Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Lesbian Novel: Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher (English)

September 24th, 2012

Some years ago, I had the very real pleasure of reading The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories. The basic premise was a parody of lesbian novel tropes, each individually wrapped with a love affair and…a horse. (The horse was not part of the love affair, it was just somewhere in the story.) It was an awesome beach read.

So, not surprisingly, I was thrilled to find that one of the authors of that book, Monica Nolan, had also written a few standalone lesbian pulp-style novels.

If you’re a regular reader here, you already know that I like lesbian pulp novels. Everything from the classic Women’s Barracks by Tereska Torres, through Ann Bannon’s ground-breaking Beebo Brinker series, right through modern parodies like Mabel Maney’s Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy. In fact, it’s safe to say that I prefer original lesbian pulp and lesbian pulp parodies far more than I do high culture efforts at modern lesbian literature. (With, perhaps, the exception of Madelyn Arnold’s Year of Full Moons, which was flat-out excellent.)

The difference between Monica Nolan’s parodies of lesbian pulp and Mabel Maney’s is a matter of degree; Maney grabs on to an idea and runs as fast and as far as she can with it, making silly noises and flailing her hands all the while, while Nolan approaches her stories with appreciation for the past, and creates something sweet, sincere and slightly goofy. Which brings me to Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher.

Roberta, aka “Bobby”, Blanchard is a former semi-pro athlete who, after suffering a traumatic injury, takes a position as a gym teacher at an all-girl academy in the forested “north” of some state or other. Bobby has to deal with sexually inquisitive students, teachers, and her own desires. All this while figuring out what lies behind the headmistress’s increasingly erratic behavior and why, exactly, the new math teacher seems to have it in for her.

In the end, you’ll be glad to know, everyone lives happily ever after and, more importantly, the right girls get the right girls.(Girls, yes, you read that correctly. Everyone at Metamora Academy is gay. By which I mean…no, really, everyone. ^_^ Some are gayer than others, but they are all gay.)

Ratings:

Overall – 8

At the end of this book, I had come to a new appreciation of the girls’ school tropes of this genre, a renewed love of lesbian pulp and a desire to watch some field hockey.

You’ll also be pleased to know that Nolan, having beaten the girls’ school story into submission,  has also written an Office Lady-type adventure, Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary. I’ll be getting that one for sure. ^_^

P.S. – I’m at the bottom of my reading pile, so it’s mostly novels from here on in. I’m not ignoring you, I just don’t read Japanese that fast. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 7 (青い花)

August 29th, 2012

There is a girl, she is in love with another girl. The other girl loves her back. They love each other. The end.

It’s that simple, right? The story ends with “Happily Ever After” and we move on to the next story, and never think about the characters after that moment.

This is the essence of “Story A” – the girl and the girl ride off into the sunset and nothing bad ever happens to them.

However.

Humans are not like that, Love is not like that. Friendship is not like that. Life is not like that.

If you have ever fallen in love with someone you know what I’m saying. ^_^; “Love hurts” isn’t a joke, it’s a reality.

In Aoi Hana, Volume 7, love hurts. Even as these girls we’ve come to care about move into their final year of high school, right on the edge of being adults, they are facing some issues they have to deal with. These issues are things that, one way or the other, will bring them that much closer to maturity. Sex is part of this, but it’s just part. Communication is a larger, much more intangible and difficult to grasp, part.

Kyouko needs to find her way with her fiance’, Kou. Their relationship is complicated by their betrothal, their actual feelings for one another and, most impenetrably, Kyouko’s mother.

Mogi’s relationship with Shinobu takes a shocking turn. Will they be split apart by their own lack of confidence or will they find their way?

At the very beginning of the volume, Haru mentions that her sister and teacher have “gotten married” – although it was not a legally binding ceremony, it was meaningful for them…and she lets us know how her parents coped (or didn’t.) Same-sex marriage in manga. I want to hug Shimura-sensei and Morishima-sensei and any other mangaka who surfaces this issue in a manga.

Most important for us, there’s Akira and Fumi. Fumi is in love with Akira, but she is convinced that Akira does not feel the same way about her. Akira can see Fumi is in love with her – and she does not want to stand in the way of Fumi’s happiness, but she has no idea at all what would make *herself* happy.

Fumi thought she got what she wanted, but Akira’s lack of honesty is subtle poison. Fumi’s not as happy as Akira thought she should be after having given herself entirely to her dearest friend. Although physically they’ve been as close as possible, emotionally, they are more distant than ever before.

Many fans have wanted this relationship since the beginning. This volume is very likely to make those fans profoundly unhappy. I have never numbered myself among those who wanted Fumi and Akira as a couple. This relationship is a perfect example of what happens when you get what you want, but not what you need. IMHO, the best of all possible results is that they end the relationship quickly, with no regrets and as few tears as possible, then patch together what remains of their friendship before that too dissolves. This was not the path that leads to a happy ending, they need to return to the fork in the road and choose another.

Against a backdrop of writing, creating and performing the Three Musketeers for the drama competition, this series eschews conventions of manga for realism. Thank heavens.

Ratings:

Story – 10
Characters – 10
Art – 10
Lesbian Life – 10
Service – 3

Overall – 10

There is a girl, she loves another girl. That girl is not sure she loves her back. The end?





LGBTQ: Tokyo Bois!

July 3rd, 2012

Tokyo Wrestling is a LGBTQ bilingual web magazine run by Yuki Keiser, with a strong focus on Japanese lesbian life, events, fashion, etc and genderqueer identity. Tokyo Wrestling’s been a strong media voice for lesbian women in Japan, involving themselves in events, and giving voice and vision to artists, writers, and other women whose stories should be heard. You can find Tokyo Wrestling on Facebook and Twitter, as well. (No worries about language, Yuki speaks English.)

Last year Yuki published a book of photography by Tosaki Miwa called Tokyo Bois, pictures of androgynous, boi-ish and genderqueer lesbian woman in and around Tokyo. It took me a long time to finally order the book, and for that I’m very sorry, it’s really a delightful book.

There is some English translation in the book, excerpts from interviews have been translated, and the full text is also available in Japanese. But the real draw of this book is in the photos themselves. Here are the bois of the Japanese lesbian scene hanging out, dancing, partying and – most importantly for me – enjoying the company of their girlfriends. Of all the pictures, those in which two women are seen having fun being together are my favorites. ^_^

In fact, my very favorite picture of the book is Yuki herself with Syd Blakovich, defying every “known” about Japanese couples – they are touching, they are smiling, there is no doubt we are seeing a public display of affection here. (For the record, anime and manga is largely WAY behind the times on this, Only otaku have so much emotion invested in the simple holding of a hand, non-otaku folk do it all the time. I’ve seen many young couples on the streets of Tokyo…gasp!…touching.  Remember, anime/manga fans = largely conservative, often socially backward. Don’t think anime/manga is an accurate representation of life. It’s always life as seen through a distorted lens.)

If you’re sitting around thinking that every Japanese lesbian is a lipstick lesbian, or that Japanese lesbians are always hiding from the world behind other relationships, let Tokyo Bois remove that old-fashioned idea from your mind. This book is about youth, about freedom, and about the desire to live with honesty. This book is a sign that the future will look different than the past – and thank heaven for that.

It’s a fantastic book and has made me very, very happy.

Ratings:

Overall – 10





Lesbian Comic: The Legend of Bold Riley (English)

May 17th, 2012

lobr1She has hunted the wildest game and dallied with countless beautiful girls, but still longs to know the world beyond the city wall. Princess Rilavashana SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out to travel through distant lands and find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods, and tragic love.

I was brought up on Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. They were so stereotypical – fierce, strong, heavily muscular barbarian swordsman, confronting evil priests and bizarre monsters and bedding wenches of all kinds, that kind of thing. I loved “that kind of thing.”

I have basically been waiting my entire adult life for someone to write “that kind of thing” starring a lesbian Princess who leaves her home to find adventure, because she can’t stop herself, and who confronts gods, creatures, demons and the like. And, of course, beds wenches.

Leia Weathington’s The Legend of Bold Riley, is, at last, that story.

The feeling of “yes, this, this is exactly it” I had while reading the new collected volume of Weathington’s Bold Riley stories, was endlessly repeated. It was like finding a treasured book from my youth and loving it all over again.

This collection gathers all the chapters from the Bold Riley stories, with full-color pages, story by Leia Weathington, and art by Vanessa Lynn, Jason Thompson, Konstantin Pogorelov, and Kelly McKlellan. The different artists for each chapter gives the reader a chance to re-meet and re-learn to love Princess Rilavashana over and over again.

The different artists also means that, realistically, you might not love the art for each chapter. One chapter might appeal to you more than another, but I kind of admit to finding the wildly different styles charming. Each story was told to me by a different story-teller, each a different adventure. It was a full day’s worth of entertainment. (And heaven help me, I want to write a Bold Riley story so badly now that I can taste it….)

Ratings:

Art – Variable
Story – Awesome
Characters – Doubly Awesome
Yuri – Triple-y Awesome
Service – There is nudity

Overall – Really, really awesome

Anyway, I don’t think I need to tell you what to do, do I? Obviously, go buy this book. ^_^ I have already pre-ordered my copy.

“She’s a hero, you’re a reader. You were made for each other.”  – Jane Espenson, from the Foreword.

Thanks to Leia (who will be interviewed sometime soonish here, as soon as I get my lazy ass in gear) for the preview PDF copy. I cannot *wait* to have the real thing in my hands.





Lesbian Comic: she said (English)

May 14th, 2012

Readers of Okazu frequently see me request more “After the happily-ever-after” manga; stories in which the girl, having gotten the girl, proceeds to make a life with her.  Well, there’s a good reason why we don’t get that so much. For the presumed male audience who is really only interested in Yuri as fantasy, there’s relatively little interest in the building of a real relationship. Take Shizuma and Nagisa out of Miator and their relationship, which is doomed to fail once it hits the real world, is a bore.

But, if there’s one thing that keeps people from exploring the after the happily-ever-after moment in comics, it’s the harsh reality that after happily-ever-after comes, sometimes, not happily, and not ever-after.

When the Prince rides off with the Princess, we fade out so we don’t have to listen to the Princess wondering why his friends are such losers, or listen to them screaming at their kids. Obviously.

Equally, when the girl gets the girl, we often fade out because its really hard on reader and writer to have to wade through the period after 6 months or so, when the fires of lust burn less hotly and people are trying to figure out where they fit in to each other’s lives. One of the ways to do this is to create a death off-screen, and have the character deal with it, as in June Kim’s 12 Days. This kind extreme crisis, what I call “hand of god” writing, is not easy to do well, but it makes the situation fait accompli for readers. We deal with the situation as it was presented to us. (June did it very well, btw.)

What is significantly harder is a deft handling of the end of a relationship. One of the finest I’ve ever read is “Your Hair” by Niki Smith, which we included in the Yuri Monogatari 5 collection. It’s tense and frank and uncomfortable and sad. Absolutely stellar work.

Up until now, I have never read a story that covered the beginning, middle and end of a relationship in a way that was worth recommending. Today I say to you, run, do not walk over to Lulu and buy she said by Kris Dresen.

This story starts with the beginning of a relationship, goes through the flirting and the getting together, the being together, the discomfort of a growing rift, and the final throes of a parting all in few words. Each page has single spoken line, at most two. Nonetheless the story is rendered in depth with terrific facial expressions and evocative body language. (I’m a sucker for this especially, as shockingly few comic artists do more than pose their characters. One day I will show you Nishi Uko’s “Collectors” and you’ll all cry at what you’ve been thinking is good art.)

The most interesting thing about this story is the piece that’s left out. By the end of the book, we have no idea what, really, split them up. Although one can hazard a guess, that’s not the point. The point is that this story is every relationship cliché stitched up together to tell a story we’ve all heard a thousand times. But never once like this.

One of the things I like best about Tsubomi magazine right now is their willingness to deal with the not-so-beautiful parts of lesbian relationships. Abuse, both physical and emotional, and even overt homophobia, never grace the pages of other Yuri tales, but these are the realities that real women face.  If we want our stories to evolve, it’s necessary to face the whole thing and not stay stuck in childhood fairy tales. (Now that I think of it, we sort of got that backwards, with lesbian literature so focused on the end in early stories, then tentatively adding in happy endings, and now going back to face those endings more realistically and honestly. Less knife fights and predatory lesbians.)

Kris Dresen tells us a fable about the before, during and after happily ever after. It may not be happy, but it’s damn good.

Ratings:

Because all my ratings are really geared for Yuri manga, I’m going to stick with an overall for this one.

Overall – 8

My very sincere thanks to Kris who inscribed my copy with something inspiring and who inspires me to do more. ^_^

Quick disclaimer – although she inscribed it, I bought my own copy of this book. Don’t want you to think I’m sucking up to her! ^_^