Growing up, I felt I wasn’t enough. Not white enough. Not Latina enough. I’ve tried to look to my mother’s story as my own missing piece. I’ve made her story into a key that will unlock a feeling of place and belonging. As a writer, I look to stories to guide me.
At my Catholic all-girls middle school, I liked to tell people I was Buddhist. It was my feeble attempt at preteen rebellion. I enjoyed interjecting, “Oh yeah? Well, I don’t believe Jesus was real because I’m Buddhist!”
“How are you liking all this social distancing? It’s cool that you write for Autostraddle”
“Looking for a baby who wants to be pleasured and punished in the most loving of ways. I may look adorable, but I’m quite powerful and will make you shake with joy or fear – if you behave you get to choose.”
I grew up in a conservative family so I never really knew the words to describe who I was but when I saw Walter Mercado in his finery and elegance, I knew I was like him.
Also: All the Bly Manor links you can handle, Demi Lovato’s new anti-Trump protest song, Megan Thee Stallion’s NYT op-ed, Stevie Nicks figured out how to use TikTok before I did, and more!
Their dog Duggie was also in attendance.
It’s time to check back in on Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson post break-up, Hayley Kiyoko is the cutest human GAP ad, Stacy London is cozy in glasses and in love, and how do we even live on the same planet as Janet Mock?
When Jenni Olson made these films, she wasn’t thinking about pandemics or quarantines or anything else this year has wrought, and yet there has never been a better time to revisit these five movies.
Elizabeth Warren’s Op-Ed on Amy Coney Barrett, 25 famous women on crying, is there a safe way to go home for the holidays? Plus, Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher AND first glimpses of a young Princess Diana in bomb “The Crown” trailer drop heard ’round the world.
Mona played with dolls. I play with body parts. Game on, bitches.
Somehow we have enshrined vampirism into the pantheon along with Christmas, Halloween and sometimes Thanksgiving as deserving of its own 20-45 minutes in the sun each year, particularly in the realm of procedurals, and you know what, sure! Why not. This is not all of the vampire episodes ever made, but they are pretty good ones, if I do say so myself.
Bly Manor is a well-written, beautifully acted, stunningly filmed horror series, with old ghosts and new ghosts and fun lore — and a lesbian love story for the ages
Relationships change. Relationships end. It’s not inconsiderate to move forward; sometimes being a good ex means maintaining boundaries.
In Ifa, a Yoruba-based religion, we believe that when we die, we are reincarnated into our same family lineage. I’ve imagined all the ways in which it would be possible that my grandmother was once my sister, or my aunt, a friend in a past life or even a version of me. We depended on each other in so many ways.
As we stock up on toys and lube for winter, we can put our queer money back into queer-owned sex shops!
You — yes, YOU! — can save our favorite queer sitcom One Day at a Time. All you have to do is watch it tonight (and the next three weeks) on CBS.
“But if Steven Universe gets a gay wedding, then every show is going to want a gay wedding!” “‘YES!’ I said. ‘GOOD! WHY NOT???'”
Also: Janelle Monáe’s virtual reality concert experience, a Dickinson season two trailer, Demi Lovato reveals the exact moment she knew she was queer, some photos of Viola Davis working out just because, and more!
Where does the Autostraddle community stand on pressing criminal justice issues including bail, incarceration and police brutality? Here are our findings, based on the Autostraddle Reader Survey and Politics Survey that readers most recently took.