Quiz: Which Iconic Dyke Bar Are You?

In honor of Drive-Away Dolls, which has scenes set in two fictional late-90s dyke bars in the South — Butter Churn and The She Shed — I thought it would be fun to revisit some iconic dyke bars from history. Take this personality quiz, and I’ll match your energy to a historical dyke bar (at least one of them is still open!) and provide a short history lesson, too. For this quiz, we’re focusing on cities outside of LA, NYC, Chicago, etc., with a particular emphasis on dyke bars in the South and the Midwest. We’re going to time-travel for this quiz! The year in 1999, and you’re getting ready for a night out on the town…


Which Iconic Dyke Bar Are You?

Who are you going to the bar with?(Required)
What’s your “getting ready” vibe?(Required)
What accessory are you wearing?(Required)
What’s your ideal vision of how the night goes?(Required)
What shoes are you wearing?(Required)
What are you ordering at the bar?(Required)
What about something to eat?(Required)
A cutie comes up to you and starts chatting. What do you compliment first?(Required)
You want to get to know her a little bit, so what do you ask about?(Required)
What’s the next move?(Required)
What artist do you hope starts playing?(Required)
It’s almost closing time. What are you doing?(Required)
The night is young and full of dyke possibilities. Where you heading next?(Required)

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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, short stories, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the assistant managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear or are forthcoming in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 922 articles for us.

6 Comments

  1. This is a fun quiz :) I got:

    Babes of Carytown (Richmond, Virginia)

    My hometown’s local dyke bar, Babes has been open since 1979! Incredible! To this day, it’s still one of my favorite stops to make when visiting my parents back in Richmond and when I was growing up, it always had a reputation as the best place to dance downtown. It skews to the divey side of things and inexplicably has an outdoor sand volleyball court in the back, where things definitely get spicy. A place where you can dance, makeout, play pool, AND play beach volleyball? Babes is versatile, and perhaps if you got this result you’re also a multi-hyphenate in your own right.

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