I’m not sure why, but lately I have been obsessing over finding a snappy label for the particular subculture of dykes that I joined when I came out. If I’d been born in another era, I could have been a monocle-wearing mannish lesbian in 1920s Paris, or a high femme with a hard-living butch lover in 1950s America. Or even a radical lesbian separatist clearing land for a commune in the 1970s. But instead, I came out in 1993 in Vancouver. Nothing against the time or the place or the people–it’s just that I find it hard to describe my particular scene in a few potent words.
Category: Writing
Finding Comfort in the Sun, Xtra West #356, April 11, 2007
Last December my generous, queer-positive Dad offered to take my girlfriend and me on a tropical holiday for spring break. Of course we said yes–we’d had a crappy, rainy fall and we couldn’t afford to pay for a trip like that ourselves. More…
The Vulva Rant, Xtra West #354, March 15, 2007
I’ve always suspected that the Vagina Monologues would piss me off. But when a local women’s centre put on the Monologues as a fundraiser, I decided I should go and see if my suspicions were justified. Sure enough, supporting a good cause turned out to be pretty much the only enjoyable aspect of my theatre experience…. Vulva refers to the external genitalia-the labia, the clitoris, the vaginal introitus, and to things like the fourchette, fossa and frenulum, which I confess I didn’t even know about before researching this column. So you’d think Ensler might have used that v-word instead. More…
Sick Sense of Humour: Review of Jokes and the Unconscious, Xtra West #353, March 1, 2007
Jokes and the Unconscious dazzled me from the very first page. This brilliant graphic novel by performance poet Daphne Gottlieb and artist Diane DiMassa blazes through death and sex with compassion, honesty and a perfectly sick sense of humour. Oh, and did I mention it’s hot, too?More…
Notes on a Scandalous Film, Xtra West #352, February 14, 2007
I can’t believe Notes on a Scandal is up for four Academy Awards. Can I just say that I totally hated it?
For those of you who haven’t seen it, Barbara (Judi Dench) is a bitter, frumpy woman obsessed with lovely young Sheba (Cate Blanchett). When Barbara finds out that Sheba is having sex with a teenage boy, she offers herself up as a confidante in hopes of getting closer to Sheba. But her manipulation escalates into blackmail, as Barbara becomes desperate to have Sheba as her “friend.”
More…
Grammar Tip #11: Spit? Spat? Spitted?
The other day I walked by a mom who was saying to her kid, “It’s ‘spit,’ not ‘spitted’!” She seemed quite angry.
I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but I cannot stand it when people use “spit” as the past tense of “spit,” instead of using “spat.” I looked it up in the Oxford Canadian, and they say you can use either. But I think “spat” sounds more intelligent. Plus that’s what I learned when I was young.
So I would say to any kids or adults who want to talk about spitting in the past tense, “It’s not ‘spit’ and it’s not ‘spitted.’ It’s ‘spat’!”
They would probably tell me to get a life.
Notes from a Dyke New Year’s Brunch, Xtra West #350, January 18, 2007
On New Year’s Day I ended up at an impromptu brunch where we had a discussion that was like a distillation of conversations I’ve been having throughout 2006, meaning a mix of despairing and philosophical.
Click here for the rest of the column.
Grammar Tip #10: Theirs More To This Tip Than There Saying
It has been so long since I wrote a grammar tip! What with surgery in November and a profound depression brought on by rampant spelling and grammar errors in award-winning books (latest is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss), I have just not been up to the task.
Here is a tiny kvetch.
People everywhere need to stop confusing “there,” “they’re” and “their.”
The most common use of “there” means “in, at or to that place or position.”
“They’re” is the contraction of “they are.”
“Their” is the possessive form of “they.”
So here is some creative dialogue to illustrate the tip.
“Where are Jack and Fred?”
“They’re out back in their tree fort playing with their Barbies.”
“Why?”
“Because the Barbies like it there.”
Queer at the Hospital, Xtra West #348, December 21, 2006
Queer at the Hospital
In the middle of November, around the time of the boil-water advisory and the heavy snowfall, I had emergency abdominal surgery. I had never been in the hospital before. But all of a sudden there I was at VGH, IVs everywhere, blood transfusions, painkillers, Salisbury steak for dinner, the whole deal. For six days.
Read the full column here.
Sarah on Sounds Like Canada
Shelagh Rogers interviewed the editor of Nobody’s Mother, Lynne Van Luven, and two contributors, me and Sadhna Datta, on Sounds Like Canada. You can hear the interview by going to this page and scrolling down to November 20. The interview runs about 50 minutes and is more like a discussion among the four of us. Shelagh Rogers wrote the foreword to the book.