*New Column* Snapshot: The Elephant in the Bathroom

(originally posted 02/09 at wordpress)

This is a new column from the editor of the SheSheet, mae stephenson. Snapshot addresses the here-and-now of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in Portland, OR where the author lives, walks, and braves public transportation. She'll share her on-the-go experiences and observations via low quality cellphone snapshots and short synopsis. Yeah, she realizes there's nothing new about critiquing advertisements and culture from a feminist perspective, but aims to remind you that the work is certainly not finished-- No, not even in Portland, Oregon.


by mae stephenson

Why did this baby-changing table have anthropomorphically gendered hetero elephant parents? Because only hetero parents in sets of two have babies, of course!

A couple days ago I found this gem attached to a baby-changing table in a single-stall bathroom at a bakery/cafe in NW Portland. It's part of the brand sticker-- the item's logo. It's been there a while: I could tell by how the sticker was shredded and picked-at to the point where I could tell the brand name was to the left of the image, but I couldn't actually read it. What I could read, however, were those elephants' genders.

Herstory: Gladys Bentley

(originally posted 03/08 at wordpress)



by mae stephenson

Gladys Bentley (1907 - 1960)

Audio Clip from www.queerculturalcenter.org

Gladys Bentley was an out lesbian blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance. She moved to Harlem from Pennsylvania at age 16 and began performing at rent parties (thrown by artists for a cover charge to raise rent), soon graduating to speakeasies and nightclubs. She gained immense notoriety for her raunchy renditions of popular songs, always performed in her signature tux and top hat. She began recording her music in the 1930's, and while politics of the era forced her to forego including her songs with lesbian lyrics, she still performed them at clubs and attracted a predominately gay audience. Once the "lavender scare" and McCarthyism hit in the 1950's, Bentley became a prime target an as out lesbian bulldagger in the entertainment industry. Despite her previous marriage to a white woman in New Jersey, she quickly married a man and began wearing dresses, touting salvation via the consumption of female hormones. Her efforts to survive in a dangerous era are seen as a piece of her important herstory.

For more information, visit http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Bentley/BentleyBio.html or http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/lesbiansinhistory/p/GladysBentley.htm