to participants in an anti-gay marriage demonstration and starts engaging them, taking in a bunch of the usual insulting arguments against equality. But in a startling scene that you couldn’t imagine in a similar segment here in the US, she’s actually embraced and kissed by some of the maternal types among the evangelicals who insist on the old cliché that “it’s the sin, not the sinner.” Cumbio comes out of it a little annoyed, but notes later that they “didn’t treat [her] badly.”

Kinda refreshing, eh?
 

 
Bonus clip after the jump: Federacion Argentina LGBT’s simple and powerful ad for marriage equality…
 

 
A Tribute to Gay and Lesbian Characters from Children’s TV Shows and Movies. The Academy Awards montage that will never be.

Via our friends at the wonderfully wonderful World of Wonder blog