On Their Backs

[bcholmes]

So I finally went out and picked up the April/May 2002 issue of On Our Backs: The Best of Lesbian Sex. A friend of mine told me about this issue last December, and an earlier issue (December/January) provided a sneak preview.

Anyway, the key thing about the issue is that is has a photo shoot of a transsexual woman -- this is the first transsexual woman to appear in On Our Backs according to the hype.

'Bout time, I figure. The magazine has been great about doing photo shoots of various body shapes (fat girls on the cover! Yay!), ethnicities, kinks, expressions (butchy butches and girly girls), and what have you. There have been a number of transmen in the mag. But this is the first transsexual woman. Interestingly, this issue also had the following comments in its "Letters to the Editor" page:

I wish you'd cut down on showing so many transpeople. [...] I hate having transgenderism shoved in my face at every turn.

- Name withheld

As a lesbian, I'm a bit lost in this gender-bending vogue.

- Susan [last name withheld]

Because we know that Real Lesbians^TM never do anything to bend gender.

While I have nothing against transgender erotica I don't see it as being appropriate fare for a magazine claiming to offer "the best of lesbian sex."

- Name withheld

And this really kinda bums me out. I guess I've been in enough trans positive dyke space that I'm really quite thrown off when I run into comments like that. To be fair, there were a number of trans positive letters in the mag as well. But.

So, I'm feeling a bit grumpy at the moment.

(For the record: I really like On Our Backs -- I like their attitudes, their ideas, and their politics -- and I don't want my annoyance with some of their readership to be taken as a complaint against the mag. I've considered subscribing on several occasions, except that I also like supporting Glad Day Bookstore, where I regularly pick up my copy of the mag. For visitors to Roxton Manor, back issues are kept in the downstairs bathroom.)