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sexuality![]() ![]() Yes! Women are Funny!It’s one of the first warm nights of spring, and the venerable queer venue is shaking with laughter at a stand-up comedy show headlined by young women comedians. Avery Edison strolls onstage, with her small round glasses and short red Sinead O’Connor-style hair, and the mixed-gender, mostly 20-something audience welcomes the young British comic with the same polite applause it gave to the five young women who performed before her. Not long into her set, Edison comes out to the crowd as transgender and, seeking to prove it, starts to unbutton her black jeans. ![]() ![]() Why Cougars Deserve RespectEver since The Graduate (1963) and Harold and Maude (1971), the older woman-younger man paradigm has been a topic of cinematic curiosity. However, it wasn’t until the term “cougar” emerged 25 years ago that the relationship gained a more public profile. The term was reportedly first coined in the 1980s by members of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team to refer to older female fans who sought to date hockey players. ![]() ![]() The Lure of Bonnie MarinAt 6 a.m., Bonnie Marin begins another day cooking over a hot grill. Breakfast orders pour in, but as always her mind is elsewhere. She daydreams of giant storks standing on wet floors. ![]() ![]() The Women of Casa Xochiquetzal
Xochiquetzal (pronounced So-chi-ke-chal) is an Aztec goddess whose name means flower-feather. She represents the divine and spiritual side of the pleasures of the flesh. Xochiquetzal was adored by the ahuianime, the pre- Hispanic prostitutes. ![]() ![]() Gender OutlawsIn the 15 years since Kate Bornstein’s groundbreaking ![]() ![]() Tegan and SaraWhile working on their latest album, Sainthood, Tegan and Sara spent a month at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, where Tom Petty, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac and Nirvana have recorded. One day, Sara Quin found herself in the midst of a truly memorable moment. ![]() Rhymes With Cubic PearBack in its heyday, I performed in a local production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. I performed the monologue called “Hair,” in which a woman tells her story of being pressured by her husband to shave her pubic hair. After shaving, she feels “puffy and exposed and like a little girl.” Her husband is turned on. After she refuses to keep shaving, he is unfaithful, they attend couples’ therapy and ultimately, they divorce. ![]() ![]() Tattoos More than Skin DeepWhen Patricia Roe was 46, her 20-year-old son, Adam, died while mountain climbing in Guatemala. Several of Adam’s friends got tattoos to mark the loss of their friend. A few weeks later, Roe got the same design tattooed a few inches above her knee, while Adam’s father had the tattoo applied to his shoulder. The design is an impala—a type of deer—surrounded by a sun. The deer was an important symbol for Roe’s son, who loved speed, movement and freedom; he also loved the sun. ![]() ![]() Passion For Revolushun Inspires Dub Poetsnah-ee-lah and d’bi young are creating sparks with their word sounds. These second- generation dub poets—who are also noteworthy playwrights and actors—rhythmically fan those sparks into flames of resistance against injustice as they burn new pathways toward social liberation. ![]() ![]() Funny Girl Elvira KurtWe 'd barely sat down, Elvira Kurt and I, for double moch-a-cinno lattes (don 't laugh-this is Vancouver, after all and there 's an espresso bar on every corner) at a funky Yaletown cafe, when we were hounded (or rather, she was) by a small group of fans wanting autographs. ![]() |
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