Good morning! Happy Friday!
The Washington Post has a personal essay from professional USA dodgeball player Paniz Asgari, where she writes about being an out woman in the sport. Hell yeah! The end of her piece:
I’m a female, an athlete, a lesbian who’s been successful in a sport she played in elementary school. I’m just going to take it and run with it.
In other sports news, Italian in-line roller hockey player Nicole Bonamino has come out as a lesbian. Nicole, 22, is a goalie for the Italian national team and spoke to Gay Star News about being the first openly gay professional player in her country.
“I’ve always known I was lesbian. I came out to my family when I was 18, while I was in a relationship with another girl. …The sports environment in Italy is still homophobic, but not more so than Italian society. I know a lot of gay and lesbian sportsmates, but they don’t want to come out, they fear they will endanger their careers. For gay men life is easier, this is what I think. Being lesbian means being ignored most of the time. Gay men live surrounded by clichés, of course, but this means recognition. There are no clichés for lesbian women, and this is even worse.”
On the topic of cliches: UK lesbian writer Julie Bindel likes to stir shit up in her homeland, but now she’s really getting things going. She’s speaking out about the “faux-lesbianism” of Cara Delevigne and Michelle Rodriguez.
“The lesbian images that Delevingne and Rodriguez and their ilk are promoting to an impressionable young audience – some of whom are at an age when they may question their own sexuality – are utterly specious. It’s the kind of glammed-up, plastic lesbianism that is found in pornography – a genre that, incidentally, exclusively titillates men. … I came out as a lesbian in the 1970s, so you might expect that I would welcome any public depiction of homosexual lifestyles. On the contrary, I think this ‘faux lesbianism’ is far from healthy. I don’t intend to get into a discussion about whether they really are in a lesbian relationship. I don’t know the details and I don’t much care. Whatever they do in private is their own business. But their ‘relationship’ is – make no mistake – being fiercely marketed.”
Dear Julie, you may not like how the media is portraying their relationship, or how they act in public, but calling it “faux lesbianism” is the part that’s far from healthy. Discounting their partnership because you feel uncomfortable with their PDAs and the interest surrounding it because they are public figures? It’s a model and an actress. It’s the same amount of interest given to their hetero equivalents.
We’re not all Ellen and Portia. Every single relationship is different and calling their relationship fake makes you just as bad as the straight guy getting off to it.
ANYWAY.
Your new favorite movie Life Partners is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. Here’s the description the site gives:
Nearing 30, Sasha and Paige realize their codependent friendship is preventing either of them from settling down. But when Paige meets the dorky yet lovable Tim, Sasha fears that she’s being replaced. Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Gabourey Sidibe, and Adam Brody star in a comedy revolving around two friends and the guy that strikes discord in their harmoniously laid-back resistance to growing up. Directed by Susanna Fogel, Life Partners affectionately tackles the intimacy and complexity of female friendship.Joni Lefkowitz co-wrote the film with her BFF Susanna, and Leighton Meester plays the totally lesbian Sasha. Sold.
So many great books are up for the Lamdba Literary Awards this year! Some you might recognize from our AfterEllen Book Club, like Calling Dr. Laura by Nicole Georges and Bodies of Water by T. Greenwood.
If you’re near LA March 14, get free tickets to attend the first live taping of Tina Fey’s comedy Cabot College, starring Fortune Feimster and Margaret Cho.
Today in Lesbianish TV: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Queen Latifah Show, Good Morning America (ABC 7 a.m.), *Buffy marathon (Pivot 7 a.m.), *30 Rock “Kidnapped By Danger” (Comedy Central 10 a.m.), Annie Leibovitz (Sundance 10:15 a.m.), *Degrassi “Underneath It All, Pt. 2″/”Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Pt. 1” (TeenNick 11 a.m./11:30 a.m.), *Couples Therapy “Final Goodbye” (VH1 11 a.m., 10:30 p.m.), *Girl Code marathon (MTV 11 a.m.), *Mad About You “The Finale” (FXX 11:30 a.m.), *Grey’s Anatomy “No Good at Saying Sorry (One More Chance)”/”What a Difference a Day Makes” (Lifetime 1 p.m./2 p.m.), Mulholland Dr. (Starz Cinema 1:30 p.m.), *Happy Endings (Flix 1:30 p.m.), *Sex and the City “The Cheating Curve” (E! 1:30 p.m.), The Talk (CBS 2 p.m.), *Bones “The Skull in the Sculpture” (TNT 2 p.m.), Gigli (VH1 2:50 p.m.), *Will & Grace “Dyeing Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard” (We 3:30 p.m.), Notes on a Scandal (HBO2 4 p.m.), Jane Velez-Mitchell (HLN 7 p.m.), The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC 9 p.m.), *The Walking Dead “Still” (AMC 10:30 p.m.), *Black Sails “VI.” (Starz 11:15 p.m.), Joan Jett on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35 p.m.), *Lost Girl “Groundhog Fae” (Syfy 2 a.m.)
