Another semi-random post for you today. Tonight. This morning. Whatever.
First of all, at the Head and Hands zine launch, we were treated to a reading by Jay Robson, who wrote the piece “The Genital Diptych Or the Day I Turned Gay.” It was fucking fabulous. Go buy the zine from them just for that one piece even if none of the others interest you. Seriously, folks – it’s way way way better than the thing I wrote for it. Just a short excerpt to tease you:
Beside her, on a drop-down chart at the front of the class, were the two diagrams that, together, would change my life forever: on the left, the pussy, and on the right, the dick. The pussy, like Mme. Bouchard’s pussy, Marianne’s pussy, Tissy or Donna’s pussy, was lush with those juicy pink and red variegated coours, curved line parallel to curved line surrounding a mysterious place, a place I had never been before, although Tissy had often shown me. The dick was shown, as always, in one of those gory slice-aways that made all the boys wince at first and then want to touch themselves.
I mean, gawd. How great is that? Wow. And he reads super-well, too.
Speaking of writing, today I received in the mail two copies of the very first book in which a short story of mine has ever been published. Wheee! I did a little happy dance in my bathrobe (don’t picture that, please). I’m super super excited! The book is Violet Blue’s anthology, just recently released by Cleis Press, entitled Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women. And the story is entitled “The Butch, the Boy and Me” and is basically the telling of one of the many scenarios of what I might like to do if ever the perfect butch gal were miraculously interested in having sex with me and the perfect (un-butch) male-bodied guy. It’s not particularly kinky (sorry) but it’s fun, I promise.
And speaking of reading, it appears I’ll have the opportunity to read in public pretty soon. Specifically, at “All in the Family: Pride Literary Night” on Friday, August 3 at 8 p.m. The shiznit goes down at Cagibi, 5490 St. Laurent, and is being billed as being “naughty and entertaining selections by Peter Dubé, Barry Webster, Chris DiRaddo, Nairne Holtz, Andrea Zanin, and Vanessa Vandergrift.” Suggested contribution $2-$5. I’ll post it again closer to the date since I’m sure Pride will eat up all your spare brain cells before it actually rolls around. Certainly I expect it to eat mine. (I gotta put this in the agenda before the disintegration begins…)
Now the question is, will a story about a butch woman wanting to have sex with a man be an appropriate thing to read at a Pride lit night? It would make sense to read something I just published, but I don’t really feel like having a bunch of short-haired dykes glaring at me in disgust by the time I’m halfway through the story. By no means is it a hard and fast rule, but certainly it is a rule of thumb – in my experience at least – that the butcher the woman, the less likely she is to be interested in dick, and the more offended she’s likely to be at any suggestion to the contrary. Yes yes yes, there are definite exceptions to the rule, some of whose acquaintance I have been fortunate enough to make. But nonetheless, while I’m sure it would appeal to some, whether secretly or not-so-secretly, I’m equally sure that the suggestion that a butch lesbian (or any lesbian for that matter) might harbour a secret hankering for man-cock is a bit sacrilegious to others. It might even be interpreted as some sort of weird imposition of compulsory heterosexuality. Certainly not my intention, but…
I guess I feel like Pride is a time for happy stuff, and not so much for potentially offensive stuff. (At least potentially offensive to the queers who are there to celebrate – I’m not as concerned about our collective potential offensiveness to the general public.) On the other hand, I’m a raging queer and this shit gets me off, and as a raging queer I should be representing my alternative desires as a form of precisely that celebration. Right?
(It doesn’t help that the gals most theoretically likely to be offended are the ones I’m most theoretically likely to find way hot. Argh.)
Hmm. Help me out, folks. Opinions?
Sex Geek 
Isn’t Pride about expressing one’s sexuality for the sheer pleasure of being able to do so freely and out in the open?
You can’t satisfy everyone’s desires simply because everyone’s desires vary, especially when it comes to female queers.
Don’t conform to your public just because you think they might be closed minded to what you have to say…why not help them broaden their horizons a wee bit?
Regardless of whether they’re offended or no, at the end of the day, you’ll have done something that you wanted and loved doing, which is the most important thing of all.
And I promise I won’t throw rotten tomatoes at you. 🙂
I dunno… as one of those bois who likes boys I wouldn’t mind seeing myself represented a bit more. But mostly I think reading something like that would be a stand against biphobia. I never felt any biphobia when I was in Montreal, but I may have been completely oblivious, and I wasn’t dating many men at the time. The queer community in Vancouver is rife with biphobia, or at least very very tolerant of it (at least as tolerant of the phobia as of the bi people). I don’t feel very connected to the queer community here, although I’m finding a place among kinky bisexuals and poly folks who seem more open. I always figured these groups that tend to be more heterocentric (more male-female pairings) wouldn’t accept me as readily because I’m too much of a boi for the boys. But I’ve found the reverse to be true. I think reading a piece like “The Butch, the Boy and Me” would remind fellow queers that selective prejudice is not ok.
Thanks for the input! Someone else (another boi-who-likes-boys type) said, “Half the people will hate you, and the other half will be secretly turned on and want to stalk you.” I’m not really into the stalker thing, but I think with all this in mind I’m just gonna go ahead and read the damned thing.
How did it go?
Hey, Lex. It just happened last night… and it went really well! People really liked the story, I got lots of good feedback later. I felt relieved and happy. Most specifically, few of the butch gals in the room seemed really enthused, which put a huuuge grin on my face. Whee! Thanks for asking! 🙂