Welcome, first post

[ithiliana]

I can feel the pain and rage and loss condensing in my chest.

I would not be the queer woman I am today had I not read "When It Changed" in a small town in Idaho during the late 1960s (I never remember the exact date, I was 13 or 14).

I have been walking carefully since I first read of her entry into a hospice yesterday, because I'm afraid of what might happen if I let go.

But I'm not alone. We're not alone. And I started thinking about re-reading Russ' work, and posting about it, and then I thought--a community because I'm not alone.

So I started this community.

I am mourning, we all are, but I also want to celebrate her life and works.

Comments

[sanguinity]

All day, I've been trying to remember exactly what year I first became familiar with her work. I can't. But when I was a young dyke, back in the pre-internet era, I always checked where her books would be, in any bookstore I was in, in case there was a title of hers I hadn't read yet. Because she was hard enough to get a hold of that yes, most of hers I hadn't read.

:: ...because I'm not alone. ::

And that's why I searched for her books so hard. Her words were evidence that I wasn't alone.

(I "knew" I wasn't alone -- I was partnered, and there was a dyke bar a couple miles away, and nobody would be bothering with anti-queer initatives every election season if I was truly alone. But there's knowing it and feeling it, and her books helped me feel it.)



I started re-reading The Female Man today. Some things about it look very different than they did. And others seem downright prescient. I was wondering if I should be liveblogging it as I re-read, because I wanted to talk about it. It was good to see your announcement of the comm.

[ithiliana]

I always check the shelves in used book stores, and I don't think I've ever found a Russ book! I decided that meant everybody hung on to them like me (except maybe the people who so hated them they burned them...).

I read the story in the Ellison anthology (one of the DV), so I can check--and then, in Idaho, I was alone.

I hope a lot of us will be rereading and liveblogging and talking -- here and elsewhere--and linking everywhere!

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[(Anonymous)]

Nice idea, too many passwords hurts my head.Is your plan to have a pile of inddiivual plug-ins that could co habit on a site, or to have a single plugin with a set of options as to which auth to accept?I'm off to test this on a friends blog (never test on your own right!), I'll drop the link here when it's in place in case anyone is interested.

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[(Anonymous)]

Hi there,My name is Robyn Tinch and I am a photography and elconretic media student at Graye28099s School of Art, Robert Gordon University.I am doing a documentary on body image and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me from your point of view. It would be greatly appreciated and useful to me.Do you agree that female beauty is constructed for men, by me?Do you think the pressure on females to be a certain way is greater than the pressure on males to look a certain way?What do you think of airbrushing images in magazines?What do you think the result of the e28098airbrushede28099 image on women?I would be extremely thankful if you took the time to answer these questions because it would be a brilliant help to me. I will leave my email address at the bottom.Hope to hear from you soon,RegardsRobyn Tinch