no sex? no prob. - Oberlin College

Transcription

MUSIC SPECIAL: JUNGLEPUSSY, BEST COAST, JEAN GRAE, DRESS LIKE COOKIE
FOR
WOMEN
WITH
SOMETHING TO
GET OFF THEIR
CHESTS
INTERNET
PORN THAT
GIRLS ACTUALLY
LIKE
p. 89
ORANGE IS THE
NEW BLACK’S
to sneak
your stash
into any
show
no sex?
no prob.
an asexual
explains
JUNE/JULY 2015 - VOL. 93 DISPLAY UNTIL JULY 27
BUST.COM
1
Table of Contents
June/July 2015
Features
42 She’s All That
Laverne Cox, star of Orange
is the New Black, opens up
about boyfriends, black culture, and bell hooks.
By Sara Benincasa
50 Perfect Day
Sun-drenched styles modeled by the bewitching Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast.
By Lisa Butterworth, Photographed by Annabel Mehran,
Styled by Marissa Peden
58 At Your Cervix:
The Secret History
Of The SpeculuM
You won’t believe how the
duck-billed gadget that
makes you flinch at the gyno
came to be.
By Johanna Gohmann
photo: Danielle Levitt; Shirt: Minkpink/modcloth; Skirt: Milly; Shoes: Pleaser
62Call Of The Wild
Brooklyn rapper Junglepussy has no time for “a
man’s fuckery.”
By Liz Galvao
64 No Sex And The City
An asexual woman sheds
some light on an oft-misunderstood orientation.
By Keira Tobias
68 Speed Queens
New Orleans’ Caramel
Curves Motorcycle Club
rules the road.
By Caroline Goyette
on the cover
laverne cox Photographed by Danielle Levitt;
Styling: Jessica Bobince; Hair: Ursula Stephen
@ Starworks Group; Makeup: Deja for DD-Pro
using MAC Cosmetics; Swimsuit: Esther Williams/
modcloth; Shorts: H&M; hand lettering by
monica garwood
3
table of contents
41
68
33
30
35
6 Editor’s Letter
8 Dear BUST
Broadcast
11 Music critic Jessica
Hopper blazes a trail;
Tom Tom Academy
turns the beat around; comedian Chelsea White
puts her Tourette Syndrome on blast; and more.
13 THE HOTNESS Delicious pop
culture to munch on all
season. By Emily Rems
16 Pop Quiz
Sorry Ms. (Mahalia)
Jackson. By Emily Rems
18 Boy du Jour Kumail Nan-
jiani shows us his “11.”
By Lisa Butterworth
20 pop tart
36 good stuff Tropical
REAL LIFE
23 Create a curiosity cabinet; write your own video game; smuggle your
stash in style; and more.
41 booty call
All that glitters is not Jem.
By Jean Grae
29 nickel and dined
Easy DIY energy bars.
By Isa Chandra Moskowitz
31 around the world in 80
Let Jersey City
surprise you.
By Elise Nussbaum
girls
17 Bra-ometer
Feminist news on tap.
By Kara Buller and
Solange Castellar
4
. june/july 2015 . BUST
indie makeup brands;
get Cookie’s Empire
look; and more.
LOOKS
33 Hot tips from stylist
Katie Oldaker; awesome
prints are made in the
shade. By Stephanie J.
Trendy tanks paired
with boss bras.
By Callie Watts
SEX FILES
89 Porn sites that won’t
make you gag; and more.
90 Questions for the Queen
Boning after baby and
HPV angst.
By Dr. Carol Queen
92 One-Handed Read
Raising the Saddle.
By Fanny Bae
The BUST Guide
75 Music Reviews, plus the
season’s best album cover
featuring a merkin.
The Back
95 X Games
Second Wave Wisdom.
By Tracy Bennett
82 Movies
96 parting glance
After The Overnight, Gemma Bovery asked, What
Happened, Miss Simone?
83 Books Reviews, including
seven five-boob titles.
“Untitled (Romantic Story).” By Heather Benjamin
PHOTOS: Akasha Rabut (CARAMEL CURVES); KATE LACEY (SHIRTS AND BRAS); VANESSA REES (PINEAPPLE)
regulars
editor’s letter
The Revolution Will Be Televised
According to numerous media outlets, America is currently
experiencing a “trans moment” in pop culture. And indeed, there is most
definitely a cultural shift happening, with a greater recognition and acceptance of people who are transgender. Perhaps no one can take more
credit for kicking off this current moment than our cover star, Laverne
Cox. Her brilliant role in the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black,
showed America a trans character with whom anyone could identify.
And that paved the way for even more pop culture trans-visibility, such
as the Golden Globe-winning Amazon series Transparent, and Bruce
Jenner’s very brave, very public coming out as transgender in a 20/20
interview with Diane Sawyer.
While these examples may seem few and far between, never underestimate the power of the media to effect actual change in the hearts and
“Never underestimate the power of
the media to effect actual change in
the hearts and minds of the public.”
minds of the public. In the ’90s, Ellen DeGeneres’ coming-out on her
sitcom, Ellen, was front-page news (just as Bruce Jenner’s coming-out is
today). But since then, homosexual characters have become quite common on TV and in the movies, and that, in turn, has resulted in a majority
of Americans supporting marriage equality. We may still be at the very
beginning of an upward curve toward complete trans-acceptance, but at
least we’re finally on that curve.
Transfolks have suffered deeply from the painful experience of living
in a society that doesn’t acknowledge them, or, worse, mocks them. But
while greater pop culture visibility is a definite win, righting that wrong in
other ways is not always so straightforward. Here at BUST, we’ve already
been called out a number of times for being trans-insensitive. When we
referred to “lady bits” in a story on our blog, one commenter took us to
task, reminding us that, “Not all women have vaginas. Some men have vaginas.” I received a similar comment on an editor’s letter a while back in
which I wrote that having a vagina was “a part of the female experience.”
And I’m afraid that we may well receive angry letters about this issue, too.
Our exposé on the surprising history of the speculum assumes that most
women are familiar with the discomfort associated with that cold, clinical device; that the history of the speculum, itself, is a women’s-interest
story. But in light of the above, that very assumption is, to use the Internet’s favorite word, “problematic.” And it’s true; I can totally see the problem. What I can’t see, unfortunately, is the answer. Are vagina-related
issues no longer to be the domain of women’s magazines? For a feminist
magazine to be trans-inclusive, should every mention of the female body
be preceded by “cis-” or “trans-”? These are not rhetorical questions—I
honestly don’t know the solution—and I realize that even asking them is
treading into sensitive territory. In fact, I was pretty hesitant to include
them here; public discourse on this subject seems to be particularly
6
volatile. But I think these sorts of questions deserve real discussion, not just
a flurry of irate Tweets (#really). So,
please: more talk, more questions, more
honesty, more openness. Transgender
inclusivity and allyship is an important
issue, and it merits more than 140 characters or less.
Of course, transgendered people
aren’t the only ones missing from, or
misrepresented in, pop culture. Women
(cis, trans, hetero, and homo) still tend
to be shown in ways that are limited
at best, and misleading at worst. If you
were an alien who could somehow tune
in to a U.S. TV set, you’d conclude that
Earth women are a minority on this
planet; that most of them are white
and blonde, with big boobs or butts and
narrow waists; and that very few of
them ever live past the age of 40. There
are more subtle ways in which sexism
snakes its way into every form of media,
of course, but it all influences how we
think about our place in society.
That’s exactly why we always try to
bring to light the stories of those invisible women—which accounts for most
of us, actually—to ensure that at least
one pop culture portrayal of the world
embodies a more realistic, more diverse, more interesting, more nuanced,
more complicated, and way funnier vision of who women are. And in this issue, along with our features on Ms. Cox
and specula (speculii?), we have a piece
by a woman who identifies as asexual
(the “A” in the ever-growing acronym
LGBTQA); another about a rad all-female motorcycle club whose hogs spew
pink smoke (really!); and interviews
with musicians Junglepussy and Best
Coast’s Bethany Cosentino; plus loads
of fun stuff like how to create a curiousity cabinet, ideas for sneaking mindaltering contraband into this summer’s
concerts, lovely ways to wear a sarong,
and plenty more.
Enjoy!
JUNE/JULY 2015 – ISSUE 93
contributors
FOR WOMEN WITH SOMETHING
TO GET OFF THEIR CHESTS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Debbie Stoller
@bust_magazine
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Laurie Henzel
@bust_magazine
MANAGING EDITOR
Emily Rems
@emilyrems
SENIOR DESIGNER
Lauren Clemente
@lauren.clemente
Caroline Goyette, who wrote
“Speed Queens” about the
Caramel Curves Motorcycle
Club, lives in New Orleans, LA,
where she writes and teaches
high school English. After she
interviewed the Curves, she
chaperoned a prom. Her work has appeared in
BUST, PasteMagazine.com, The Times-Picayune,
and many other publications. She is currently at
work on a novel.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR/CUSTOMER SERVICE
Callie Watts
@candy_rain
SENIOR Associate Editor
Bridgette Miller
@whatevswhatevs
MUSIC EDITOR
Liz Galvao
@lizgalvao
Sex Editor
Jenni Miller
@msjennimiller
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Lisa Butterworth
@lisabutterworth
DIGITAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Elizabeth Kiefer
@lizabeth_kiefer
Jean Grae, who wrote this issue’s “Pop Tart” column, is
a critically acclaimed lyricist,
producer, writer, comedian,
director, cinematographer, and
all-around entertainer. An iconic figure in hip-hop since 1996,
she has worked alongside Mos
Def, Talib Kweli, the Roots, and 80 million other
people you like. In just the past two years, she has
independently released nine albums, a book, an
audiobook, and the web series Life With Jeannie.
PUBLISHERS
Laurie Henzel and Debbie Stoller
Partnerships & Multimedia advertising Sales
Maggie Tam Clark ads@bust.com
event and promotions coordinator
Melissa Thornton melissa.t@bust.com
bookkeeper
Amy Moore
BLOG EDITORS
Hannah Baxter, Jamie Bogert,
Marissa Dubecky, Holly Trantham
Editorial interns
Evelyn Chapman, Bee Gray,
Madison Nunes, Natasha Rodriguez,
Veronica Santos, Princess Weekes
Web interns
Meredith Felt, Gabrielle Kupfer
FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS
SUBSCRIPTIONS@BUST.COM
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©2015 BUST, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the permission of the publisher. The articles and advertising appearing within
this publication reflect the opinions and attitudes of their respective authors
and not necessarily those of the publisher or editors.
Canada Post:
Publications Mail Agreement #40612608
Canada returns to be sent to IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London,
ON N6C 6B2
Danielle Levitt, who shot Laverne Cox for our cover story,
is a commercial film director
and photographer. Her vibrant
body of work includes portraiture and editorials for Vanity
Fair, The New York Times
Magazine, Time, and GQ; advertising for clients
like Nike, Reebok, and Microsoft; and personal
work exploring contemporary youth culture. She
has created original content for Apple, Dazed,
i-D, and Budweiser, and also makes documentary films.
Akasha Rabut, who shot the
Caramel Curves Motorcycle
Club, is a portrait and documentary photographer based
out of New Orleans, LA. She
started taking pictures in high
school and never stopped.
Rabut has a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She shoots on film and prefers most things
in analog form.
7
dear bust
Write On
Thank you for the
inspiration and for
all the knowledge
I’ve gained from you.
Maybe one day I, too,
will be writing for
a magazine spreading the same kind
of message. There
are lots of strong,
talented, opinionated
women just waiting
to be written about
so someone like me
can read about their work and feel something. Keep doing
what you’re doing and know that I will be a fan for a long
time to come.
–Christine Weimer, Queens, NY
Everyone Still Has Feb/Mar Fever
I have been a longtime reader and I appreciate the thoughtprovoking, funny, and feisty content that is BUST’s
trademark. I was moved to provide feedback regarding the
February/March 2015 issue due to the hot pink lipstick
that cover stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer are rocking. The bright pop of color (with the matching BUST logo)
inspired me to try a similar color, with good results. Can
the brand and shade of Abbi and Ilana’s lip color please be
provided? Also, the articles and fashion (plus-size layout—
YAY!) were as fabulous as ever.
–Staci L. Beasley, Oklahoma City, OK
Makeup artist Sarah Egan responds: It’s a light wash of
Divine by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. This brand is
super-potent, so I just use a dot.
I have always been a fan, but the Feb/March 2015 issue is
seriously the best. I love, love, love the ALDA spread, the
touching article about adoption, and the amazing “What
Kind of Slut Are You?” quiz. It was also fun to read about
SoKo. BUST speaks to me perfectly and really captures the
zeitgeist of our time for women.
—Elisabeth Caren, Los Angeles, CA
From Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s rockin’ vegan recipes to an
entire spread of vegan leather jackets (“Faux Real,” Feb/
Mar 2015), thank you for always remembering your animal-friendly readers. I’ve long believed that animal rights
and women’s rights go hand in hand. Just as it is always
wrong to bully and abuse people just because they are different, it is always wrong to abuse and oppress animals.
The mindset is the same in both cases. It doesn’t matter
who the victim is—when we witness mindless prejudice of
any stripe, we should never let it go unchallenged.
–Paula Moore, Portsmouth, VA
8
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Check out these hot shots we
found on the ’gram:
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bustmagazine.tumblr.com
pinterest.com/bustmagazine
via twitter
@bust_magazine just
discovered your magazine via my hairdresser.
Couldn’t put you down!
New subscriber here.
On the beach w/ my latest issue of
Bust. This weather in N.Y.C. is just
too perfect.
Happy Sunday!
#bustmagazine. —@thfabjunkie
—@jinaj37
@bust_magazine just
read Callie Watts’
excellent interview with
Run the Jewels.
@KillerMikeGTO’s
“I stand in solidarity
with women”
was
.
—@wickesgirl
@bust_magazine I’ve
gotten some really cool
music suggestions
from you guys over the
years—thanks !!!
—@pinningjenny
Here are the gift bag goodies from
today’s #bustcraftacular. There
were so many talented artists &
crafters, nail bar, knitting table,
food & drink areas, embroidery
station, & even a MASSAGE corner!
#bustcraftacular #bustmagazine,
#getprimped, #lovelygifts, #tattoonie, #brooklyncharm, #acure,
#nubian. —@feelingcuteetsy
Get it off your chest!
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Bust has and always will be my favorite magazine. The ultimate feminist
read! #bustmagazine #bustprimped
#bustcraftacular. —@meganmcnal
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news + views
TOM TOM ACADEMY p. 12 . pop quiz: mahalia jackson p. 16 . pop tart: truly outrageous by jean grae p. 20
Critical
Acclaim
makeup: Claudia lake; location: Good Room in Greenpoint, brooKlyn
Music writer Jessica
Hopper plants her flag
with The First Collection
of Criticism by a Living
Female Rock Critic
Jessica Hopper’s influence as a
music critic is so ubiquitous, in the course of
speaking with her I embarrassingly
reference her own writing without realizing
it. She’s discussing the way female authorship is challenged in the music industry
when I mention a recent interview with
Björk on the subject. “Yes, that was my
interview,” she deadpans. Ironically, I’d
overlooked her authorship. “It’s funny, I’ve
been getting pitches from people like, ‘Since
this has really become a discussion....’ And
I’m like, ‘Yeah, I was there.’”
PHOTOGRAPHED BY lauren silberman
11
11
broadcast
T“I was there” is a common refrain for
the Chicago-based writer, whose
expansive body of work has started
many of the conversations we’ve been
having about feminism and music for
the past two decades. From her
teenage beginnings as part of the riot
grrrl movement with her fanzine Hit It
or Quit It, to her decade-plus as a
freelance writer for The New York
Times, Chicago Reader, SPIN, and LA
Weekly, to her new role as Editor-InChief of The Pitchfork Review, Hopper
has produced a volume of work that
probes deeply into not only the music,
but also the discussions around it. Her
new book, The First Collection of
Criticism by a Living Female Rock
Critic, features pieces from every stage
of her career, showcasing the breadth
of her cultural criticism.
“I’ve been publishing on a weekly
basis since I was 15. I’m 38,” Hopper
says. Her decision to take on an editing
role at Pitchfork was motivated by the
company’s flexible schedule for working parents (Hopper has two small children), as well as her experience putting
together The First Collection. “One of
the things that I pulled out of it was, you
know what? I’ve been having some of
these same conversations for 20 years.
If I move into a realm that’s more editing, I can help move this conversation
[on gender] forward.”
In putting together her new book,
Hopper came up against some of that
same resistance toward authoritative
female voices. “In part, the title is very
much this flag-planting thing, because
I was told by all sorts of people that I
can’t do this book because there was
“I WAS TOLD BY ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE THAT
I CAN’T DO THIS BOOK BECAUSE THERE
WAS LITERALLY NO PRECEDENT FOR IT.”
Among the many significant pieces
included in her book is Hopper’s excellent oral history of Hole’s 1994 record
Live Through This, an article that places
the album on the same landmark level
as Nirvana’s Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. “One of
the talks that I’m giving at colleges is
about a reluctance toward girl genius,”
Hopper says. “When David Bevan was
my editor at SPIN, we had this running
joke that we were going to make these
matching shirts that said ‘Kurt Was The
Yoko.’ But you sort of see in that [piece],
it right-sizes the genius of that work.”
literally no precedent for it, and that
you have to be dead, you have to be a
canonical male writer,” she says. “I
think that because of the power we
accord women’s work, there’s this
idea somehow that every woman is
the first, and every woman is breaking that boundary. It’s almost like we
don’t accord there being a women’s
legacy in music.”
“Even though there [are] other books
like this, people say, ‘Oh, there’s no
precedent for this.’ And it’s like, OK.”
She smacks the table. “Here is your
precedent.” —liz galvao
Queens of Noise
Tom Tom Academy instructors, left to right: Kristin Mueller, Sean
Desiree, Mindy Abovitz, Ashley “Say Wut” Moyer, Chloe Saavedra,
Linnea LaMon, Kate Ryan, and Kiran Gandhi
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As a female drummer, New Yorker Mindy Abovitz felt
like her abilities were constantly being questioned and
she “wanted to do [her] best to challenge the notion
that girls can’t play.” That’s why she started the stellar
music mag Tom Tom to celebrate lady drummers in
2009. And now, the 35-year-old has gone a step further
by creating the Tom Tom Academy in Brooklyn, a network of drum schools run entirely by women.
“I’ve wanted to start a drum school for a long time,”
she says. “The right people with the right energy
came along and that is what finally brought the idea
to fruition.” What separates Tom Tom from all
other music programs is that female experts are the
norm there, not the exception. “That aspect allows
for a different perspective,” explains Abovitz. “It’s
still shocking for some people to recognize women
drummers as technically adept.” Tom Tom Academy
is definitely every riot grrrl’s dream, but its classes are
open to anyone who wants to rock. Find out more at
tomtomacademy.com. –madison nunes
photo: brad heck
tom tom academy helps women follow the beat of their own drummers
The
BUST’s
best bets
By Emily Rems
photos: courtesy of nbc universal (trainwreck); courtesy of netflix (wet hot american summer)
1
Trainwreck
This bawdy, brave,
and surprisingly poignant relationship
comedy written by and
starring Amy Schumer
is everything you’d
hope for from the
phenomenal standup.
Catch it when it opens
July 17 and feel that
Bridesmaids rush all
over again.
2
3
Fans of the 2001 comedy Wet
Hot American Summer are
freaking out over this eight-episode series spinoff. Directed by
David Wain and starring Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black,
Michael Showalter, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd,
Molly Shannon, and more, this
return to Camp Firewood will be
burning up everybody’s streaming devices starting July 17.
Completed in the mid1950s and lost for over 55
years, Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee is finally
going to be released July
14. Written before To Kill
a Mockingbird but set 20
years later, the novel features Lee’s beloved character Scout as an adult,
returning home to visit her
father Atticus.
Wet Hot American
Summer: First Day
of Camp on Netflix
Go Set a
Watchman
by Harper Lee
13
broadcast / News + Views
5
Chloë Sevigny
by Chloë Sevigny
Boasting 170 photos, a foreword by Kim
Gordon, and an afterword by Natasha Lyonne, this Rizzoli art book is an “illustrated
chronicle of Chloë Sevigny’s style throughout her career, from teenage skater girl, to
award-winning film and TV actress, to confident fashion designer.”
Ms. Pat Live
6
Not every standup can take tales
of a childhood riddled with alcoholism,
poverty, abuse, neglect, and crime and
turn them into comedy gold. But Ms.
Pat sure can. Visit her online at
mspatcomedy.com, where you can
watch videos, snag live dates, and find
out why she’s being buzzed about as a
star on the rise.
POV (Monday nights at 10 p.m. on PBS) is chock full of
female-directed documentaries this season. The June 22 film
Out in the Night by Blair Dorosh-Walther investigates the 2006
case against a group of African-American lesbians charged with
gang assault. On July 6, Tough Love by Stephanie Wang-Breal
follows parents who lose their kids to Child Protective Services.
And Tea Time, on July 27 by Maite Alberdi, profiles five Chilean women who’ve been gathering monthly for tea for 60 years.
7
Baby Geniuses
Podcast
Hosted by comedian/writer Emily Heller and writer/illustrator
Lisa Hanawalt, Baby Geniuses
(maximumfun.org/shows/babygeniuses) features hilarious
real-talk repartee between the
two gal pals and their mediasavvy guests, who drop by to
impart arcane knowledge on any
topic they choose. (DIY printmaking! Dealing with Yelp reviews! Beastie Boys facts!) You
never know what you’re going to
hear about next, and that’s part
of the fun.
9
Slutist.com
Helmed by brainy N.Y.C. smut
peddler Kristen Korvette, Slutist.com
delivers the perfect combo of sex, pop
culture, and feminism to its horny
readership. With smart op-eds, engaging “Slut of the Month” profiles, and
cool events where community members can meet up IRL, the site
is always seductive.
14
POV on PBS
8
Princess Nokia’s “Young Girls” Video
Nuyorican singer/rapper Princess Nokia creates a
bewitching secret world of female bonding in nature in her
video for “Young Girls” off the album Metallic Butterfly.
One time through on YouTube, and you’ll be itching to tie
on a sarong and go river wading with a dozen of your besties and their babies.
10
Magic Mike XXL
Coming July 1 to a
theater near you, this sequel to
Channing Tatum’s 2012 male
stripper odyssey should be worthy
of an epic gal’s night out. Chay
Tay is back, alongside tower of
power Joe Manganiello. And even
though Matthew McConaughey
will be sitting this one out, we
have high hopes the final product
will produce plenty of ladyboners.
Photos: Tony Valainis (Ms. pat); bay garnett (sevigny); eyewang pictures (POV); Mindy Tucker
(baby geniuses); Justina Villanueva (slutist.com); courtesy of warner bros. (magic mike xxl)
4
15
Make ‘Em Laugh
badass comedian chelsea white embraces her
tourette syndrome as a part of her act
“Oh, I just have something in my
eye” is a little white lie comedian and
MTV Girl Code producer Chelsea White
would tell people who questioned her
frequent blinking or sniffling. Every
day, White, 32, experiences some 50
different tics and sounds because of
Tourette Syndrome (TS), a neurological
condition that has caused her uncom-
Can You Answer Five Questions About Mahalia Jackson?
Gospel great and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
Mahalia Jackson always took it to church. Think
you know how she became the queen of the
choir? Then take the quiz!
Mahalia Jackson was born on October 26,
1911, in _______.
a. New Orleans, LA
b. Brooklyn, NY
c. Chicago, IL
d. London, UK
1
2
A dedicated activist, Mahalia was often
called upon to perform alongside what
civil rights icon?
a. Malcom X
b. Jesse Jackson
c. Martin Luther King, Jr. d. Angela Davis
3
At the height of her fame in the late
1960s, Mahalia lent her image and name
to a chain of restaurants called _______.
16
a. Mahalia’s Heavenly Kitchen
b. Ms. Jackson’s Home Cookin’
c. Mahalia’s Church Pot Luck
d. Mahalia Jackson’s Glori-Fried Chicken
4
Mahalia mentored this soon-to-be-legendary vocalist when she was just a teenager.
The singer later went on to perform at Mahalia’s
funeral in 1972.
a. Diana Ross
b. Aretha Franklin
c. Tina Turner
d. Mavis Staples
5
Complete the following Mahalia quote:
“It is easy to be _____ when you’ve got
money. But to be _______ when you haven’t got
a thing, that’s the Lord’s test.”
a. independent
b. a feminist
c. an artist
d. a woman
photo: anya garrett (white)
By Emily Rems
Answer Key: 1.a, 2.c, 3.d, 4.b, 5.a
pop
quiz
fortable social misunderstandings since
she was diagnosed at age four. As a child
in school, trying to suppress the disorder’s involuntary squealing, coughing,
clicking, sniffling, nodding, and shrugging was torture.
Now, however, instead of trying to
hide it, White has been using her TS to
educate others as a visiting speaker in
schools, employing her background in
comedy to entertain her young listeners. “Being the one telling the jokes
about TS feels empowering,” she says.
By sharing her personal stories, White
challenges listeners to embrace their
own “inner weirdo” and celebrate their
differences. The goal of her speeches
is to leave the audience feeling more
tolerant, not only of others, but also of
themselves. “I’m always searching for
ways to remove the stigma,” she says,
“and encourage understanding.”
When not visiting schools or working at MTV, White hosts her own web
series, Show Me Your Kitty (ShowMeYourKitty.com), in which she chats with
fellow cat-a-holics about their feline
friends. Being on screen for the weekly
episodes doesn’t intimidate White,
even though her tics have been caught
on camera. “TS is part of who I am,” she
explains. “When I was younger, seeing
my tics play out on tape would make
me feel embarrassed, but now it makes
me glad in a weird way, because it’s a
chance to start a conversation about
TS, which is my favorite thing to do.”
White can next be seen hosting the Take
In Comedy for Tourette Syndrome gala
on June 17 in N.Y.C. For more info, visit
TSA-NYC.org. –ashley weber
Bra-ometer:
Women’s News in Brief
By Kara Buller and Solange Castellar
“I’ve always had a
hard time getting
roles, being of color.
When I was 21, it was
as hard as it is now
when I’m 48. For me,
it’s the same.”
photos: Douglas Gorenstein/NBC (berry); Alex Tamargo/Telemundo (obama); Charles Sykes/Bravo (gyllenhaal)
Halle Berry in The Guardian
“Being insulted and threatened
online is part of my job.”
Lindy West discussing being a
feminist writer on NPR
“What I think is new is
the wealth of roles for
actual women in television
and in film. That’s what I
think is revolutionary, and
evolutionary,
and it’s what’s
turning
me on.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal
accepting her
Golden Globe

Good News
Three countries
(England, Israel, and
Germany) have enacted laws that criminalize nonconsensual
explicit-photo sharing,
aka “revenge porn.”

Bad News
90 percent of revenge
porn cases involve
males uploading nude
photos of females.
STATS
“This Congress still needs
to pass a law that makes
sure a woman is paid the
same as a man for doing
the same work. Really. It’s
2015. It’s time.”
President Barack Obama
during the State of the
Union Address
50
Percentage of girls in
Malawi who become child
brides before age 18. One
in eight are married by
age 15.
80
Percentage of the 114th
U.S. Congress that is male.
The Congress is also 80
percent white.
1.3 Million
“I definitely can feel the third or
fourth feminist wave in the air,
so maybe this is a good time to
open that Pandora’s box a little
bit and air it out.”
Björk on Pitchfork
Average Broad City
viewership per episode in
its first season.
18.5
Percentage of high school
students who take the
A.P. Computer Science
Exam who are girls.
17
boy du jour
VALLEY BOY
“OK,” says BUST photographer Ramona Rosales to actor/
comedian Kumail Nanjiani halfway through their shoot at
a bar near his home in L.A. “Now it’s time to bring the sexy.”
Raising his extremely expressive eyebrows, the 37-year-old
replies, “I thought I was bringing the sexy. That was my 11.”
Sexy might not be an adjective typically associated with Nanjiani, mainly because he is best known for playing the incredibly
smart but socially hapless developer Dinesh on HBO’s Silicon
Valley, which is wrapping up its second season. But there is
something quite appealing about the Pakistan-born funnyman.
Perhaps it’s that he calls some of comedy’s coolest women—
Jenny Slate, Kristen Schaal, Amy Schumer—friends; or that
he’s obviously smitten with his wife, writer and producer Emily V. Gordon, who works on his weekly-standup-show-turnedComedy-Central-series The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail.
Or maybe it’s the way he takes on gender stereotypes in his
standup—he’s a poster boy for non-macho-ness—or that his
illustrious guest spot career has put him opposite a number of
former BUST cover girls, including Gillian Jacobs on Community, Carrie Brownstein on Portlandia, and Abbi Jacobson and
18
Ilana Glazer. “That was a great day,” he says of the Broad City
shoot. “It was the first day that season that Amy Poehler was
on set, and she was pitching me jokes, like, ‘Hey, I don’t know
if you want to try this, but….’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s genius,
you’re Amy Poehler.’”
Taking direction from women is something Nanjiani
truly appreciates. “Most of the mentors in my life have been
women,” he says. “If I’m ever in a big movie where I’m the star,
I would really like it if it had, obviously a good director, but
also a female director.” Maybe that big movie could be one he
and Gordon write together about the high stakes beginning of
their relationship—she fell into a coma just months after they
started dating, due to a rare condition called Adult-Onset Still’s
disease. (She regained consciousness eight days later.) And he
had to break it to his parents—who were hoping to arrange his
marriage—that he had fallen in love with a white girl. In the
meantime, he’ll continue his feminist-friendly work, which is
just an extension of his life. “I just bought a book, 80 Cakes from
Around the World,” he says with a smile. “I’ve decided I’m going
to get into baking. I’m very, very excited.” –lisa butterworth
PHOTOGRAPHED BY ramona rosales
groomer: anna bernabe for exclusive artists mgmt using coverfx.
Location: BIGFOOT LODGE Los Feliz / 1933 GROUP
COMEDIAN KUMAIL NANJIANI KNOWS WHAT WOMeN WANT TO WATCH
19
pop tart: BY jean grae
Truly Outrageous
hip-hop visionary jean grae reflects on the bygone era of
girl groups, and what we have to gain from getting them back
You know who wasn’t truly outrageous? Jem, the ’80s cartoon rock star.
She wasn’t outrageous at all. Being
all about “synergy” in her band the
Holograms just made it seem like she
was at a board meeting. Wow. How
outrageous. You go, Jem. Stormer (of
Jem’s rival band, the Misfits) was pretty
kickass, though. She played the keytar
and wasn’t super cool about the Misfits
being dicks to the Holograms all the
time. What made her even cooler was
her relationship with Kimber from the
Holograms. They went off and recorded
an album together after feeling unappreciated by their respective bands. I
mean, yeah…they went back to them,
but only after they both found new levels of badassery for themselves.
These cartoons were a part of my
childhood that influenced me greatly. I
remember wanting to be in the Misfits,
rather than the Holograms. Their outfits
were cooler, their songs were better,
and quite frankly, that’s a way fucking
cooler name for a band. I didn’t want to
20
be Josie or the damn Pussycats, either.
I would have punched Melody in the
face on many occasions.
Still though, the idea of the girl
group was always so cool to me. The
girl groups of today, like—wait…
where the hell did the girl groups go?
A rock group? An R&B group? No?
Don’t bring up indie bands that you
know. No. I mean super popular, commercially successful, stadium-playing
groups. Groups like the Supremes, the
Runaways, the Go-Go’s, En Vogue, and
TLC. What the hell happened? Did an
asteroid hit the industry and kill them
off? We’re left in an era of the solo
female artist. The hyper-sexualized,
standalone, male-fantasy-fulfilling vision. We have divas, but we don’t have
a group of women together. Even on
reality shows that bring singers together, women are always shown attempting
to work as a group, but always failing.
Geez, I guess women just can’t work as
a team. That’s what it feels like they’re
telling us. It’s important for young girls
to know that it’s not true. It’s important
for them to see some of their pop stars
as team players. It’s important for them
to see women with different personalities, styles, and skills, collaborating
in a successful unit. I guess we’re not
doing that anymore, and it’s a damn
shame. Also, I really miss girl-group
choreography and variations of the
same outfits, because that’s just awesome anyway.
I’d love to see the girl group return.
It doesn’t have to be established powerhouses pretending to be friends for
the one song they will ever do—just
something fresh. New. So if any young
girls are reading this, know that girl
groups don’t have to be a thing of the
past. Also, if anyone wants to join my
group Gen-Pop, I’m looking for four
other members. I want to be the quirky
one. Oh…and in the outfit variation
department, I want to be the one who
has studs on everything and only wears
crop tops. Let me know if you’re down.
I got some sweet-ass choreo planned.
illustration BY john lisle
21
crafts + cooking + home + health
SMUGGLE YOUR BOOZE p. 28
. HOW TO CUT A PINEAPPLE p. 30 . AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 GIRLS: JERSEY CITY, N.J. p. 31
That’s Some
Freaky Shit
create a curiosity
cabinet to showcase
your kookiest collections
Curiosity cabinets
gained popularity during
the Renaissance, and are
considered the precursor to
museums. Originally, a
“cabinet of curiosity” referred to an entire room
filled with extraordinary
items. Eventually, though,
the term came to mean a
single “curio” cabinet used
to display a personal collection of objects—including
(but certainly not limited
to) preserved animals and
bugs, bones, teeth, claws,
feathers, horns, coral,
stones, shells, plants, medical objects, drawings, paintings, interesting relics, and
creepy doll heads.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY burcu avsar
23
real life / Crafts + Cooking + Home + Health
Craft stores
usually have a
great selection of
apothecary jars
and bottles
Left to right: Deer jaw, antique bird painting, gopher paw, rhinoceros bettles, and cow vertebrae
To create your own curiosity cabinet
at home, all you need to start is a
cabinet or shelf to display your collection. You may want to get a cabinet with glass doors to keep dust and
pets at bay. Then read on for some
ideas about how to present all your
weird wonders.
Start collecting
Oddities can be found anywhere, so
always keep an eye out. Junk shops,
antique stores, and yard sales can all
yield bizarro scores, and of course,
mother nature always delivers, especially when the seasons change.
Right after snow melts, look for
bones and abandoned nests. Spring
brings seedpods, abandoned eggs,
cicada shells, and plants of all kinds,
but curiosities abound year-round.
Walk along the edge of waterways
at low tide, and dig deep under leaf
piles, abandoned houses, and buildings. The rhinoceros beetles in my
cabinet came from my parents’ yard
in Virginia—a dead tree was infested
with beetles, and when fighting for
24
the love of a lady beetle, the males
of the species often get their horns
entwined and fall to their deaths. Be
careful not to disturb any living critters, nests, or hives while collecting.
Prep your findings
You can clean antiques, rocks, glass,
and metal objects, but never try to
wash delicate things like bug wings
and seedpods. When working with
bones, you may want to boil them to
remove any remaining meat, marrow, and dirt. (It’s OK to skip this
for a more natural look, but only if
there is no flesh left on the bone.) To
dehydrate items like chicken’s feet,
crawfish, and bugs, place them in a
safe, dry spot where scavengers won’t
get to them. To avoid stinking up your
space, you may want to place the item
in a box covered with a screen and
leave it outside in the sun, or near
an open window in a well-ventilated
area. Depending on the size and freshness of the item, drying can take one
night or a couple of days. If you want
to dry an insect in a certain position,
Top shelf: deer skull, moose tooth, and baby shark;
Bottom shelf: turkey feathers, sea urchin shell and
spines, and a chicken foot in a jar
see the instructions below, which I
used for the beetles in my cabinet.
To prepare an insect:
If the bug is not a fresh death, you
will need to “relax” it by steaming it,
so you can manipulate its body without causing damage. Don’t put the
bug directly in water—just expose
it to steam. I raised a drying rack
over my teapot, but you can also fill a
container with boiling water, stuff it
with several layers of paper towels,
and rest the bug on the top (be sure
that the water does not absorb up to
the insect). After 20 minutes, gently move the bug’s legs to check the
flexibility. The insect is ready when
the legs can be easily moved and the
body does not feel brittle. Now you
can carefully move the legs and antennae into the desired positions. If
you do break a limb off, use clear glue
to reattach it.
To spread the wings:
Hold the insect with two fingers on
one side of its body, and lift the op-
process photos: madison nunes; Special thanks to: Daisy Tainton and the Morbid Anatomy Museum
Cow femur and muskrat skull
posite wing up from the back. You will
hear a snap when the joint gives, but
don’t freak out; now you can lift the
wing up and out, very carefully. Repeat
on the other side.
Mounted rhinoceros beetles
in the dip where the head meets the thorax. Let dry, then add a drop of hot glue
to the other end of the wire and secure
it to a base.
Antique syringe and wasp’s nest
can just tie the specimen to the center
of the invisible thread and place each
end of the thread over opposites sides
of the jar lip, and then put the cork or
lid on to secure the thread. Once your
To pin:
While the bug is still steamed open,
put it on a piece of cardboard and place
straight pins around the body as close
as you can get without going through it.
Cross two pins over each other to hold
limbs in place. If you spread the wings,
place a strip of paper over each wing
before you pin it—this keeps the wings
from curling. Let dry completely before
removing the pins (the wings will take
longer to dry than the body). Try to
touch the insect as little as possible, so
you don’t rub off any little hairs.
To mount:
Measure the height at which you want
the bug to sit, and use wire snips to cut
1.4 mm-wide music wire or a metal
dowel to the desired length. Lay the bug
on its back and add a drop of hot glue to
one end of the wire, then center the wire
Beetles being prepped to mount
Show It Off
How you display your findings is
completely up to you. I strung three
cow vertebrae together with invisible
thread, weaving through the natural
holes in each one, and made a loop at
the top. On the inside of the lid of an
apothecary jar, I hot glued a clear hook
to the center and, once dry, slipped the
loop over so the bones dangled in the
jar. I also hung a moose tooth, chicken’s foot, and gopher paw in the same
fashion. For corked or mason jars, you
Cow vertebrae and a Chicken foot in jars
shelves are stocked, invite friends over
to ooh and ahh at your collection. No
matter what’s in it, your curiosity cabinet is sure to be a cool conversation
piece. -callie watts
25
if you can write, you can create your very own computer game
Remember playing The Oregon Trail? The name probably invokes nostalgia for those who
have fond memories of forging a river and choosing what provisions to bring. But for grown-up
gamers, text-based games similar to The Oregon Trail are still popular, and it’s easier than ever to
create your own. Text-based games use words instead of graphics, and allow the creator and the
player to work in tandem to shape varied plot lines into a personalized story, not unlike another
childhood nerd classic, the Choose Your Own Adventure books.
There are a number of (free) online tools you can use to create and share games, and none requires you to know any real programming. Twine (twinery.org) is a simple browser-based program with a minimal interface that lets you create blocks of text, then drag and connect them together on-screen. Twine offers a number of basic customizable templates, and also allows you to
import images to your story. You have the option to turn your completed game into an HTML file,
which can be saved in a Dropbox account, or on Philome.le or itch.io, two websites that allow you
to upload and share games.
Inklewriter (inklestudios.com/inklewriter) is another popular browser-based option. It
has a snazzier interface than Twine, and lets you play as you write your story. It also reminds you
if you’ve left any story paths unfinished. However, unlike Twine, which allows you to jump in and
out of a story at any point, Inklewriter requires you to write in a more linear fashion. You can share
your story on the site, or convert and upload it to Amazon Kindle.
Playfic (playfic.com) is a story-building tool that also includes a strong community. It lets you
create interactive, old-school-type games that allow for more open-ended, fill-in-the-blank options beyond “Choose A or B.” It’s more complicated than the others, but online tutorials make
learning a snap, and the greater flexibility for game play is worth the effort. Completed projects are
published right on Playfic.
Interested, but not sure where to start? There are hundreds of games you can check out for inspiration on the above websites. Another great place to see a mix of games is gamesforchange.
org, which aims to serve humanitarian and educational goals through gaming. The interactive storytelling community is totally female-friendly, too. In the wake of the Gamergate controversy and
countless dialogues about sexism in video game culture, the increasing popularity and democratization of text-based games allows women to tell their stories and have control over their narratives. So go ahead, ladies: get out there and play! –samantha albala
Tastee
Freeze
this book will
help you make
your icebox cake
and eat it, too
“It’s too hot to bake!” is no
excuse not to eat cake in the
summertime. Enter Jean Sagendorph and Jessie Sheehan’s
new cookbook, Icebox Cakes:
Recipes for the Coolest Cakes
in Town (Chronicle Books).
An icebox cake is made by
layering cookies or wafers with
whipped cream or pudding,
and becomes cake-y after chilling in the fridge overnight—no
oven necessary. This tasty
tome features recipes ranging
from fruity (like the Raspberry
Ganache, shown above), to
spicy (Black Pepper-Rum) to
deliciously decadent (Peanut
Butter Cup), and includes instructions on how to make your
own whipped cream. But be
warned: the book’s photos (by
Tara Donne) may cause instant
drooling. –veronica santos
26
illustration: michelle volansky; photo: tara donne
Girls Got Game
27
The Smuggle Is Real
get through summer concert season with
these sneaky solutions for illict items
It can cost a lot to drink all day at a music festival, not to mention the price of a possession charge should you get caught enjoying
other (less legal) vices. We all know about “nature’s pocket,” but if you don’t want to go clam digging for your goods, or you just can’t
fit that whole whiskey bottle in there, fear not—there are plenty of other ways to get your contraband past security. –callie watts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1. Bralapalooza
3. Don’t Tangle With the Law
5. High and Dry
This stealth styling tool can keep you out
of a hairy situation. Just fill the handle with
your party drug of choice and brush right
past security.
When you unscrew the top of this (nonfunctional) umbrella, you can store weed and a onehitter, a bunch of pre-rolled joints, or up to eight
ounces of booze.
2. Secret Agent Woman
Hair Brush Diversion Safe, $14.95,
Umbrella Flask, $13.99, smugglemug.com
Fill your purse with the essentials, like flasks
disguised as sunscreen, hand cream, and hand
sanitizer, and reusable tampon flasks with
wrappers. Or give yourself an instant booze job
by tucking a couple of “boobie bags” into your
bra, filled with anything but saline.
brickhousesecurity.com
This bra has pockets in the cups and straps for
your backup stash and extra cash.
The “Desire” Bra, $29.99, hersecretbra.com
4. Your Look Is Smokin’
The Ultimate BYOB Gift Package, $36,
This sweatshirt has a vaporizer in the hood, so
you can toke in both comfort and style. Just
juice up the USB-charged battery and fill the
vape tank with cannabis oil or wax.
smuggleyourbooze.com
Women’s Grey Colorado Kiss Hoodie,
6. Unzip and Sip
Fill this pouch with 32 ounces of hooch and
strap it around your torso, under your clothes.
Once you get to a bathroom, just pull the tap out
of your fly and let it flow into a glass.
Freedom Flask, $19.99, freedomflask.com
$125 - $155, vaprwear.com
28
photographed by kate lacey
nickel and dined: By isa chandra moskowitz
Peanut Butter Flax Seed Bars
go nuts with an energy bar that actually tastes good
Oh, the sadness of biting into
a mass-produced protein bar in
the middle of the woods! You’ll
never have to struggle with that
cognitive dissonance again with
these super simple bars. They’re
chewy and toasty and not too
sweet. Plus, they can take a
beating in your backpack. You
can really customize these to suit
your tastes, using a different nut
butter or adding up to a cup of
your favorite dried fruit or nuts.
ingredients
½ cup smooth peanut butter
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup brown rice syrup
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups whole rolled oats (not
quick-cooking or instant)
3 Tbsp. golden flax seeds, lightly
chopped
½ cup chopped peanuts
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
Wet your hands to firmly
press the oats into the pan. (If
your hands aren’t wet, things
will get kinda sticky!) Bake for
18 minutes, until the sides are
lightly browned.
Remove from oven and let
cool for about 10 minutes.
Remove the oats from the pan
by lifting up the corners of the
parchment paper. Transfer to a
cooling rack to cool completely
(with the parchment underneath). Slice the block into
eight bars, pressing down firmly
in one motion to slice.
Store bars in a tightly sealed
container at room temperature—
or nature temperature, if you’re
taking them on the trail. Each
bar has 10 grams of protein, to
get you through the last leg of
that intermediate hike.
directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line an 8" x 8" baking pan with a
10" square of parchment paper.
In a small saucepan, mix together the peanut butter, maple
syrup, and brown rice syrup.
Gently heat the mixture over low
heat, whisking with a fork, just
until it’s warm enough for the
ingredients to incorporate and
become smooth.
Remove from heat. Let the
mixture cool a bit so that it’s still
warm, but not hot. Mix in the
vanilla, then add the oats, flax,
peanuts, salt, and cinnamon, and
mix very well.
photographed by vera and federico ruiz
29
Juicy Cut-oure
hack your way to a perfect pineapple presentation
Do you love pineapples? So do I. Do you know the
best way to cut one up? Neither did I. But after
some practice, I’m proud to say that I’ve mastered a method that looks sweet and saves more
of the good stuff.
What You Need:
A whole ripe pineapple
Chef’s knife
Paring knife (optional)
Cutting board

Trim The Roughage
Using a sturdy cutting board and sharp knife,
slice off the base of the pineapple. Keep the leafy
top to use as a handle while cutting. Stand the
pineapple upright and trim down the outer skin.
With a firm grip, make thin slices around, ’til
the outer skin is gone and the “eyes” are exposed
(those are the brown spotted indents).

Connect The Dots
Now that your pineapple is bare with a leafy head
of hair, you’ll notice the eyes form diagonal rows
30
at an angle along the surface. You’ll want to connect these dots as you cut.

Remove the Eyes
Using your chef’s knife or a smaller paring
knife (whichever is easier for you to handle),
make 45-degree-angled cuts along either side
of a row of eyes. I cut three eyes at a time.
Discard the cuttings as you go. Continue these
cuts all the way around from the base to the
top. Keep with the diagonal direction ‘til all
eyes are gone.

’Gram It
Isn’t it pretty? After all that work, why not take
a photo and share it with us? We’d love to see it,
and pictures of fruit are oddly trendy right now.
#bustmagazine #pineapplemaster

Slice It Into Pieces
Starting from the base, slice one-inch rounds
and discard the leafy top. Cut the pieces smaller
if desired.
These make great snacks: throw ‘em on a grill,
add ‘em to your salad, or garnish your drinks.
–lauren clemente
photographed by vanessa rees
Newark Avenue
eats
Exchange Place Boardwalk overlooking Manhattan
Jersey City is one of the most diverse cities in the United States, which makes it
a gourmand’s dream come true. Sapthagiri Taste of India (804 Newark Ave.)
is just one of the many delicious Indian
restaurants on Newark between Kennedy Blvd and Tonnelle Ave. Philippine
Bread House (530 Newark Ave.), Sushi
Tango (516 Jersey Ave.), and Kraverie
(24 Mercer St.) offer other Asian cuisines.
Pick up something for BYOB French restaurant Madame Claude Café (364 1/2
4th St.) at its convenient sister establishment, Madame Claude Wine (234 Pavonia Ave.). Taqueria Downtown (236
Grove St.) serves up satisfying Mexican
food on the go. And for dessert, try lychee
or papaya ice cream from Torico Ice
Cream (20 Erie St.).
Lowe’s Theatre at Journal Square
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 GIRLS: #74 By elise nussbaum
Philippine Bread House
Jersey City, N.J.
this unexpected destination is a cosmopolitan
community in every sense of the word
Jersey City’s official nickname is “The Golden Door,” but a more fitting one
might be “the best of both worlds.” The second-largest city in New Jersey (watch your
back, Newark!) is just eight minutes on the PATH train from Manhattan, but manages
to feel totally unique from that big city across the river. From Downtown’s boutiques
and brownstones to Bergen-Lafayette’s historic architecture and the bustling Little
India near Journal Square, around each corner waits a distinct neighborhood with a
small-town feel—and plenty of surprises.
photographed by nathalie zaro
Indian Holi Festival
31
drinks
From dive bars to artisanal tea, JC is
chock-a-block with places to sip, swig,
and swallow. LITM (140 Newark Ave.)
has art both on the walls and in its rotating list of seasonal signature cocktails.
Quaff craft beers from across the country at Pint (34 Wayne St.). Lucky 7 (322
2nd St.) serves up cheap drinks and punk
rock atmosphere. Prefer your beverages
sans alcohol but avec caffeine? Check out
Mod Cup Coffee (479 Palisade Ave.), a
swinging London-inspired coffee shop,
or Do You Tea? (942 Summit), a charming tea house that shares space with
WHOS Gluten Free bakery.
Another Man’s Treasure
shopping
942 Summit is also home to Bloomsbury
Sq., a spot for all-natural bath and body
products. Another Man’s Treasure
(272 Grove St.) is the local vintage mecca,
but newer arrivals E Tittlemouse & Co
(246 Bay St) and Very Clothes & Goods
(9 Erie St.) are also worth scouring. Iris
Records (114 Brunswick St.) boasts a
comprehensive selection of secondhand
vinyl at all price points. Pick up a copy
of Helene Stapinski’s Five-Finger Discount, an engrossing, personal history of
Jersey City, at the independent WORD
Bookstore (123 Newark Ave.), though
you might be able to find a used copy for
50 cents at the Grace Church book sale
(39 Erie St., Sunday afternoons) or even
less at Jersey City Free Books (297
Griffith St.). Express your home’s offbeat
style with a shadowboxed tarantula from
Kanibal Home (213 Montgomery St.).
There are too many farmers’ markets and
craft fairs to list here, but there’s sure to
be something in the air (weather permitting) on any given day.
32
Mural next to Hudson County Art Supply Store
LITM
history
Originally settled by the Lenape tribe,
Jersey City saw its first European arrivals
in the 1600s, and there are still a handful
of houses from the Colonial era. Volunteer-operated Harsimus Cemetery (435
Newark Ave.) is a great place to explore
this history—the site played a role in the
American Revolution, the Underground
Railroad, and The Sopranos—while you
pet the goats that come to chomp on
invasive weeds. Catch the ferry from
Liberty State Park to take in the view
from the crown of the Statue of Liberty
and clamber about on a Hard Hat Tour
at Ellis Island; both are located in JC, no
matter what envious New Yorkers might
claim. While you’re in the park, check
out the old Central Railroad Terminal
(Audrey Zapp Dr.) and Liberty Science
Center (222 Jersey City Blvd.).
entertainment
Cinema buffs can step into an opulent
bygone era at the stunning, volunteerrestored 1920s movie palace Loew’s
Jersey Theatre (54 Journal Square
Plaza), while gamers can try their hands
at Ms. Pac-Man or one of the other retro
video games at Barcade (163 Newark
Ave.). Local rock, reggae, rockabilly,
blues, Latin, and country bands regularly jam at Groove on Grove (Grove
St. PATH Plaza), Lincoln Inn (13
Lincoln St.), and Palisade Lumber
(432 Palisade Ave.), a lumber yard that
hosts a summer concert series. JC also
hosts numerous ethnic heritage festivals throughout the year that celebrate
its diverse population, from The NJ
Greek Fest to the Holi Indian Festival of Colors.
Art House Productions
arts
The easiest way to take in art in JC is
to just look around. Local artists have
covered walls around the city in murals
that depict friendly robot families, sea
witches upon piles of skulls, giant koi,
and more. You can also check out the
gallery scene, which includes just about
every restaurant and bar mentioned
here. MANA Contemporary (888
Newark Ave.) is a behemoth complex
housed in a former tobacco factory. Another local force, Art House Productions (136 Magnolia Ave.), organizes
JC Fridays, which take place on the
first Friday of March, June, September,
and November, and include special
events, pop-up art shows, and concerts
all over town. One of our biggest yearly
events is October’s JC Art & Studio
Tour, in which dozens of businesses,
studios, and private residences open
their doors to become galleries for a
weekend. On a smaller scale, JC Made
(295 Grove St.) sells souvenirs and
works by local artists.
Liberty Science Center
fashion + beauty
SARONGS p. 37
. GET THAT COOKIE LOOK p. 38 . BOOTY CALL: DEEP CUTS p. 41
fashion nation
Katie Oldaker
copywriter and stylist
pittsburgh, PA
hair and makeup: maria imberlina
Tell me about your outfit.
I hopped on the chambray bandwagon kind of late,
but I really love it done up with a super-feminine
twist, like with lace or tulle. The skirt is from eShakti, and it has pockets, so I’m obsessed. I always
tell people that I’m not cool enough to wear Doc
Martens, but I couldn’t resist the floral ones.
When did you first become interested in fashion?
I was a late fashion bloomer—it wasn’t until my
last years of college that I really started examining what style meant to me, especially as a fat
woman. In my senior year, I attended an event
held at Re/Dress, a plus-size store in N.Y.C., and
was surrounded by bold, beautiful fats who didn’t
apologize for their bodies with their clothing. This
inspired me to become more bold and beautiful in
my own choices.
How has your style evolved?
I’ve come around to the idea of a more deliberate
assortment of clothes—I know there are really only
so many cuts and styles of dresses that I’ll actually
wear, so I might as well not buy others!
Where do you get your style inspiration?
I’ve been feeling this ladies-ruling-the-universe
aesthetic that seems to be everywhere lately, especially on television dramas—think Olivia Pope,
Claire Underwood, and Joan Holloway. Otherwise,
I’ve been trying to channel what I call “ethereal
angel princess,” which is why I own so much tulle.
What’s your favorite fashion rule to break?
Anything that involves something being “flattering.” I wear a decent amount of stuff that makes
me look larger or more voluminous, and crop tops,
which tend to be discouraged on fat bodies. Forcing myself to confront those “rules” has given me
even more confidence in my own skin.
What advice do you have for girls just discovering their personal style?
Enjoy yourself and forget all the rules. Go cheap
when trying out new things. Don’t feel like you
have to have a signature style yet—you’ve got your
whole life ahead of you to figure out what you like
and how you want to look. —HANNAH BAXTER
photographed by Melanie Friend
33
Looks / Fashion + Beauty
4
3
Copycat
2
Think Katie’s style is out
of this world? Look up
these heavenly picks
1
6
5
1.T.U.K. Peacock Feather Flats, $52, tukshoes.com
2.ASOS CURVE Fit & Flare Skirt, $40.50, asos.com
3.Re/Dress Posh Peacock Necklace, $14, redressnyc.com
4. Kate Spade Cedar Street Rose Maise, $278, katespade.com
5. eShakti Dahlia Crinoline, $89.95, eshakti.com
6.Dr. Martens Women’s 1460 Boot, $135, drmartens.com
Spanx But No Spanx
Here’s a crazy stat for you: The 44-year-old founder of Spanx,
Sara Blakely, is the youngest self-made lady billionaire in history. The business of whittling down women’s waists has been a
big deal for a long time, so maybe it’s not too surprising that the
person who started the modern restrictive undergarment craze is
swimming in moola. But what are Spanx and other body shapers
really costing you? New reports tell scary tales of compressed
organs, squashed bowels, and numbness and tingling in the
legs, all caused by squeezing your tuchus into too-tight spandex. Dr. Leah Rothman, a physician at One Medical Group in San
Francisco, says, “Wearing super–tight clothing or anything that
restricts your abdomen for long periods of time might make you
prone to abdominal discomfort, bloating, and gas.” The airtight
atmosphere also creates an ideal breeding ground for some pretty
gnarly stuff. “Tight garments like Spanx can also trap moisture
and anything else under it, which may predispose you to both
yeast and bacterial infections,” Dr. Rothman adds. To ease the
stress on your body, she suggests not wearing such garments for
long periods of time. Alternatively, you might consider skipping
the shapewear altogether and proudly putting a little jiggle in
your wiggle. –laura hooper beck
34
photo: melanie friend; illustration: katie coppland
tonight’s shapewear could be tomorrow’s nightmare
Face Values
shop outside the big-box with indie makeup brands
Lady-run cosmetics companies are popping up left and right, offering handmade,
cruelty-free makeup with price tags, formulas and hues you’d be hard-pressed to
find on the shelves of Sephora. Here are a few of our favorite indie cosmetics companies whose goods give the big brands a run for their money. –gray chapman
Hello Waffle
(hellowafflecosmetics.com)
This Canadian brand (named after a cat,
natch) serves up quality cosmetics in adorable packaging with geek references aplenty,
including one eyeshadow collection called
Catssic Literature (with product names like
Call Me Ishmeow) and another that pays
homage to historical composers.
The Organic Face
(theorganicface.net)
Makeup that’s actually good for your skin is
something that many brands have promised,
but few can deliver. This mineral makeup is the
real deal, and their foundations look gorgeous
on even the most sensitive skin.
Elixery
(elixery.com)
We love this Minneapolis-based company’s
top-notch ingredients; creamy, smooth
formulas; and gorgeous colors like Love Potion, an iridescent magenta shade, and AllStar, a quirky aqua blue from a line inspired
by local roller derby girls.
Fyrinnae
(fyrinnae.com)
From daring, jet-black matte lip
stains to shimmering eyeshadows
that completely transform under
different lighting, this Pacific Northwest-based company specializes in
makeup that has an air of otherworldly beauty—fit for a fairytale princess
or a wicked villain.
Shiro
(shirocosmetics.com)
Caitlin Johnstone’s products are
pretty and witty. Take her Cages
through the Ages collection, a glorious tribute to Nicolas Cage in the
form of lipglosses with names like
Nic Cage Churning Butter One
Crisp Thanksgiving Morn (a sheer
nude described as “Nicolas Beige”).
35
Good stuff By Stephanie J.
Hot Tropic
DRAW INSPIRATION FROM
SUN-DRENCHED SPOTS
THIS SUMMER
Get your groove on with glitzy jewels.
CHA CHA DROPS, $32, BAUBLEBAR.COM
Handcrafted specs to shade your
peepers from the sun.
MAPLE WOOD SUNGLASSES IN SKINNY
TEAL, $70, TMBRS.COM
Original art from German
painter Peggy Wolf.
GROWING LEAF PRINT, FROM $13.42,
PEGGYWOLFDESIGN.ETSY.COM
Wear your art on your sleeves
with palm prints from Aussie
brand Gorman.
GREENHOUSE SHIRT, $189 AUD,
GORMANSHOP.COM.AU
Bring the outdoors in with
fabulous fronds.
PHILODENDRON LEAF PILLOW, $48,
SHOPLEIF.COM; TROPICAL MARTINIQUE
PALM BANANA PILLOW, FROM $18,
PILLOMATIC.ETSY.COM
Have a good hair day, even in
the heat, with a spotty scarf.
GREEN AND WHITE POLKA
DOT HEADSCARF, $12.99,
SASSYSTITCHESBYLORI.ETSY.COM
Exotic fruits and organic ingredients
to keep your body beautiful.
BRAZILIAN MANGO GRAPEFRUIT SOLID
PERFUME, $9, PACIFICABEAUTY.
COM; LEMON BODY LOTION, $9,
ORGANICFACTORY.ETSY.COM
Cool beach protection for your phone,
right in the palm of your hand.
PALM TREES AND DOTS IPHONE CASE, FROM
$19.94, THEFRIDAYSCHILD.ETSY.COM
36
Shake your tail feather with a
statement bib necklace.
GEOMETRIC STATEMENT NECKLACE,
$126, BOOANDBOOFACTORY.COM
It’s a Wrap
the versatility of the sarong makes it so right
Stylist: Ali Kornhauser; Hair and Makeup: Jennifer Fleming; Model: Iliana Ruiz @ Elite Models
Sarongs are the perfect summer cover-up piece; not only can you tie one a ton of different ways, but you can
also toss it on the ground when it’s time to lie out in the sun. Here are some of our favorite simple sarong styles,
which you can try yourself with any piece of fabric that’s big enough to wrap around you. –callie watts
Sidekick
Hold the fabric vertically, wrapping
it against your side so it is under one
arm, and tie the top corners together
over the opposite shoulder. Gather
the open side edges at your waistline,
and tie them together there. You
can scrunch the fabric up over your
hips as needed to get more fabric for
the knots. The Takara Scarf, $29,
shatzilife.com
photographed by CONTE+POTIER
So Waisted
Hold the fabric vertically around your
bust and tie the top corners behind
your back. Pull the bottom of the fabric panel back between your legs and
up to your waistline. Pull the bottom
two corners around to the front and
tie in the center. Himalaya Scarf, $54,
lovetinydevotions.com
The Mullet
Hold the fabric behind you horizontally, so it’s flat across your
back. Tie the top two corners in
front of you at the bust, so the sarong opens in the front and hangs
like a dress in the back. Delicious
Watermelon Sarong, $69.96 AUD,
lyloh.com.au
37
Get that Look:
Cookie Lyon from Empire
cookie never crumbles in her flawless wardrobe
If you’re a fan of Empire, FOX’s musical drama about a family of hip-hop royalty, then
you’re probably obsessed with Cookie Lyon (played by Taraji P. Henson)—and her killer
look. Bite Cookie’s style with bold prints, curve-hugging dresses, massive gold accessories,
big-brimmed hats, and a boss bitch attitude. –callie watts
Faux-Leather FiligreePlate Necklace, $88,
bcbg.com
Felt Floppy Hat,
$52, topshop.com
Animal Bodycon Dress,
$175, missselfridge.com
Belle Noel Hexagon Bangle
(Gold/Leopard), $62,
80spurple.com
Brown and Black Leopard Cap Sleeve Scuba
Pencil Dress, $40,
unique-vintage.com
Dylan Clutch, $195,
houseofharlow1960.com
Dance Partner Black and
White Snakeskin D’Orsay
Heels, $39, lulus.com
38
. APR/MAy
june/july
2015
2015. .BUST
BUST
Fashion, Family Style
Janis Joplin’s niece celebrates her iconic
aunt with a groovy new line
Fans of music and fashion
alike admire the legendary
Janis Joplin’s singular style
as much as her incredible
voice. Now, the leather jackets,
patterned bell-bottoms, and
sumptuous velvet favored by
the 1960s icon are making
a comeback with help from
Made for Pearl, a Los Angelesbased clothing line created by
Joplin’s niece, Malyn Joplin.
Malyn launched the collection
in 2013 to pay tribute to the
aunt she never met by capturing the confident attitude
Janis rocked on and off the
stage. The brand’s name is an
homage to the persona Janis
took on when she performed,
and Malyn uses photographs,
personal letters, and family
stories to inspire her designs
and honor her aunt’s bold spirit. You can check out paisley
pants, suede fringe handbags,
and other boho-meets-badass
offerings from Made for Pearl’s
Spring/Summer 2015 line at
madeforpearl.com.
—jamie bogert
All That Clitoris Gold
wear your heart on your sleeve
and your clit on your finger
We’re declaring 2015 “The Year of the Clit,” and New York
jewelry designer Penelopijones (penelopijones.com) has
crafted a stylish new way to show your love for your favorite
little bundle of nerve endings. The “clitoring” is a stylized
anatomical representation of the clitoris that you can wear on
your finger. Penelopijones calls the rings “a fun and elegant
conversation piece,” and offers them in gold and silver (adjustable from sizes 5.5 to 9.5, so “getting off” is easier than
ever), along with a similar set of clit-inspired pendants. Go
ahead, flash that clit around! –princess weekes
40
booty call by callie watts
Deep Cuts
sideboob gets a place in the sun with
these cute tank and bra combos
This summer is all about pits and tits, thanks to tanks
with super-low-cut necks and armholes. And with these
sweet sets, you can wave your hands in the air like you
just don’t care that they can see your underwear.
Bite Me
In reality, this bra is a bikini, so it’s meant to
be seen; paired with this tie-dyed top, it’s the
perfect look for the summer of your discontent.
Fringe With Benefits
Go wild in a wolf tank and a leopard-print
bra that’s perfect for full-figured femmes.
Peace Out Crop Top—Spiritual Creatures,
$11.75, toofastonline.com; Sculptresse by
Panache Chi Chi Full Cup Underwire Bra,
$62, herroom.com
Reality Bites Destroyed Deep Cut Tank, $52,
petalsandpeacocks.com; Lattice Strap Cutout
Bikini Set, $32.50, stylemoi.nu
Everybody Work This On The Weekend
It’s time to let it all hang out, and this strappy
bra is sweeter than maple syrup.
Weekends Are For Waffles Tank, $28, pyknic.com; Elastic
Straps Demi Bra, $25.88, blackheartlingerie.com
Dat Booty Tho
Serve serious cattitude by flashing six
stank eyes and a faux leather bralette
that says “meow” across the side.
Take the Bra By the Horns
Available in cup sizes up to H, this bra is a
bosom buddy for big-busted ladies, while
the top is the perfect mix of girlie and goth.
Kitty Butts Tank Top, $22,
burgerandfriends.etsy.com; Nine Lives
Bralette, $31, privateartsla.com
Rose and Steer Skull Sleep Tank, $14.63,
blackheartlingerie.com; Sculptresse
by Panache Flirtini Balconette Bra,
$62, herroom.com
They See Me Trollin’, They Hatin’
Wear your heart on your nips under a ’90s-nostalgia tank.
UNIF Trollin With the Homies Top, $70, untitledandco.com;
Heartbreaker Cage Bralette, $42, bedroom-behavior.com
photographed by kate lacey
41
she’s
all that
Orange is the New Black ’s Laverne Cox is an accomplished
actress, outspoken trans-rights activist, and boundarybusting sex symbol whose unique pop-culture platform is
helping her change the world
By Sara Benincasa × Photographed by Danielle Levitt
Styling by Jessica Bobince × Hair by Ursula Stephen @ Starworks Group
Makeup by Deja for DD-Pro using MAC Cosmetics
42
43
SHIRT: MINKPINK/MODCLOTH; SKIRT: MILLY
44
top left: jacket and pants: joseph; shirt: valentino red. top right: sweater: d.ra; necklace: thea grant. bottom left: shirt: Orla
Keily; Skirt: Nina Ricci; Bracelet: Dinny Hall; bottom right: sweater: marc by marc Jacobs; pants: joseph
BRA AND SKIRT: MILLY; SHOES: PLEASER
I
’ve interviewed a few celebrities in my
day, but Laverne Cox is the first to mention “cisnormative, hetero-normative, imperialist, white
supremacist, capitalist patriarchy” within the first
ten minutes. Or, you know, at all. By the time we’re
done chatting in N.Y.C., I’m convinced that this actress, advocate, artist, thinker, producer, college speaker, “bell hooksa-phile,” karaoke-slayer (more about that later) and trained
dancer ought to add “intellectual badass” to her business
card. Because while I entered our meeting as a starstruck
fangirl, I left feeling like I’d been taken to church, school, and
possibly intersectional feminist heaven. Quite plainly, the
woman is a fucking whirlwind of smarts, beauty, and guts.
“Three or four years ago I could barely pay my rent,” the
Emmy-nominated star of Netflix’s hit show Orange is the
New Black tells me over lavender mint tea. “So it’s nice to be
in demand.” We’re sitting in a well-appointed, quiet two-story restaurant with bookshelves from floor to ceiling. When
the Alabama-raised actress takes off her sunglasses and
hood—a standard-issue celebrity disguise that looks incredibly chic on her—she seems a little sleepy. She’s just finished
a speaking tour of Ontario; shot a CBS pilot; and is gearing up
to do press for the third season of OITNB. “In demand” seems
like the understatement of the year.
Cox warms up quickly as we delve into the topics that
seem closest to her heart: art and advocacy. The transgender actress, an alum of the Alabama School of Fine Arts and
Marymount Manhattan College, plays inmate Sophia Burset
on OITNB. She received a historic Emmy nomination for
her performance, but her career doesn’t stop there. I tell her
I’ve never seen a speaking schedule as rigorous as hers is—in
one recent month, she crisscrossed the states speaking at six
different universities from Connecticut to California—and
wonder how she balances her passion for acting with her
obvious dedication to trans advocacy. “I’m an actress first
and always an actress first,” she says. “I have to prioritize
that work. At the end of the day, most of what I do in terms
of advocacy is talking. I talk a lot. I’ve also been involved in
elevating some trans people’s stories that maybe didn’t have
the same platform that I’ve had, and I’m proud of that.”
To that end, Cox is a major creative force behind Free
CeCe, a documentary about transgender woman CeCe McDonald, who served time in a men’s prison in Minnesota. The
film, expected to debut in 2016, focuses on trans-misogyny
and violence against transgender women of color.
“I love CeCe,” Cox says. “Her case came to me because
violence against trans women has always been something
that hits me in my gut.” Cox is not unfamiliar with physical
and emotional violence. “I think ‘bullying’ is almost a nice
word for being beat up, held down, and kicked by groups of
kids. ‘Bullying’ makes it all sound nice when it’s straight up
violence. So I have a history. I’ve dealt with a lot of street
harassment, so violence against trans women is something
that’s terrifying.” And then Cox asks the question central to
her work as both an advocate and an artist: “How do we really begin to dismantle a culture of violence, of rape culture?
What does that look like?”
This is the point where Cox mentions what feminist
author bell hooks calls “imperialist, white supremacist,
capitalist patriarchy” and says she amends it to include
“cis-normative and hetero-normative.” It isn’t the only time
she mentions hooks, a longtime influence, and I bring up a
conversation the two had onstage at The New School in the
fall of 2014. The women agreed on much, but hooks called
into question Cox’s presentation of femininity—how her
long blond wigs, dresses, and traditional feminine beauty
embody what some feminist women have attempted to reject
or avoid. Onstage, Cox responded in part, “If I’m embracing
a patriarchal gaze with this presentation, it’s the way that
I’ve found something that feels empowering…I’ve never been
interested in being invisible and erased.”
Cox, who remains in touch with hooks, tells me “everybody” asks her about that exchange. I ask her if it’s insulting
to suggest that her high-femme presentation is, in fact, a
capitulation to the patriarchy rather than an empowered
choice, and she responds carefully. “What bell hooks would
say to that is that we make choices—and this is me being a
huge fan of bell hooks—but there’s something almost binary
that suggests either you are moving against cis-normative,
hetero-normative, imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist
patriarchy, or you are complicit with it. That kind of binary
is really, deeply problematic. I think it’s more complicated.
I’ve gone through all sorts of aesthetic phases. I had a shaved
head in college. I wore makeup and I was gender-nonconformist. I also had box braids and a mohawk in college and a
little bit after. So I’ve gone through all these different phases
aesthetically. I love where I’m at now. I feel like I’ve evolved
into being more myself.” But, she adds, “I think at the end of
the day, I am very much working within the system.”
She contrasts her own experience with that of her twin
brother, the noted musician, composer, singer, and multimedia artist M. Lamar, who played a pre-transition Sophia
on OITNB (and who first introduced Cox to the work of bell
hooks). While he’s received critical acclaim in such esteemed
outlets as The New York Times, particularly for his 2014 multimedia gallery piece Negrogothic, a Manifesto, the Aesthetics
45
of M. Lamar, Cox says outsider work like Lamar’s, “rarely
transfers to financial stability.” She muses about this difference between their work and where it has taken them. “Even
though there’s something about me that isn’t fully mainstream, there’s something about the choices I’ve made that
exists within a system more so than other people.” I get the
sense she doesn’t think this is particularly fair. I also begin to
realize that while Cox is giving me a lot of answers, she also
spends a lot of time asking questions—of herself, of the culture in which she finds herself, and of the world at large.
We talk about the task of being the Laverne Cox: the advocate, the actress, the star of creator Jenji Kohan’s women-inprison magnum opus. I ask what it’s like to have every element of her being analyzed because of what she represents.
Everything from her hair to her career to…. “To my basic
humanity and gender?” she interjects.
“Yeah,” I say. “Your right to exist. Your lipstick. Everything.”
“That’s how patriarchy works,” she says. “We are all constantly scrutinized based on aesthetics and appearance and
judged on that stuff. I think that’s part of being a woman. It’s
a part of being an actress on a popular TV show—thank God.
I’m grateful for that. It’s a lot of spiritual work for me as I deal
with and figure out how to be a famous person who’s recognized. A lot of my work is to stay grounded, is to stay spiritual. It is to disconnect from what other people say about
me, but also to try and be connected to the joy and the love. I
think this is where I’m struggling now.”
This reminds me of something Cox posted on Instagram
recently. It was an image from her recent trip to Canada,
with a caption that read in part, “I am not always open to receive all this love. Sometimes it’s too much. I feel so grateful
to be open today.” I ask her about it—the simultaneous openness and resistance to adulation from strangers. “This week,
I allowed myself to be open and really present with it, which
I’m not always able to do because I’m distracted,” she says.
“Because I think when you let in the good stuff, then the bad
stuff is going to come in, too.”
She grins and adds, “I feel like Mariah Carey when she talks
about how her fans make her feel better. It’s almost corny to
say that, but it’s the truth. Yet in an airport or on the street, I’m
not always able to receive that. As much as I love and am grateful for my fans and supporters, I have to set boundaries with
them. I have to set boundaries with everybody.”
Actually, she may well be an idol of Mariah-like stature to
the rabidly devoted fan base of OITNB. Cox calls the show “a
gift” and says with evident amazement, “It’s like, who gets
famous just from one show?” “The characters are so nuanced
and so profoundly human,” she says, “which is a gift from
Jenji Kohan and all of our writers. She discovered so much
unknown talent—like Uzo Aduba, Samira Wiley, Danielle
Brooks, Yael Stone. There’s just all of these amazing actors
who no one knew about until this show, who are brilliant.”
I ask Cox if her character, Sophia, who has undergone
46
genital reconstructive surgery and hormone therapy, would
actually be placed in a women’s prison in real life. Cox explains that in many states, the decision of where to house a
trans person in the correctional system is based exclusively
on surgical status. Which brings us to our culture’s obsession with genitalia, specifically with knowing whether a
trans person has had “bottom surgery.” She admits she hasn’t
always been immune to that curiosity herself, and recalls a
time when she wondered about the surgical status of a friend
of a friend. True to form, she used it as an opportunity to
critically analyze her own way of thinking. “When we meet
someone who is cis-gender or non-transgendered,” she says,
“we generally make assumptions about what their bodies
“I had this fantasy that
once I was famous and
accepted by society, this
guy would be like, ‘Oh, I’m
dating Laverne.’”
are like. But when we meet someone who is trans we can’t do
that. So for me in that moment, I got this crazy anxiety and
asked the question, ‘What does it mean for us to be able to sit
with anxiety?’ A lot of times, we don’t know how to do that.”
In previous interviews, Cox has mentioned that some
romantic partners have not introduced her to their families.
I wonder if it’s gotten any easier now that she’s achieved professional success. “There’s a man that I was involved with
on and off for eight years,” she says. “I never met any of his
friends or family. We barely even went out in public together,
so that tells you the nature of the relationship. What’s deep to
me about that is that I think I had this fantasy that once I was
famous and accepted by society, this guy would be like, ‘Oh,
I’m dating Laverne. I can show her off now.’ And it’s actually
the opposite of that. He’s engaged to someone else now.”
I’m struck by how heartbreaking that must have been,
and also by how clear it is that Cox has done the work to
deal with and understand it. “What I realized is it’s not
about me,” she says. “It’s actually about that man’s shame
around being attracted to me. And his own issues of being
seen as less of a man. He has deep, deep, deep insecurities.
There are many men who date transgender women and
who engage with us only sexually and don’t want anyone
to know about it. They’re straight identified, and there’s a
huge stigma around men who are attracted to and have sex
47
TOP AND SKIRT: BECKLEY; shoes: zara; Felt pigeons by Tina Pina Trachtenburg a.k.a. Motherpigeon
DRESS: DEADLY DAMES/PIN UP GIRL CLOTHING
48
SWEATER: D.RA; SHORTS: CHARLOTTE RONSON; SHOES: ZARA
DRESS: ALICE’S PIG/MODCLOTH; Styling Assistance: Athens
Andrews, Carlos Acevedo, and Emily Kirkpatrick
with and date trans women. They’re arguably even more
stigmatized than we are.”
“I used to believe that if I was smart enough, if I was good
enough, if I were pretty enough, that this man all of a sudden
would love me and want to fully integrate me into his life,”
“What I like to say to the
world is that men are just
as hurt by patriarchy as
women are.”
she adds. “What I have come to learn is that it does not matter how successful I am, how accomplished I am, how smart
I am, how good in bed I am. None of that matters if a man
is just not available. I cannot choose those people. I have to
choose differently.”
In reflecting on all that she’s accomplished in her life—
and on all the insights she’s shared with me in the space of
barely an hour—it occurs to me that there must have been
somebody in her early life who held her to high standards.
“My mother,” she says immediately.
Cox speaks admiringly of her mother’s elegance. “My
mother is very put-together,” she says. “She’s the one who
goes out of the house with makeup, a dress, and handkerchiefs. I don’t carry handkerchiefs,” she adds, smiling, “but
that’s what I grew up with. My mother held me to high
standards and I internalized it.” Cox’s mother was also
devoted to educating her children well. She grew up in the
segregated South and plied her children with black history books. It seems there was no question that the twins
would grow up to be outstanding in their fields of choice.
“My brother and I have been talking about this,” she says.
“In black culture, there’s a tradition of excellence. We’ve
had to be amazing to get ahead in a white supremacist
culture. I aspire to be in that lineage of black excellence.”
As examples, she names opera singers Jessye Norman and
Leontyne Price (“my idol”) as well as actress Cicely Tyson,
singer/actresses Diahann Carroll and Eartha Kitt, authors
Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin, and adds “the list
goes on and on and on and on.”
The discussion of race leads to one about Cox’s feminism, an ideology grounded in a combination of academic
theory and lived experience. “When I found critical theory
and I found feminism, it gave me a space to heal and a
way to understand the world around me,” Cox says. “I was
able to look at the world critically. Then, a few years later,
when I needed to go to therapy because of my transition
[after college], I realized I also needed therapy because
of the trauma in my childhood. I wasn’t just having the
therapy and thinking, ‘OK, now I’m leaving critical theory
behind. Now I’m leaving politics behind.’ The trauma that
I was experiencing was happening in this context of cisnormative, hetero-normative, imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy—these things were happening
together. So for me, the healing is very political, and the
personal is political as well.”
Speaking of the personal, we circle back to the aforementioned ex-love, this time, in the context of feminism. “What
I like to say to audiences, and to the world, is that men are
just as hurt by patriarchy as women are. That man I alluded
to earlier…I never met any of his friends and was never really a part of his life. He just objectified me sexually. I believe
he was in a tremendous amount of pain because he was not
able to be fully authentic. At one point, he told me he loved
me, [but] his masculinity would have been called into question in a way he was not comfortable with, so he was not
able to live fully authentically, I would argue.”
“He was afraid,” I say.
“He was afraid,” she agrees. “I’ve dated so many men who
I’ve seen patriarchy destroy because they’re not able to really allow themselves to be vulnerable. To lean in to their
vulnerability or the parts of themselves that may be a little
feminine. So patriarchy is a system that not only harms
women, but also harms men.”
We’ve gone through a good amount of that wonderful
lavender mint tea, and our time together is nearly at an
end. But there’s one last question that weighs on my mind,
and it’s one I’ve wanted to ask since I first took a look at
Cox’s jam-packed public schedule. “Do you ever get to relax?” I ask.
She grins. And that’s when I learn that Cox is a huge—
and I mean huge—karaoke buff. She calls it “one of my big
cathartic things.” In fact, the night before, she and some
pals got to a karaoke joint at 8:00 p.m. and stayed past midnight. I ask if she has a go-to jam. Turns out, she’s been into
Phantom of the Opera lately. “I’m not saying I sing it well,”
she says, “but it’s something I’ve been doing a lot. I also
do Frankie J’s version of ‘More than Words’—Frankie J’s
version as opposed to Extreme. I did ‘Listen to Your Heart’
because a girl did it on The Voice this week. I’ve been doing
karaoke since college, so ‘My Immortal’ used to be my goto song by Evanescence. Do you know that song? It got me
through a breakup. It really did.”
I tell her that’s a pretty great place to stop, considering
we’ve gone from bell hooks to Phantom of the Opera. She
smiles, and I turn off the recorder. As we bid each other
goodbye, she puts her disguise back on and I watch her walk
away. She carries herself in the same way that she speaks:
with grace and elegance. I instantly think of a million
more things I want to know about her, but the moment has
passed. Laverne Cox has left the building.
49
p e r f e c t d ay
Summer styles ideal for concert season, modeled by
indie-pop badass Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast
by lisa butterworth // Photographed by annabel mehran
Styled By marissa peden // Hair By brian fisher // Makeup By lucy halperin
50
VINTAGE JACKET; AMERICAN APPAREL BODYSUIT
AND SOCKS, AMERICANAPPAREL.NET; WILDFOX
SHORTS, WILDFOX.COM; IWONA LUDYGA NECKLACE, IWONALUDYGADESIGN.COM; UNEARTHEN
RING, SEEUNEARTHEN.COM; VINTAGE SKATES.
51
H&M ROBE, HM.COM;
WILDFOX SWIMSUIT; IWONA LUDYGA NECKLACES.
52
CELINE CARDIGAN, CELINE.COM; WILDFOX
ROMPER; IWONA LUDYGA NECKLACE; DOLCE
VITA SHOES, DOLCEVITA.COM.
53
VINTAGE JACKET; AMERICAN APPAREL BODYSUIT
AND SOCKS; WILDFOX SHORTS; IWONA LUDYGA
NECKLACE; UNEARTHEN RING.
54
ULLA JOHNSON DRESS, ULLAJOHNSON.COM;
STYLIST’S OWN NECKLACE; UNEARTHEN
BRACELET.
55
or Bethany Cosentino, this might
just be the year of the woman. It’s kind
of destined, the 28-year-old Best Coast
singer, guitarist, and songwriter tells me.
“My best friend gave me a tarot reading
in February and it was all about having a self-discovery thing happen,” she
says. “And about women playing a really important
role in my career.” So far, the cards are right. This
BUST fashion story was shot by a woman, Annabel
Mehran, which Cosentino appreciates. “[With male
photographers] it’s always like, ‘Can you look more
sexy?’” she says when we sit down to chat after the
last shot of the day. “It’s like, ‘Can you just not
fucking tell me what to do?’”
Her new rose-filled, hazy daydream of a video for
“Heaven Sent”—the second single off Best Coast’s
new album California Nights, which she’s on tour
for now—was also co-directed by a woman, Lana
“ I feel like I’ve really
come into myself as
a person, as an artist,
and as a woman.”
Kim, and by Cosentino herself, as part of the whole
self-discovery thing. “With this record I feel like
I’ve really come into myself as a person, as an artist, and as a woman,” Cosentino says, adjusting her
dark-framed “serious interview” glasses. It’s a long
way from how she felt in 2009, when she dropped
out of college in New York, returned home to Los
Angeles where she grew up, and was paying rent
by working a retail job at Lush and selling vintage
clothes online. It was then that she decided to go
back to making music, which she’d been doing
since she was a teenager, singing at a local coffee
shop’s karaoke night, going to shows at downtown
L.A.’s legendary punk venue The Smell, and playing drone-y noise music with her first band, Pocahaunted. She partnered up with Bobb Bruno, who
became the other half of Best Coast. And with the
release of their first album, 2010’s Crazy For You,
56
they kicked off the girl-group-inspired trend that
swept indie music, riding a wave of fuzzy, jangly
rock about sunshine and crushes and millennial
ennui all the way to mainstream success.
But living life as music’s “next big thing” hasn’t
always been easy. “A woman does a lot of growing between her early to late 20s you know? And
to experience that in the spotlight has been a very
bizarre experience,” she says. “Over the last couple
of years, I’ve been my own worst enemy, doubting
myself artistically, especially as a songwriter.” But
something shifted with California Nights. “When
we made this record, I made a conscious decision
to say, ‘I’m not going to take that bullshit into the
studio. I’m going to try really hard to leave it at the
door and then go in and just do my thing.’ It was
more Zen, and I know that’s really cheesy, but it’s
the truth. I’m really happy to be in the place that I
am now.”
The place she’s in now is pretty darn good. At
SXSW she met one of her heroes, Julia LouisDreyfus (“I was just like, this is ‘the moment’ for
me,” she says). And several days before our chat,
she performed “Don’t Worry Baby” onstage in L.A.
with one of her musical inspirations, the Beach
Boys’ Brian Wilson. Afterward, she snapped a photo of her dad backstage with Jenny Lewis, which
she later texted to the singer because they’re cool
like that. Except Cosentino doesn’t think about
herself that way. “I have never considered myself
to be cool, and I think that’s why I am OK with
very openly talking about being into things that
aren’t cool,” she says, using her fingers to make
air quotes, after mentioning that her new album
has a bit of a Sugar Ray feel to it. “That’s always
been our vibe, to just be who we are and not wear
any sort of mask. The Bethany you get onstage, on
Twitter, on Instagram, whatever, that’s really who
I am,” she says. “I hate phony bullshit, and being
in this industry is sometimes difficult, because so
many people are so fucking phony. But that just
inspires me to be more myself, and to encourage
my fans, especially young girls who are confused
about who they are, to just be themselves and to
be OK with that.” FOR LOVE AND LEMONS DRESS, FORLOVEANDLEMONS.COM; CHASER COAT,
CHASERBRAND.COM.
At Your Cervix:
the secret history
of the
speculum
58
The ubiquitous gyno tool is probably
your least-favorite thing that goes
in your vagina—so how did it get
there? It’s a scary story
By Johanna Gohmann
illustration by Maritsa Patrinos
During a recent visit to my
gynecologist (the too-perfectly
named Dr. Fuchs), I realized I had
been subconsciously crossing and
uncrossing my legs as I waited for
my name to be called. Although I am
an adult woman who has had more
pelvic exams than I can count, and
have even pushed an actual human
being out of my vagina, I still dread a
visit with what I’ve always thought
of as “the can opener of the cervix” –
the speculum.
Probably just reading the word
“speculum” made you do an involuntary Kegel. For most of us, our encounters with them can range from
mildly uncomfortable to downright
painful. And even with the gentlest
of gynos, there’s a very unique vulnerability that comes with lying on
your back while a stranger positions
an alien-looking device into one
of the most sensitive parts of your
body. But as horribly awkward as
they may be, we know we have to
welcome them in, since they give our
docs a prime view of our secret gardens in all their glory.
The speculum has been around
for centuries, and I’m sure it will
come as a surprise to no one that
something vagina-related has a dark
history of misogyny, political power
struggles, and abuse. But precisely
how dark that history is will shock
you. Regardless of how you look at
speculums now, you’ll never look at
them the same way again.
Versions of the speculum date all
the way back to 97 A.D. Gynecological artifacts were unearthed in the
ruins of Pompeii, though the ancient
Roman model looks a bit more suited
to uncorking a bottle of merlot than
to holding back vaginal walls. By
the 19th century, a more modern
version of the speculum, created
by French gynecologist Joseph Récamier, became popular. This one
kind of looked like a cross between
a Barbarella space gun and a tiny
butter churn. Specula continued to
evolve and change after that, with
handles added and tubes lengthened
and shortened. In 1821, an Italian
surgeon named Giuseppe Cannella
fashioned a combination speculum
and knife that was used to amputate
the cervix in cases of cancer or uterine prolapse.
Even though docs had these tools
on hand, there was a great deal of
turmoil when it came to actually
using them. The 1800s were a time
when most doctors were men, and
men were not supposed to be looking
at a woman’s body. Many medical
exams were conducted blindly, with
a doctor essentially rooting around
under a woman’s dress while looking away, or perhaps even worse,
staring straight into her eyes. There
was also concern that women might
turn into raving sex maniacs if they
allowed their bits to be explored.
Dr. Charles Meigs, a professor of
medicine in Philadelphia in the early
1800s, once said he was “...proud to
say that in this country generally,
certainly in many parts of it, there
are women who prefer to suffer the
extremity of danger and pain rather
than wave those scruples of delicacy
which prevent their maladies from
being explored. I say it is fully an
evidence of the dominion of a fine
morality in our society.”
Of course, these concerns were
only for “proper ladies,” and didn’t
extend to the wayward women of the
streets; after all, only prostitutes got
pelvic exams. In 19th-century Paris,
sex workers who had been arrested
were forced to undergo examinations by doctors, and the speculum
was essentially used as a threat or a
torture device. If these women refused to be examined, they could be
imprisoned. Either way, they were
punished, and their fates were grim.
Marie Anne Boivin
Luckily, a French midwife named
Marie Anne Boivin brought a muchneeded woman’s touch to women’s
health. In 1825, she invented what
would eventually become the modern bivalve speculum—the kind
that can be screwed into place and
left there, freeing up a doctor’s
hands. Boivin was one of the most
important obstetricians of her
time, despite having been denied
59
it to prop the vaginal walls open. Thus,
the Sims speculum—the one that most
closely resembles the duck-billed device we use today—was born.
Sims’ invention and his subsequent
ability to heal fistulas were major
leaps forward for medicine. However,
these advances came at a horrific
price, as his research methods can
only be described as monstrous. Sims
would buy or borrow injured slave
women (whose masters were happy to
help, since they wanted fertile slaves),
bring them to his backyard hospital,
and use them as test subjects for his
surgeries. He invited other doctors to
watch him work—as well as anyone
who wanted to pay for standing room.
He operated on these women for
hours without anesthetics, even after
anesthesia became readily available (Sims wasn’t
known to use it on his white
patients, either, but believed,
like many at the time, that
African-Americans had a
higher tolerance for pain).
Little is known about the
women who endured Sims’
experiments, but it’s be-
J. Marion Sims
inside.” In Sims’ autobiography, he
wrote, “If there was anything I hated,
it was investigating the organs of the
female pelvis.” Nonetheless, Sims was determined
to learn how to fix vaginal fistulas, an
incredibly painful condition caused
by a long childbirth or other injury,
wherein a hole forms between a woman’s rectum or bladder and her vagina.
In order to repair fistulas, Sims needed
a wide-open view of the vagina. In a
moment of inspiration, he grabbed a
gravy spoon, bent the handle, and used
60
Sims’ speculum
lieved that Sims operated on a woman
named Anarcha up to 30 times.
Another woman nearly died after a
sponge Sims left inside of her caused
an infection. Ultimately, though, Sims
was able to heal these women, and
claimed that some of them were so eager to be cured that they had assisted
him with their surgeries.
Once Sims’ work was proven to be
effective on slaves, it was deemed safe
enough for white women. His ability to
repair fistulas catapulted both the doc-
tor and his speculum to fame, and he
would go on to become the consulting
surgeon for the French Empress Eugenie, head of the American Medical
Association, and founder of the very
first hospital exclusively for women.
Sims is now remembered as “The
Father of Gynecology,” and a statue
of him stands in Central Park. While
there is no argument that he made
tremendous contributions to medicine
and women’s healthcare, there is also
no doubt that his methods for doing so
were beyond abhorrent. In addition to
the wretched and racist things he did
to unconsenting slave women, Sims
was also a proponent of clitoridectomies—that is, the surgical removal of
the clitoris as a means to curb “hysteria” and “improper” sexual behavior.
But while men like Sims were taking on women’s surgery, childbirth
was still largely the domain of the midwife. Midwives treated vaginal problems through natural means, and until
the 1800s, birth was not considered
an occurrence that required medical
intervention. The medical establishment was very keen to change this
perception. After the Sims speculum
boomed in popularity, doctors were
able to promote the fact that they now
had special tools designed specifically
for women. Well-to-do women began
to ditch their midwives and flock to
doctors, believing they were more capable; by the end of the 1800s, doctors
were considered the foremost experts
on women’s bodies.
As medicine advanced over time,
vaginal exams became accepted and
commonplace, and fears of women
tearing their doctors’ clothes off in fits
of unbridled passion eventually subsided. There was now a modern tool
that allowed a relatively safe view into
women’s bodies. Great, right? Except
that the male-dominated medical
establishment had no intention of letting women take a look for themselves.
The belief that women simply had no
business down there persisted for decades. It wasn’t until the second wave
of feminism in the 1960s that women
began to boldly fight back against the
medical establishment. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Witches, Midwives,
and Nurses, says, “I began to realize
photo: Courtesy of Historical Collections & Services, Claude
Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia (sims)
entrance into medical school because
of her gender. Her examination skills
were such that she was described by a
contemporary surgeon as having “an
eye at the tip of each finger.” Boivin’s
outstanding work earned her acclaim
and awards, and even led more universities to open their doors to hopeful
female gynos. Unfortunately, her contributions were overshadowed by the
mess of misogyny that followed as the
speculum evolved.
Enter J. Marion Sims, an Alabama
doctor whose 1845 invention rocked
the gynecological world. It’s surprising that Sims had anything to do
with the field at all, considering he
was, by his teachers’ accounts, a poor
student who claimed that lectures on
women’s diseases made him “shudder
illustration: Courtesy of Historical Collections & Services, Claude
Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia (speculums)
Left: Illustration of specula excavated in Pompeii
Below: Speculum in use, from a 1655 medical text
how much women had experienced
humiliation or even injury in the medical system. I had a bad time with the
doctor during my first pregnancy, and
that’s when I really became a feminist…
I became really furious dealing with
sexism, and the fact that I could not
escape these bloody issues.” The speculum was, of course, a part of this painful experience, but could the feminist
movement change that?
In 1960s America, free clinics for
women began to sprout up across
the states. But these clinics, for the
most part, still used male doctors, and
women were still shamed and treated
with condescension. In Ruth Rosen’s
The World Split Open: How the Modern
Women’s Movement Changed America,
she asks, “Would women doctors have
thoughtlessly shoved a cold metallic
speculum into another woman? Would
feminist doctors have blithely told
patients that the dilation of the cervix
wouldn’t hurt? The woeful ignorance
of the female biological experience
sparked a campaign to train more women doctors, to re-educate male physicians, and to create a women-oriented
health movement.”
In 1969, a group of brave broads
banded together and formed what
would become the Boston Women’s
Health Book Collective, which would
go on to publish Our Bodies, Ourselves.
The book was groundbreaking, offering
the means for women to truly gain control and ownership over their bodies
by learning how they worked. Another
truly great moment in speculum history
came in 1971, when feminist lawyer
and author Carol Downer walked into
a Los Angeles bookstore, dropped her
drawers, and inserted a speculum. She
then invited the ladies in attendance to
come and take a gander. Activists like
Downer were known as “self-help gynecologists,” and their aim was to give
a firsthand lesson in female anatomy.
These demos soon caught on, and thousands of women began to attend similar
workshops. Then, in 1972, Downer was
arrested for the truly heinous crime of
showing another woman how to use a
speculum. Clearly a menace to society,
Downer was hauled to jail and charged
with practicing medicine without a
license (she had also recommended using yogurt for a yeast infection).
Downer was acquitted, and her arrest
only helped to spread the message that
women must fight to gain control over
their own bodies and health. Ladies
began to ask doctors to let them help
insert the speculum during exams, and
to hold up a mirror so they could see
their own bits. Of course, docs didn’t
much care for this, and women were
often met with hostility. To thwart this,
ladies began to bring buddies along to
take notes during their exams, making
it clear to the docs that they expected to
be treated with respect.
Over time, women have gained more
control of the speculum and the way
it’s used on their bodies. These days,
there’s a plethora of lady docs to choose
from, and female OB/GYN residents
outnumber men. If you were to ask to
insert your own speculum, or inquire if
you could take a look at your own goods,
your doctor would likely not fall over in
a dead faint from the shock. (One of my
friends recently had her doc not only
show her how to insert the speculum,
but actually give her a couple of dispos-
able specula to take home, should she
wish to do any further investigating.)
And yes, even the speculum has
changed…a bit. Now there are the
aforementioned disposable ones made
of plastic, and some come with little
lights attached, to help illuminate our
splendor. But the design of the speculum itself hasn’t changed much from
the Sims version. I can hear you saying
to yourself: Hey, didn’t a solar-powered
jet just take off from Abu Dhabi to fly
around the globe? And we, in 2015, really
can’t come up with a better way to prop
open a vulva? Well, it’s not that people
haven’t tried. There have been various
attempts to come up with a new speculum. The most recent one was called
the FemSpec, and it was an inflatable
ring that pushed a woman’s vaginal
walls outward, sort of like blowing up
a party balloon inside your cervix. And
even though the feel was supposed to
be much more natural, the FemSpec
never really caught on. Still, empathetic
experts and vaginal activists alike seek
to expand the dialogue surrounding
gynecological care and make strides
past Sims’ tainted legacy. Who knows?
Maybe in the future, there will be some
sort of speculum app for phones, where
a hologram of your cervix shoots out
and floats in front of the doctor’s face,
and we can do away with the dreaded
device altogether. In the meantime,
though, let’s make sure our lady bits get
the care and respect they deserve. 61
call of the wild
brooklyn rapper junglepussy opens up about
feminism, fellas, and being unapologetically fierce
By liz galvao // photography by jeaneen lund
stylist: hayley pisaturo // makeup: michael anthony
So much of your music is about self-love.
Why is that an important message for you?
It’s important because if I hate myself, it’s going to be
hard to make great music. I think that comes first, in anything you choose to pursue. Nobody is going to love you
the way you can. Nobody’s going to dress you the way you
want to be dressed. Nobody’s going to cook that meal the
way that you want it. If you want something, do it. Don’t
wait for someone to do it for you. That’s self-love: putting
yourself first.
You often talk about not having time for
shitty guys in your songs. Where does that
come from?
Men love women. They love the way women make them
feel, they love the way we look. So it’s funny to me that so
quickly, they can just flip, and act like they hate us, when
it’s all an act. It’s really a façade. Once I realized that,
once I saw that it’s us with all the power, I realized there’s
no need for me to succumb to a man’s fuckery.
Do you consider yourself a feminist? What
role does feminism play in your life?
Well, actually, I’m label-free, but a lot of my morals and
values stem from feminism, black power, power to the
people, all that in general. So, feminism is a big part of
62
it, because I love being a girl, and I love women, and I
love when we stick up for ourselves and don’t take any
shit. I love BUST mag. I love that you guys are doing
this, having the whole female crew on the photo shoot.
That’s a beautiful thing, because that’s how I work. All
my videos and photo shoots, they all were by my [female]
friends. It’s just a label that I don’t want to commit to. If
I say I’m a feminist, [and] I do something that a group of
feminists does not agree with, then they’re going to try
to bash me for being a feminist. I believe that feminism
is just unapologetically being a female.
Who were your role models growing up, and
who are they now?
Growing up, I had a lot of role models, like Fefe Dobson
and Christina Aguilera, girls like that. But then as I got
older, my mother became my role model more and more.
She is a model for being a truly independent woman.
Being a woman who gives herself everything she needs
and takes care of herself and her family? That’s so strong
and amazing to me. She’s proof that you can survive as a
black woman raising daughters in New York, which is so
expensive already.
Do you see yourself being cast as a role model? Is that something you accept or reject?
I used to tweet, “Don’t idolize me,” because then people
expect you not to make mistakes. On my song “Nah,” I’m
like, “You up in Mickey D’s, I knew you ain’t love yourself,”
but I’m rapping; I didn’t say “don’t do that.” But people
say to me, “I’m at McDonald’s, Junglepussy don’t hate
me!” I’m like, “I don’t hate you.” But that made me see
how powerful words are. I’m not trying to be like this role
model for eating healthy when I still like chicken wings.
But I like chickens that eat grass. You don’t ask [to be a
role model], society just gives it to you. You don’t even
know you have it, until you fuck up, and then people are
like, “Why did you do that?” But it’s cool, because it just
makes words a whole new tool. Like, my words are strong,
they’re sure, they’re my weapon, they’re my peacemaker,
they’re my everything. They’re my medium. FASHION ASSISTANT: ROMINA CENISIO; TOP: TRIPP n.Y.C.; BRA: VA BIEN LINGERIE; SHORTS:
PATBO; NECKLACES: ERICKSON BEAMON; EARRINGS AND FLOWERS: JUNGLEPUSSY’S OWN
Brooklyn’s Shayna McHayle is better known by
her rap persona, Junglepussy, but the unconventional
performer’s provocative name isn’t even the 10th most
interesting thing about her. Though only 23, McHayle
has already reinvented herself several times, with time
logged in fashion, art, and modeling. And she managed
to acquire a devoted online following before she ever released an album. Her first record, 2014’s Satisfaction
Guaranteed, is full of empowering tracks like “Fuck Texting” and “Picky Bitch Checklist,” and is packed with
clever rhymes about loving yourself and not settling for
the wrong guys. McHayle took a break from recording her
follow-up to speak to me about writing, role models, and
why she’s label-free.
63
No sex
And The City
A 30-something asexual woman reveals the truth
about her oft-misunderstood orientation
By Keira Tobias // Illustration by Emily Flake
I remember it clearly: I was
in the sixth grade, and my mom
asked me which boy I had a crush
on. I refused to give a name, but she
pressed on, asking which actors
I thought were cute. I felt acutely
embarrassed by the question, and
didn’t want to answer her, but I
finally said Ethan Hawke (this was
the era of Reality Bites) just to appease her, and then changed the
subject. I had that same feeling
years later, eating lunch with the
girls at work and staying silent during their conversations about birth
control. They assumed I was on the
Pill, too, because they assumed I
was having sex with guys. I wasn’t.
I thought maybe I’d have an
epiphany one day and realize I
was a lesbian. My best friends in
high school were gay, and I knew
I’d be accepted by them if I was,
also. But the revelation never
came; I never had the slightest bit
of more-than-platonic interest in
girls, either. Then, when I was 20
years old, I found myself in a relationship with a man.
It was complicated, I guess, but
it didn’t feel that way. He was my
best friend. I didn’t call him my
boyfriend, because to me, “boyfriend” was a very heterosexual
word, and I always knew on some
level that I wasn’t heterosexual,
and neither was our relationship.
Like almost any other couple, we
hung out all the time, obsessed
over shared interests, held hands,
cuddled, and shared a bed. We just
happened to never have sex in that
bed. The fact that we didn’t have
sex was a non-issue, something we
didn’t address explicitly. I didn’t
think of it as unusual.
We broke up after five years together, and it was then that I was
forced to acknowledge how uncommon my relationship experience
was. The first time I tried dating
someone else, I was overwhelmed
by his sexual attraction toward me.
I really liked him and thought he
was cute, but the night he said, “I
want you,” I freaked out. I didn’t
want him in the same way; I didn’t
want to take things to the next
level. I stayed up all night while he
slept beside me; the next morning,
I told him I had never had sex, not
even with my ex. He broke up with
me shortly thereafter.
I agonized about it all summer,
wondering what was wrong with
me. Around the same time, I made
65
a friend who was completely
uninterested in sex and dating,
and she told me she was asexual.
I went home, Googled the word,
and found AVEN, the Asexuality
Visbility and Education Network
(asexuality.org). There was one
sentence, set in a purple banner
across the top of that website, that
changed everything: an asexual is
a person who does not experience
sexual attraction. Here was the
epiphany I had longed for, words
that summed up the feeling I had
been unable to express for my
whole life. In 25 years, I had never
wanted to have sex with anyone,
of any gender, and I knew that
would never change. I wasn’t a
freak—I was asexual. And I wasn’t
alone. An estimated one percent
of people are asexual, which may
seem like a small amount, but to
me, that number felt huge.
I read on and learned a lot of
things that night, about myself
they make out or have sex or even
just like someone. And most aren’t
asked to—it’s only those of us who
experience things differently who
are expected to explain ourselves.
For me, I just know that physical
intimacy and sexual intimacy are
completely separate things. I want
one and not the other. I find it very
comforting to be physically close
to a partner, which can include
holding hands, hugging, cuddling,
and kissing. These actions are
an expression or an extension
of emotional intimacy, and they
feel good. They just don’t have
any connection to a desire to see
someone naked or have sex with
them. A person’s libido is driven
by hormones, and arousal is a natural response to stimuli—but neither of these things are the same
as attraction. My body can feel
aroused when kissing someone
I have feelings for, but my brain
draws the line at actually wanting
“ I had never wanted to
have sex with anyone,
and I knew that would
never change.”
and about the asexual community.
I learned that asexuality is a sexual orientation, different from celibacy (the choice to abstain from
sex). I learned that it’s possible to
have a sex drive and to experience
feelings of arousal, but for those
things to exist independently of
the desire to actually have sex
with anyone. The same goes for
romance and sex; the former can
be experienced without the latter.
This is a difficult thing for a lot of
people who aren’t asexual to understand. But then again, I think
most people in general would find
it hard to explain why, exactly,
66
to have sex with them.
And yes, some asexual people
masturbate. According to the
Asexuality Archive’s Guide to
Masturbation (asexualityarchive.
com), masturbation is a physical
act that does not require sexual
attraction. “Whether or not you
masturbate has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not
you’re asexual,” the site states.
“Many asexuals who masturbate
say they do it because it feels
good. There is nothing un-asexual about masturbating strictly
for pleasure.” There are plenty of
people who get off without fan-
tasizing about sex, who do it to
relieve stress or fall asleep. There
are also plenty of people who
don’t masturbate at all, just like
there are plenty of people who
don’t collect records or do yoga.
Sound confusing? It can be,
but the most important thing I
realized that night was that there
wasn’t anything wrong with me.
It was a massive relief to finally
be able to attach a word to my
complex set of experiences, and to
know that there were other people
like me—“aces,” as we often call
ourselves. I like the nickname.
One of the people I connected
with through the AVEN community was Emily, 30, who identifies
as a bi-romantic asexual (meaning
she is romantically—but not sexually—attracted to men and women). “I want all the typical things
from a romantic relationship...
emotional intimacy, commitment,
even touch, but I don’t have the
need for sex that most people do,”
Emily says. “Even though most
asexuals separate sexual and romantic attraction, I don’t think
there’s any consensus on what
romantic attraction is. We just
agree that it’s something different
from ‘you are a cool friend’ and ‘I
want to have sex with you.’”
Some of the asexual people I
know are aromantic; they lack
interest in any romantic relationships, and have never kissed or
dated anyone. Others identify as
“grey-A” and experience sexual
attraction to a limited degree,
or, in the case of “demisexuals,”
only within emotionally intimate
romantic relationships. There are
asexuals who find themselves attracted to television characters
as they get to know them over the
course of a season, but feel no stirring in their loins for the actors
who play those characters. There
are asexuals who love to cuddle
and be held, but have no desire
for intimacy past that. I had once
assumed that a married couple I
knew was heterosexual, but I later
found out that they were actually both asexual, and had never
had sex. In fact, they were media
representatives for AVEN, and
had appeared on television to talk
about how (or rather, why) they
didn’t have sex on their wedding
night. You’d almost certainly never
be able to tell that a person was
asexual unless they told you themselves. Still, Emily says, “Some
asexuals pass as heterosexual, but
some are gender-nonconforming,
and some have faced homophobic
or transphobic discrimination.”
With such tremendous diversity
of identity and experience within
the asexual community, some of
us may have almost nothing in
common with each other besides
the fact that we don’t experience
sexual attraction. And yet, in a
society that is obsessed with sex
and assumes that every human
is driven by nature to seek it out,
I’ve found it’s a great comfort to
be around other people who share
my experience of the world and
relationships. When I found the
asexual community, it was largely
based around AVEN’s message
boards and a small number of
blogs. Today, there’s a much wider
network of resources, including
multiple books and a lot of activity
on Tumblr. Asexuality has been
called the first “Internet orientation” because so many people discover asexuality and connect with
the community online, but there’s
also a strong network of meet-up
groups in different cities.
I’ve come out as asexual to my
oldest and closest friends, but not
to my family or most of my current
friends. I generally find myself not
knowing how to bring it up, and
feel like I’d be sharing something
overly personal, even though it’s
just my orientation. I don’t like to
draw attention to my lack of sexual
interest or invite probing questions. I’ve also been on the receiving end of ignorant comments
from even my most liberal queer
feminist friends, like, “Maybe you
just haven’t met the right person
yet.” Sometimes I struggle with
the feeling of being responsible for
educating people—I don’t want to
just fine—it doesn’t mean that I’m
going to be alone forever, or that
I’m alone now. I find that my need
for emotional intimacy is met
quite well by my close friendships.
“I’d like people to understand
“ I don’t think it’s really
possible to miss out
on something you
have no interest in.”
speak for every asexual person’s
experiences—but it’s important to
me that we are seen and heard.
Emily, who marches in her
city’s LGBT pride parade every
year with a contingent of people
from AVEN, explains why visibility is crucial for the asexual
community. “Asexuals often feel
broken and alone,” she says. “If we
don’t understand ourselves, we’re
at risk for unwanted sexual activity, coercion, and self-hate. Before
I learned about asexuality, I just
thought I was a failed heterosexual, and I had no language to
describe my experience to myself
or others.”
I have now been single for seven
years, and I don’t feel like my life
has been lacking because of it. I
think it would be nice to have a
partner again someday, if a compatible person came along. I used
to be hesitant to tell people I was
asexual, due to a deep fear of being
immediately dismissed as “out of
the running” to be their partner.
My ego couldn’t stand that idea.
It took years (and therapy) to
build self-esteem and understand
that my worth doesn’t lie in my
compatibility with a person. Unlike a lot of my friends, I feel little
motivation to date or spend time
specifically trying to seek out a relationship. And now I know that’s
that asexuals are extremely diverse, and while asexuality might
shape our lives in certain ways, it’s
still just one part of who we are,”
Emily says. “You sometimes hear
that asexuals can fall in love and
get married just like everyone else,
but I’d prefer to say that we aren’t
like everyone else, and that’s perfectly OK.”
Although I am personally ambivalent about having sex, I do
consider myself a sex-positive
feminist. The great thing about
the term “sex positive,” from
what I understand, is that it encompasses acceptance of the full
spectrum of sexual identities,
preferences, and (safe, consensual) behaviors—including not being
interested in having sex. I believe
that no one should be made to feel
ashamed of their sexual desires
or activities, or lack thereof. A
common thing asexuals hear is,
“You’re missing out.” But I don’t
think it’s really possible to miss
out on something you have no
interest in or don’t enjoy, whether
it’s country music, baseball, cilantro, or sex. I have plenty of other
interests. My life is busy, and it’s
great. There’s an inside joke in
the asexual community about how
we’d rather have cake than sex. So
don’t tell me what I’m missing—
just pass me a slice. 67
Speed
Queens
68
tru
New Orleans’ Caramel Curves Motorcycle Club
Gets Their Kicks On Wheels, And In Heels
By Caroline Goyette // Photos by Akasha Rabut
S
hanika Beatty grips the bike. The waterfall hem of her black leather skirt drapes gracefully over the seat as her feet—encased in lace-up stilettos—work the concrete. She squeezes the front
wheel brake and the back tire spins madly. Her
bike seems to levitate, humming and hovering in place,
until a burst of pink smoke erupts from the back end and
wafts over the busted-up remains of New Orleans’ Magnolia housing projects. A crowd gathers. “Y’all really riding
a bike with heels on?” someone asks. One guy clutches a
Styrofoam daiquiri cup, another kicks through the weeds
to take pictures. Two little boys holding baggies of Fiery
Cheetos gaze, entranced, at this badass apparition.
It’s not the only time the Caramel Curves—New Orleans’ first all-women’s motorcycle club—have been interrupted today, and it won’t be the last. When I met up with
the gang a few blocks over, at a Central City gas station,
the Curves created an instant party. With their hot pink
Mohawk-helmets, stabby stilettos, and custom-painted
motorcycles, these ladies possess a Siren-like allure.
Trucks honked. A car stereo cranked louder. One guy—
hitting on Daria “Candi” Green—took off his shirt in an
attempt to impress. (“I thought he was going to give us a
strip show. I was going to get my dollars,” Nakosha “Coco”
Smith snickered.)
“It never fails,” Green says of the attention. “We’ve been
doing this so long, you’d think they’d be used to it.” It’s
been a decade since the Curves first rumbled to life, but after Hurricane Katrina scattered its membership, Carolyn
“Caramel” Sterling, Smith, Beatty aka “Tru”, and Shalonda
“Baby Girl” Lewis worked together to get the group up and
running again.
Now 20-women strong, the Curves bring together a vibrant cross-section of interests and personalities. Beatty
is a Doctor of Pharmacy. Smith owns a nail salon. Dezell
“Foxy” Bell is a mortician. Andrea “Hood Priss” Shepherd is an RN. Sterling is a baker and a barber. Green is a
medical clerk. But when they’re together, they leave their
differences behind and enjoy a camaraderie like no other.
“This really is a sisterhood,” says Shepherd. “I think everybody can see that.”
For many of the Curves, female companionship on the
bike wasn’t always an option. “We learned how to ride
from guys,” says Green. “There were no girls around to
learn from.”
When Smith first got on a motorcycle at 16, it was at the
urging of her boyfriend. “He said, ‘I think you would look so
hot on a motorbike,’” she says. But pretty soon, he got ner-
vous—maybe because she turned out to be a daredevil.
Beatty’s inspiration was her father. As a girl, she remembers staring at his motorcycle in the garage. “I was
always like, ‘Dad, why don’t you crank it up?’ He said he
saw too many people get injured, so he gave it up for his
family’s sake.” At first, he discouraged her from getting a
bike, but when she did, he quickly changed his attitude.
“He’s one of my biggest fans,” she says.
Gender differences aside, other divisions persist in the
bike world, even among women riders. Race is one such
line. “It’s sad that it’s like this, but our communities are
separated,” says Beatty of women’s motorcycle groups.
“It’s tough for a girl already in this man’s world, but we’re
also segregated between black and white. We try to do
things together, but it doesn’t always happen that way.”
To become a Curve, prospects must own their own
bikes and be financially able to pay dues and participate
in events; they also have to fit personality-wise with the
group. “We look for loyal people,” says Beatty. “People
who are dedicated to the club.”
Road trips, national bike events, and parties are all features of Curve membership, but their Sunday rides are the
organization’s central event. Sometimes they tool around
town, sometimes they ride one or two hours outside of New
Orleans, and sometimes they head out early in the morning
and stay out till the sun goes down. “Having a club means I
always have somebody to ride with,” says Smith. She also
enjoys being part of the spectacle. “I like everybody going,
‘Look at those bad bitches who just pulled up on bikes.’”
Like the women themselves, the Curves’ riding styles
differ. “All of us can zoom our bikes around and burn that
tire up,” says Beatty. (The secret to their coveted pink
smoke is the Shinko Smoke Bomb rear tire, which produces the effect during burnout.) Some women, like Smith,
who pops a wicked wheelie, love to do tricks. Others prefer both wheels on the ground.
Stunters or not, the possibility of getting hurt is real,
and it’s never far from members’ minds. All the Curves
know people who’ve been seriously injured or killed in
motorcycle accidents, and many have been hurt themselves. Sterling’s accident—she hit rocks that fell off a
dump truck—kept her from riding for a year. And yet, she
says, “I don’t think there’s anything outside of death that
could make me stop.”
“Riding helps me live life better,” says Sterling. “If
you don’t know when your number’s up, you might as
well live today to the fullest. And why not do it on two
wheels—in heels?” 69
Nola?
70
. june/july
apr/may 2015
2015. .BUST
BUST
PHOTO, OPPOSITE PAGE: CHARLES PETERSON
left to right: quite strong, coco, caramel, candi, tru, and hood priss
71
72
candi
hood priss
quite strong
coco
73
caramel
74
the bust guide / Music
DU BLONDE
Welcome Back to Milk
(Mute Records)
In 2012, musician
Beth Jeans Houghton
released a self-titled,
intimate, acoustic debut
album. Now Houghton
has returned with a new
name, Du Blonde, and
a new take-no-prisoners
attitude on her fulllength Welcome Back
to Milk. Placing her in
the rock chick hierarchy
with Chrissie Hynde, PJ
Harvey, and Brody Dalle,
songs like “Black Flag,”
“Hard to Please,” and
“Mr. Hyde” find Houghton more than managing
a wailing, blues-influenced guitar. When she’s
not tearing it up, she’s
sitting down at the piano
for gospel-influenced
pop numbers like “Raw
Honey,” which would
make Dusty Springfield,
Annie Lennox, and Adele
proud to call her their
blue-eyed soul sister.
staff
pick
–michael
AVA LUNA
BRAIDS
(Western Vinyl)
(Arbutus Records)
Infinite House
Deep in the Iris
It’s not easy to assign a genre to Ava Luna’s new LP Infinite House—and listeners
will either love that, or hate it. Sometimes
the band’s frazzled sound succeeds brilliantly (“Company,” “Coat of Shellac,” and any song featuring Felicia Douglass or Becca Kauffman’s vocals), while other tracks verge
on inaccessible (“Victoria”). Mostly, Infinite House is an album
concerned with dynamic and metric contrast (particularly the dirge
“Black Dog”), and influences as disparate as funk, dance punk,
spoken word, and the Pixies. This neurotic New York sextet isn’t interested in audiences settling into their music, so much as listeners
being zapped by their sometimes-soulful, always-over-caffeinated
art rock. –maura hehir
boob ratings
levine
OMG AMAZING
Because their influences are so varied, it’s
difficult to describe the sound of experimental pop group BRAIDS. The trio’s third
album, Deep in the Iris, blends elements
of acoustic minimalism, jazz, noise, tropicalia, and Italo disco—and
somehow, it all fits together seamlessly. Imagine dreamy Cocteau
Twins-style vocals over polyrhythms reminiscent of Animal Collective
and tUnE-yArDs, and you’re getting warmer. Tracks range from angry
ballads (“Miniskirt”) to the borderline twee (“Taste”) to slow-burning
club jams (“Sore Eyes”), all tied together with BRAIDS’ signature
shifting, layered sound collages. Soothing and suspenseful, complex
and simple, delicate and harsh, Deep in the Iris is full of surprises.
–sarah c.
DAMN GOOD
jones
JUST OK
COULD BE WORSE
DON’T BOTHER
75
the bust guide / music
heavy
rotation
DOWNTOWN BOYS
JENNY HVAL
(Don Giovanni Records)
(Sacred Bones)
Downtown Boys are angry,
and they aren’t afraid of their
own fury. The self-described
“bilingual political sax dance
punk party” band’s latest
release, Full Communism,
is less than 25 minutes
total, but it’s packed with
concentrated energy. On
the booming “Wave of History,” frontwoman Victoria
Ruiz’s voice cracks as she
screams with passion, while
mini-manifesto “(Brown and
Smart)” highlights the band’s
thirst for justice. The tempo
only escalates as the album
progresses, and saxophones
add sonic depth throughout.
Downtown Boys’ music makes
you feel like you’re a part
of something greater. They
are bilingual, punk, radical,
danceable—and they demand
your attention. –mary kinney
Jenny Hval continues to excel
as a strange storyteller, artistic
auteur, ambient noisemaker,
and thought-provoker. On
Apocalypse, girl, the Norwegian
singer crafts phantasmal soundscapes and curious narratives
that blur the lines between
unconventional art-pop and
harshly exposing poetry. “The
Battle is Over” has a slinky,
sultry melody accompanied by
politically-charged lyrics, while
“Sabbath” starts off sparsely
with droning keys, drums, and
spoken word, only to blossom
into a lush, melodic, organchord-driven chorus. Hval’s
voice swings wildly from hushed
whispers to a swooning howl
as it’s backed by unusual
rhythms, sonic structures, and
noises. The whole experience
is enchanting, intoxicating, and
deeply revealing. –cindy yogmas
Full Communism
Apocalypse, girl
II
(Sub Pop Records)
Canadian post-hardcore trio METZ follows up its critically acclaimed, eponymous debut with II, a record that demands to be
played at maximum volume. Like its title, II has a meditative
quality in its simplicity, with a sound marked by both minimalism
(guitar, drum, and bass still rule the instrumentation) and fullness
(wall-to-wall noise is frequent here). For those craving more melodic punk, “The Swimmer” and “IOU” will satisfy; for those who live
in the mosh pit, “Eyes Peeled” and the crushing opener “Acetate”
are your songs. And for anyone who likes their rock dark and heavy,
II will surely get put on repeat. –liz galvao
JOANNA GRUESOME
LILI K.
(Slumberland Records)
(Freshly Baked Records)
Peanut Butter
Joanna Gruesome’s debut LP Weird
Sister reveled in the intricacies of melodic noise, matching dissonant chords
with racing tempos and sticky hooks. On
Peanut Butter, their second effort, the Welsh band embraces elements of hardcore and pop. Singer Alanna McArdle’s sweet alto is
often accompanied by guitarist/vocalist Owen Williams, and their
double harmonies thrive on “Separate Bedrooms,” a track inundated with jangly riffs. The record is most gripping when letting
noisy assaults fly (“Last Year”) or showing off guitar rock bravado
(“I Don’t Wanna Relax”). Peanut Butter is dense and overflowing
with ideas, but a rewarding album nonetheless. –tess duncan
76
METZ
Ruby
The moment Lili K.’s vocals slide
through Ruby’s short opener “Mama Told
Me,” you know you’re in for a ride. The
Chicago-based singer packs a soulful
punch on her new record, where she seamlessly weaves through
octaves, going full-body on tracks like “Pour Some Shuga,” then
turning seductively breathy on “One Mo Time.” Cuts like “Tommy”
travel back in time, channeling an era when music was emotional.
Ruby rarely ventures beyond down-tempo territory, with the exception of the slightly upbeat “Refreshing,” but that’s alright. You can
feel this one if you’re in love or post-breakup; Lili K. can assist in
either situation. –kathy iandoli
DOMINO KIRKE
MATES OF STATE
(Self-Released)
(Barsuk Records)
Independent Channel
A doula from Brooklyn who hypnotizes
audiences with lullabies inspired by
giving birth? That’s singer Domino Kirke
in a nutshell, whose EP Independent
Channel is full of dreamy melodies and eccentric surprises. The
album opens with “Son,” a robotic, percussion-fueled track
reminiscent of ’80s pop; it’ll make you crave the dance floor.
Kirke’s silky vocals complement each beat, an organic instrument
against electronic blips. “Ordinary World” will possess audiences,
transforming the album into a haunting soundtrack. Independent
Channel isn’t an easy listen, but Kirke’s wondrous voice will guide
you to a strange world, one from which you won’t want to escape.
–stephanie
Indie-pop has a way of making you feel
like everything’s going to be OK, and
You’re Going to Make It certainly fits
the mold. Mates of State are husband
and wife duo Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, who mix electronic
whomps, string surges, and super catchy hooks to bring their
disco-tastic tunes to life. “Staring Contest” would blend in perfectly alongside Robyn’s greatest hits, while “Beautiful Kids” is
a moody, beautiful, and thought-provoking take on the tech age.
One of the album’s weaker moments, “I Want To Run,” could be
mistaken for a Disney Channel theme—but then again, maybe
that’s not such a bad thing? –sammy maine
nolasco
HOLLY MIRANDA
NOCTURNAL SUNSHINE
(Dangerbird Records)
(I/AM/ME)
Holly Miranda’s third album
continues in the L.A.-based
singer/songwriter’s folk rock
style, with delicate vocals and
acoustic guitar. However, this
time, the sound is augmented
and pushed in new directions,
with electric guitar riffs, dynamic percussion, and retro
rock touches. On “Mark My
Word,” Miranda’s voice veers
between light and ethereal
and deep and powerful, while
on the emotionally-charged
“Until Now,” her pared-down
guitar work brings to mind the
work of Jeff Buckley. Miranda
has definitely expanded her
range, and her latest album
offers both emotional contemplation and several danceinducing numbers.
London DJ/producer Maya
Jane Coles releases her first
full-length record as Nocturnal Sunshine, a name that astutely describes this ominous
dubstep collection. Moody
and hypnotically repetitive,
these tracks feature a few
guest vocalists, but are mostly lyric-free. It’s perfect reading music, if you’re reading,
say, Lonesome Dove. The real
magic is in the bass, highlighted on “Take Me There”
and “Footsteps,” while the
quirky “Can’t Hide the Way I
Feel” offers beats so enticing,
they’re like audio catnip. Do
yourself the service of listening to Nocturnal Sunshine
on quality headphones or
speakers, to capture the lower
nuances of these dark tracks.
Holly Miranda
–adrienne
You’re Going to Make It
urbanski
Nocturnal Sunshine
–whitney
dwire
heavy
rotation
PEACH KELLI POP
III
(Burger Records)
Any record that starts with an ode to Super Mario Brothers is
bound to be pretty great, and the latest from Allie Hanlon’s Peach
Kelli Pop doesn’t disappoint. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes,
III is sugary, surf-y, hook-y power pop at its finest: a Rondellesmeets-Breeders blend of lightning-fast jams, with tongue-in-cheek
lyrics and a brooding darkness that underlines it all. Tracks like
“Sailor Moon” and “Princess Castle 1987” are bubblegum sweet
on the surface, but they’re offset by the frantic, furious vibes of
“Shampoo” and “Big Man.” Blast these jams on your way to the
beach. –mollie wells
77
the bust guide / music
NO JOY
More Faithful
(Mexican Summer)
No Joy’s female-driven shoegaze rock
comes into its own on More Faithful,
the band’s third full-length release.
Though their fuzzy guitars, hushed vocals, and trippy reverb could hardly be called mainstream, More
Faithful approaches pop more closely than any of No Joy’s
previous releases. Singer/guitarist Jasamine White-Gluz’s vocals
are less hidden behind noise this time, and they’ve added elements of electropop, sounding closer to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
than Sonic Youth. Sweet vocal harmonies shine on “Everything
New” and, in particular, “Rude Film,” which also highlights
the band’s ability to build layers in a song. No Joy: may cause
euphoria. –liz galvao
staff
pick
SOAK
Before We Forgot How To Dream
(Rough Trade Records)
SAUN & STARR
Rose Windows
(Sub Pop Records)
Look Closer
(Daptone Records)
After moving from Seattle to
Louisiana, experimental rockers Rose Windows picked up
the Delta blues and a taste
for the macabre that comes
through on their self-titled
sophomore album. On “The
Old Crow,” singer Rabia
Shaheen Qazi growls about
killing a guy before driving
off in her El Camino. In nine
tracks, the band slides from
American folk to psyche to
prog rock, and grapples with
the depressing lack of human interaction since urban
sprawl. But, with a little wahwah and Jethro Tull-style flute
(see: “Glory, Glory”), things
don’t seem quite so bad.
It’s hard to escape the
shadow of the star you’re
backing, but Sharon
Jones & the Dap-Kings
alums Saun & Starr do it
effortlessly. Look Closer
embodies hints of their
day job as back-up singers, with a twist. The title
track oozes funk and soul,
while other cuts like “Hot
Shot” and the horn-heavy
“If Only” draw from deep
blues. Both Saun and Starr
have flawless voices, as
evidenced by the powerful
“Big Wheel,” but at times,
Jones’ influence looms
large. Still, listen closely
to Look Closer, and you’ll
find a new pair of artists to
obsess over. These background singers have become stars. –kathy iandoli
–shannon
carlin
SHANA CLEVELAND &
THE SANDCASTLES
Oh Man, Cover the Ground
(Suicide Squeeze)
Best known for her band La Luz, musician Shana Cleveland’s latest release,
Oh Man, Cover the Ground, is one she’s
been working on with a group of alternating musicians known as
the Sandcastles. The album was not a meticulously planned production; instead, it focuses more on setting a mood with music.
The breeziness of this 13-track collection is evident throughout,
especially on the first single “Golden Days,” which has a semiimprovised feel. “Butter & Eggs” and “Holy Rollers” reveal the
group’s fondness for finger-picked acoustic guitar. These bluesy
tracks prove Cleveland has a tale to tell—and we should listen.
–lara
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streyle
photo by joshua halling
ROSE WINDOWS
Ireland’s Bridie Monds-Watson (aka SOAK) has been writing since
the tender age of 13. Now 18, the singer/songwriter brings new
meaning to the phrase “wise beyond her years” with Before We
Forgot How to Dream. These songs offer incredibly emotive stories
with an outpouring of worldly commentary, and a unique, yet wholly
relatable flare. After opening with a muffled soundscape, the album
moves from hushed confessions to soaring instrumentation. There’s
the bluesy “Sea Creatures,” the pulsing folk of “Garden,” and the
devastatingly stripped back “B a noBody.” Though SOAK has created an impressively varied album, it’s her words that will stay with
you for days. –sammy maine
TEI SHI
Verde
(Mermaid Avenue)
Singer/songwriter and producer Tei
Shi—real name Valerie Teicher—draws
from a vast array of genres on her Verde
EP, tying everything together with her
gorgeous, slinky vocals. The slow-burning “Get It” is a sparse,
R&B-inflected lover’s plea, while “Bassically” is a synth-led dance
number that brings to mind Class Actress or Glass Candy. “Go
Slow” is also a standout piece of bedroom pop, with its stilted
rhythms and breathy harmonies. Plan to keep Verde on heavy
rotation during those late summer nights when there’s no such
thing as too many glasses of rosé. –eliza c. thompson
ANDREYA TRIANA
Giants
(Counter Records)
Andreya Triana breathes fresh
air into the musical zeitgeist
on her soulful LP Giants.
From its opening experimental tracks “Paperwalls”
and “Gold,” to its tried and
true piano ballads “Song For
A Friend” and “Everything
You Never Had,” the album
has something for everyone.
Triana’s raw, throaty voice
is set against a variety of
backdrops, ranging from the
quirky, off-beat “Paperwalls,”
to the gentle string staccato
in the title track. Trying out
new sounds works in Triana’s
favor. Even though each song
has a distinct framework, her
voice remains a consistent,
driving force that guides you
through the collection.
–alexa
tietjen
UNKNOWN MORTAL
ORCHESTRA
Multi-Love
(Jagjaguwar)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
follows up 2012’s II with
the even funkier Multi-Love.
Combining psychedelic rock
and synth-filled funk à la
Cut Copy and Metronomy,
the band explores the inner workings of love and
relationships on their third
record, a far cry from II’s
themes of loneliness. “Ur
Life One Night” and “Can’t
Keep Checking My Phone”
are readymade for indie
dance floors and cool house
parties across America, just
in time for summer. The
album drags on a bit toward
the end with extended instrumental solos, but the
bouncy bass lines of MultiLove’s highs more than
make up for its lows.
–steve
edelstone
79
event pics
BUST Craftacular’s Primped
stylish snaps from our indie fashion and beauty fair in brooklyn, April 19, 2015
car2go put primpers’ faces on the
cover of BUST at the photo booth
Brooklyn Charm had a huge selection of customizable jewelry
All-female, all-badass mariachi band, Flor de Toloache
spent the afternoon serenading everyone
Folks got their knit on at
Wool and the Gang knit parties
The free raffle basket was overflowing with
goodies made by our very own vendors
Beautiful BUSTies picked up
free issues of the magazine
New (temporary) ink from Tattoonie Designs
was laid down on attendees’ skin all day
Serious relaxation was happening with hand
massages using Dr. Bronner’s all-natural lotions
The ladies from Floss Gloss helped
people get their DIY nail art looking fresh
Objects With Purpose had smiles for free
and skin care candles for sale
Fringe Salon transformed tresses
at the super popular braid bar
80
The Organic Face put a fresh look on lots of faces
Illustrator
Nicole Daddona
friend cosmetics
with
their gorgeous,
natural,and
toxin-free
Find the latest BUST Craftacular news and photos at bust.com/craftacular.
PHOTOS: shen williams-cohen, madison nunes
Our second annual BUST Craftacular’s
Primped Fair brought some serious fashion and
beauty game back to Brooklyn with shopping,
lunching, and all-day pampering. The crowd was
treated to great tunes from DJ Ali Gruber, free spa
services and salon treatments, jewelry-making workshops, and craft classes. Kisses and hugs to our
sponsors: car2go, Green Mountain Energy, Square,
Mail Chimp, Floss Gloss, Black Phoenix Alchemy
Lab, Dr. Bronner’s, Wool and the Gang, The Organic Face, Fringe Salon, Brooklyn Charm, Sublime
Stitching, Nubian Heritage, Rouge NY, ACURE,
Strawberry Hedgehog, RUNA, Shwings, iheartkeenwah, Schmidt’s Deodorant, and Tattoonie Designs.
great
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gifts
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THE BUST GUIDE / Movies
Gemma’s similarities to Madame Bovary and
attempts to stop her from meeting the same
tragic end.
This adaptation manages to be a witty comedy, a literary homage, a steamy romance, and
a captivating drama all at once. The dialogue
switches often between English and subtitled
French, but don’t let that scare you off. If you
love Madame Bovary, Gemma is a must-see.
But even if you’re not a fan, there’s still plenty
to enjoy. –erika w. smith
Nina Simone
Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, and Jason Schwartzman
what happened, miss simone?
Directed by Liz Garbus
Out June 24
the overnight
The full range of jazz and blues legend Nina Simone’s tortured, brilliant life is at the heart
of Liz Garbus’ new music doc, and the results are amazing. “What happened, Miss Simone?” was writer Maya Angelou’s question, when Simone took off for Liberia after a decade
of civil rights activism, and stopped singing. To find the answer, Garbus traces her path
from classically trained pianist, to lounge act, to chart-topper. In the 1960s she expressed
her rage in the song “Mississippi Goddam” and found, in civil rights music, the “mainstay”
of her life. “I could sing to help my people,” she says. But this came at huge personal cost.
Garbus is especially good at letting Simone do most of the talking. The film weaves
together her taped interviews and diary entries with stories from her ex-husband and
daughter. When an interviewer asks about freedom, she says it’s having no fear. Then the
film cuts to the first lines of “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free,” with Simone
singing into a duct-taped microphone, her muscled arms pounding a piano, and her voice
taking over. –phoebe magee
Gemma Arterton and Fabrice Luchini
gemma bovery
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Out May 29
Gemma Bovery is Madame Bovary twice removed. The film is director Anne Fontaine’s
boob ratings
82
OMG AMAZING
interpretation of cartoonist Posy Simmonds’
graphic novel of the same name—itself a
modern-day, satirical interpretation of Gustave
Flaubert’s classic. Viewers don’t have to be
familiar with either Flaubert’s or Simmonds’
works to understand and enjoy Gemma, but
it will certainly help. The film follows French
baker and Flaubert enthusiast Martin Joubert
(Fabrice Luchini) as he becomes obsessed with
his new neighbor, a beautiful English expatriate named Gemma (Gemma Arterton) who is
married to a furniture restorer (Jason Flemyng).
Like Flaubert’s main character, Gemma grows
bored with her marriage, begins an affair,
and falls into debt. Joubert is all too aware of
DAMN GOOD
JUST OK
Written and directed by Patrick Brice
Out June 19
For a movie about two wealthy, white, married
couples, The Overnight does a remarkably successful job of challenging norms. Though the
story begins fairly predictably—new-in-town
L.A. husband and wife Alex (Adam Scott) and
Emily (Taylor Schilling) strike up a friendship
with hip dad Kurt (Jason Schwartzman) at the
park—it never settles in to standard couples
comedy terrain. Rather, when Emily and Alex
join Kurt and his wife Charlotte (Judith Godrèche) at their place for pizza, viewers get
a realistic look at the complex dynamics of
romantic relationships and the hilarious awkwardness of budding friendships. Plot reveals
are consistently countered with dark jokes, uncomfortable conversations, and blurred sexual
lines by Schilling—who maintains the relatable
skepticism she mastered on Orange is the New
Black—and by Scott and Schwartzman, whose
comedic chemistry is incredibly engaging.
An added bonus is the film’s refreshing look
at male body image issues. After Alex reveals
he is ashamed of his tiny package, Kurt’s
guidance leads him to an empowering feeling of self-love. Viewers become so intimately
acquainted with each character’s insecurities that by the end, it’s like we’ve all gotten
through that awkward getting-to-know-you
phase together. –marissa dubecky
COULD BE WORSE
DON’T BOTHER
the bust guide / Books
Church of Marvels: A Novel
By Leslie Parry
(Ecco)
LIT
PICK
Saint Mazie: A Novel
Set in New York City at the turn
of the century, Leslie Parry’s
debut novel begins with Sylvan
Threadgill discovering a baby
girl while cleaning toilets. From
there, we are introduced to
Odile Church, a Coney Island
sideshow performer who lost her mother to a fire and is desperately seeking her runaway sister. Shortly after, we meet Alphie, a
woman who wakes up in a mental institution without any idea why.
Bound together by this baby, Parry’s characters form a bittersweet
band of desperate outsiders who are tired of hiding—even if it’s
in plain sight. From the descriptions of the Coney Island sideshow
performers to the seedy characters who frequent the Lower East
Side tenements, Parry writes in breathtaking detail that will have
you re-reading lines in hopes they’ll be permanently etched in your
brain. More impressive is how expertly the story is plotted, with
each chapter giving way to a new twist. (Don’t skip the epilogue, or
you’ll miss the biggest twist of all.) Throughout, Parry sprinkles in
hints that may seem inconsequential on first read, but that make
this novel worthy of a second go-round. You may even choose to
re-read it the minute you’ve finished. –shannon carlin
By Jami Attenberg
(Grand Central Publishing)
The most upsetting thing about Saint Mazie is also
the most impressive: it’s a work of historical fiction, and the protagonist is primarily a product of
author Jami Attenberg’s imagination. While she
uses a 1940 New Yorker profile, “Mazie” by Joseph
Mitchell, as a starting point, Attenberg spins her
own tale about what life was like for quintessential
New Yorker Mazie P. Gordon, before she became the
“Queen of the Bowery.”
At the start of the epistolary novel, which mostly
consists of Mazie’s diary entries, she’s a spunky,
20-year-old “good time gal” who reluctantly works
in the Venice Theatre box office on the Bowery. But
when the Depression hits, she inherits the Venice
and uses her own money to care for the homeless
who slump against the theater’s walls. Attenberg
excels at developing Mazie’s voice as she grows from
an impetuous, witty girl, into a shrewd-yet-selfless
character. But the book is largely about the silent
tragedies of womanhood, and the different forms
love and loneliness can take. The term used most
often in the book, besides “streets,” is “human being”—and that’s what Saint Mazie is most concerned
with: how to be a human being. –maura hehir
boob ratings
OMG AMAZING
The Diver’s Clothes
Lie Empty: A Novel
By Vendela Vida
(Ecco)
San Francisco-based writer Vendela
Vida has an uncanny ability for
creating women so real, it’s like
saying goodbye to a friend when
you finish reading one of her novels.
(Including 2007’s superb Let the
Northern Lights Erase Your Name and 2010’s The Lovers). Her latest,
The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, is no exception. The friend we meet in
these pages is a 33-year-old woman who’s traveled—or, perhaps more
accurately, run away—to Morocco, where a theft upon her arrival in
Casablanca strips her of her money, and, more importantly, her identity. The second-person point of view entrenches the reader deeply in
the narrator’s tale, and you’ll begin to feel as anxious and unmoored
as she does, trying to navigate a strange and unsettling city brought
to life by Vida’s sparsely potent descriptions. A famous American
actress, a Russian millionaire, and a kind Swiss journalist are just a
few of the characters readers meet along the way, as Vida gears up to
reveal why her protagonist is running in the first place. This riveting
tale of intrigue reminds us that in the end, the only thing you can
never truly lose is yourself. –lisa butterworth
DAMN GOOD
JUST OK
COULD BE WORSE
DON’T BOTHER
83
Every Father’s Daughter:
Twenty-Four Women Writers
Remember Their Fathers
Find Me: A Novel
By Laura Van Den Berg
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Edited by Margaret McMullan
(McPherson & Company)
Unable to find a book that helped
her make sense of the incredible loss
and loneliness she felt following her
father’s death, Margaret McMullan
compiled her own. A collection of 24
female writers’ personal essays about their dads, Every Father’s Daughter is an honest, often heart-rending look at the significance of the
father/daughter bond. The compilation’s beauty lies in its contributors’
willingness to express their raw emotions. And though McMullan paints
an idyllic picture of her relationship with her own dad in the introduction, the essays she features do not shy away from the flawed and
complicated experiences of many of her favorite writers. As the authors
describe their upbringings, they prove that no matter how present—or
in several cases, absent—a father is, he plays a large role in the shaping of his daughter. Despite the fact that many writers touch on painful
memories, the book is ultimately a celebration of fathers and all they
teach us, directly or indirectly. Featuring contributions from prizewinning authors such as Alice Munro, Jane Smiley, Maxine Hong Kingston,
and Bliss Broyard, McMullan’s collection will help women to understand, cherish, or grieve their dads. –marissa dubecky
Good Mourning: A Memoir
By Elizabeth Meyer with Caitlin
Moscatello
In this beautifully surreal
and thought-provoking novel,
author Laura Van Den Berg
explores identity and choice in
a post-apocalyptic America. A
disease has killed off hundreds
of thousands of people—a
malady marked by silver blisters and fatally escalating forgetfulness—leaving society lost and uncertain. Protagonist Joy leaves
her invisible, Robitussin-fueled existence to join others like
herself who are immune to the illness at a hospital where they
are all being studied. It’s a journey that leads her on a quest to
meet her mother, who abandoned her at birth. Employing poetic
prose and a dab of magical realism, Van Den Berg explores the
fluidity of memory, and how mysteries of the mind tie in to selfidentity and free will. Unfortunately, some aspects of her story
don’t seem fully developed, leaving the reader with questions
regarding background and motivation. But Joy’s growth and the
author’s surreal writing make this book, which ends on a hopeful
note, worth succumbing to. –ann mayhew
H Is For Hawk
By Helen Macdonald
(Grove Press)
(Gallery Books)
Elizabeth Meyer’s memoir opens with
a reminder of the fate that awaits
us all. And although death is woven
through nearly every page in this tale
of Meyer’s time working at an upscale N.Y.C. funeral home, her book
is more lighthearted than morbid. Her career may have been borne out
of the experience of losing her beloved father, but once Meyer sets out
to transform herself from spoiled brat to hard-working and compassionate funeral coordinator, her narrative becomes more buoyant.
Meyer is a socialite, casually name-dropping the brands of her uncomfortable heels and pseudonym-dropping within her stories of the
rich and famous she’s buried. (While she changes names, the details
she provides are often Google-able.) She owns her significant privilege,
and tells how her time in this line of work changed not only her ideas
about mortality, but also her take on clubbing until 4 a.m. While Meyer
deftly frames dark subject matter in accessible, readable ways, Good
Mourning feels a little like supermarket-checkout-line reading. Sometimes salacious, often tongue-in-cheek with a bit of bite, the book is
too fun to be sad, but too sad to be fun. –christine femia
84
Helen Macdonald is just like
us. She’s a daughter, sister,
and friend. She watches bad
TV, smokes cigarettes, and
writes. But she’s also an experienced falconer, having been
fascinated by hawks since
childhood. When her dad suddenly dies, she decides to raise a
goshawk, an especially challenging species. The bird soon becomes
her distraction and her guide. “The hawk was everything I wanted
to be,” she writes, “solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and
numb to the hurts of human life.” Macdonald finds herself utterly
lost in the wild, ferocious bloodthirstiness of hunting with her hawk,
Mabel. She dives into her old falconry reference books, too, drawing
largely from T.H. White’s The Goshawk to guide her. But the great
gift of this part memoir, part nature essay, is that Macdonald makes
this journey her own. She tells the story of a modern British woman
mourning the loss of her father through the ancient and magical art
of falconry, and she does it with humor and eloquence. It is a book
only Macdonald could write, and how fortunate readers are that she
has. –gina marie vasoli
How To Be a Heroine:
Or, What I’ve Learned From Reading Too Much In The Country: Stories By Mia Alvar (Alfred A. Knopf)
By Samantha Ellis (Vintage Books)
Every bookish lady will relate to Samantha Ellis’ How To Be A Heroine.
Part memoir, part feminist lit crit, the
book opens with a revelation. While
visiting the Yorkshire moors, Ellis
realizes that she’s spent her whole life trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of
Wuthering Heights, when she should have been aiming for Jane Eyre
instead. Ellis then leads readers through her childhood in an Iraqi Jewish community in London, her career as a journalist and playwright,
and several romances, all through the lens of literature. She also examines dozens of heroines and shares what she learned from them, both
good and bad: for example, Scarlett O’Hara taught her resilience and
independence, but also brought on an obsession with waist size.
Refreshingly, Ellis goes beyond the classics to examine pop culture
phenomena like Twilight and Just Kids. And while this gives readers
many different types of heroines to consider, it also means much of
the book contains sometimes-tedious plot summaries. On the bright
side, you’ll definitely have a new reading list to tackle when you’re
finished. –erika w. smith
Irritable Hearts:
A PTSD Love Story
By Mac McClelland
(Flatiron Books)
Irritable Hearts, by award-winning
journalist Mac McClelland, is a
stunning account of the post-traumatic stress disorder she developed while on assignment in Haiti.
A must-read for its serrated edge
of honesty, this memoir blazes with pain and brutal candor. And
even with years of treatment, it’s clear that McClelland has fought
tooth and nail for every iota of recovery she’s gained, no matter how
devastating her truth is to face.
McClelland’s meticulously researched reporting on PTSD, its history, its treatment, and its effects on sufferers and their loved ones,
makes Irritable Hearts a landmark book not only in the field of autobiography, but also in mental health research. And her rich descriptions of the people she encounters—from the French gendarme she
falls in love with in Haiti, to veterans’ wives working to de-stigmatize
PTSD, to her therapist in San Francisco—highlight her hard-won
journalistic chops. In our trigger-warning culture, it’s more important
than ever to hear from survivors in a very real way, and to acknowledge that, even though trauma is all around us, wrapping ourselves
in cotton wool isn’t the answer. –jenni miller
86
Narrated from perspectives that
span class lines and national
boundaries, author Mia Alvar’s
short stories, set between the
1960s and the present, detail
the daily lives of people living in
both the Philippines and in the
country’s diaspora communities. Stereotypes crumble under Alvar’s unflinching gaze, inviting readers to judge by appearances at
their own risk. In one of the collection’s 13 stories, an American
model, raw with grief over the death of her best friend, heads to
the Philippines to find work and has sex with a local who casually
scorns her as a selfish, spoiled Yankee. In another tale, a boy with
no legs is confronted by a horrible secret and struggles with feelings of betrayal as he comes to terms with having his most comforting illusions ripped away. In the title selection, the longest one
in the book, a reporter’s wife copes with her child’s kidnapping
and murder while wrestling with the belief that her husband sacrificed their child’s life to politics. With each powerful and emotionally charged story, readers will be hooked in surprisingly resonant
ways. –renate robertson
Sex, Drugs, and
Rock ‘n’ Roll:
The Science of
Hedonism and the
Hedonism of Science
By Zoe Cormier
(Da Capo Press)
Zoe Cormier’s Sex, Drugs,
and Rock ‘n’ Roll is the science book you wish you had
in high school. Captivating from beginning to end, it explains
how diddling, narcotics, and noise have advanced science
(and vice versa), and how these three factors alone unite all
animals. Tidy subchapters including “Of Monkey Balls and Millionaires,” “Silence of the Science,” and “Turn Up the Bass”
tackle burning questions such as “What’s a penis bone?” and
“How do reindeer get high?” Plus, you’ll finally find out why
foot rubs are so awesome, whether drugs are necessary for
musical experimentation, and how the inner ear’s tiniest bones
evolved. A consistent theme throughout SDRR is that scientific beliefs, no matter how favored, are sometimes debunked.
And while homo sapiens still have room for evolution, we are
unique in how we experience bodily pleasures. –whitney dwire
87
SuperMutant Magic Academy
By Jillian Tamaki
(Drawn and Quarterly)
Take us
with you!
BONUS
CONTENT:
VIDEOS,
MUSIC, AND
MORE!
The students at Jillian Tamaki’s
SuperMutant Magic Academy may
have more classes on spells than
spelling, but veering from most fictional fantasy schools, the focus in
this graphic novel is always on teen
angst over teen sorcery. There’s no
tight narrative thread weaving these comics together. Instead, each
panel paints the characters more vividly, from Frances the performing artist who floats above the normal high school drama, to Cheddar
who sees school as a major inconvenience to his social life. The
students’ friendships are richly explored too, especially the relationship between popular, bubbly Wendy and her D & D-loving roommate
Marsha, who’s kind of in love with her.
Artist/author Jillian Tamaki already has an impressive rep in the
comics world, first creating installments of SuperMutant Magic
Academy online in 2010. And earlier this year, This One Summer,
a young-adult graphic novel she created with Mariko Tamaki, was
named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. There are definitely some
moments when the lack of strong narrative is frustrating and the
comic seems to lack a conclusion. But overall, this collection is a
great read for comic fans and genre newbies alike. –molly horan
The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan
By Rafia Zakaria
(Beacon Press)
Buy a digital
subscription to BUST
and read it anywhere:
on your desktop, laptop,
iPad, iPhone, or any
Android device.
bust.com/subscribe
88
The 2007 assassination of former
Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto devastated author Rafia
Zakaria. Bhutto was “the freest
woman” she knew, and Zakaria
uses Bhutto’s tragic death as a
stepping-off place to explore the sacrifices and misfortunes of her
own family, Indian Muslims who sought freedom in post-Partition
Pakistan as the country transformed from a nation of promise to
a tightly-controlled extremist state. At the heart of Zakaria’s story
is her aunt Amina—a once-free woman, the first in her generation
to attend college—whose husband shocked and shamed the whole
family by taking a second wife. This symbolized for Zakaria the
start of an “increasingly unquestioned conservatism” in Pakistan,
and the country’s dangerous collision of politics and religion.
But around her family’s heartbreak, we’re treated to Zakaria’s sophisticated prose (rich at best, overcrowded at worst), historical
detail, sharp memory, and evocative sense of place: the smells of
a crowded kitchen, the chaos of homebirth, and the rice paddies
that dot the landscape. In these affecting observations and in her
willingness to share her family stories, Zakaria emerges herself as
the very model of a “free woman.” –molly labell
SEX FILES
We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
get off online
with these sexy
sites that women
actually want to
watCh, too
Everybody’s gotta get off.
Thankfully, the Internet, with
its raging smorgasbord of smut
to satisfy any fancy, was pretty
much expressly designed for
that purpose. (Also, for cat
photos.) Though lots of the
porn out there is still made by
and for men, it’s possible to
find X-rated entertainment that
will treat you (and your favorite
adult performers) juuuuuust
right. Curious? These sexy
BUST-approved sites are sure
to make you feel good about
jilling off.
TRENCHCOATx.com
There’s plenty to set this “curated
smut” site apart from the rest—
from founders Stoya and Kayden
Kross’ attitudes towards paying
performers fairly to the quality of
the hardcore clips available. There’s
no membership fee; instead, you
pay per scene based on whatever
tickles your fancy, from more runof-the-mill (but hot!) hetero scenes
to steamy genderfuckery with stars
like Jiz Lee and Dana Vespoli.
PinkLabel.tv
This award-winning feminist queer
porn hub offers “high quality, fairtrade adult cinema” with an impressive range of options to satisfy
any naughty urge. Sign up for a free
account and rent streaming movies
to your heart’s content. PinkLabel
features a delightful variety of body
types, ethnicities, and gender identities—and tons of tattoos, too. Plus,
each video’s indie filmmaker gets a
commission with every rental.
IFeelMyself.com
Don’t let the cheesy opening
music fool you. Full of artfully
filmed, high-definition videos of
real women having real orgasms,
IFeelMyself is beautiful and titillating. Choose from studio-shot
clips, DIY vids, close-ups, solo
shows, or fun with more than one
other person. All the models are
paid for their submissions, plus
potential bonuses based on their
traffic. Sister site BeautifulAgony.
com features just the O-faces of
their contributors, who range in
gender and preferences.
CockyBoys.com
If you love watching hot guys go
at it, CockyBoys.com just might
be your new best friend. The gayowned-and-operated site features a
hefty collection of hardcore videos
of gorgeous men getting very dirty.
You can buy scenes and films in a
variety of formats, or even purchase
them on DVD if you’re feeling retro.
The site also has a refreshingly
upbeat vibe; the front page bears a
manifesto reminding viewers that
“gay is good.”
MakeLoveNotPorn.tv
MLNP is a “real-world sex” site
started by a kickass entrepreneur
named Cindy Gallop (who was featured in BUST’s Feb/Mar 2015 issue). A crowd-sourced video-rental
site with very, ahem, intimate contributions from everyday individuals and couples, MLNP is all about
sex-positive inclusivity minus your
typical triple-X tropes. Plus, half of
every $5 video rental goes directly
to the person who made it. And, if
you feel the desire to share your
own #realworldsex, you can follow
their guidelines to submit videos
and earn cash yourself.
–laura barcella
89
SEX FILES
Questions for the Queen
I had my baby by way of VBAC
(vaginal birth after C-section)
nine months ago. I have only had
sex twice since then, and each
Carol Queen is a
time I feel way too tight. I had a small tear on the
staff sexologist at
Good Vibrations
inner wall while giving birth and it healed OK,
but recently I felt it after having sex, and there is
a knot of painful scar tissue. Do I keep having sex to work it out or seek some
other help? –Baby Got VBAC
Q:
A:
Are you breastfeeding? I ask because breastfeeding alters
your hormone levels and may contribute to vaginal dryness and difficulty becoming fully aroused—this could be a
reason you feel too tight. The next time you have sex, make sure you have
enough time to relax and get sensual, and work up to penetration with as
much arousal-promoting play as you can manage. One element of postbaby sexual problems really is the pressure to have a quickie rather than a
luxe lovemaking session.
Some people have more problems with scarring than others; if you are
prone to keloids or other scar problems, you might need to see a specialist.
First, though, talk to your OB/GYN about the scar tissue you feel. You may
also want to visit a pelvic floor specialist. “Too tight” can also mean that
your PC muscles are in spasm, and both vaginal scarring and postpartum
pelvic floor issues may be something the pelvic floor specialist will have
more information about than most other practitioners. Your scar tissue
can possibly be addressed by lubrication-enhanced vaginal massage, but
get an expert opinion to maximize your chances of coming out of this without ongoing vaginal pain.
I recently found out that I have HPV. I’ve spoken with my doctor and understand that it’s very common, but even with all
this information, I’m facing a lot of shame, guilt, and worry.
I’m not only worried about the possibility of cancer (which
looms large in my mind), but also about dating. Is HPV something I should tell future partners about? How can I talk about it without
making it seem like an admission of guilt? Any comforting words you might
have to offer would be greatly appreciated and might help me sleep at night,
or cry less. –Law & Order: HPV
Q:
As you must know from your research, if there weren’t life after HPV, a whole lot of people wouldn’t be with us. The CDC
estimates about 79 million people in the U.S. have HPV. Not all
strains cause cancer, and at the moment it’s thought that about
a dozen types are responsible for HPV-associated cancers, with just a couple of
those being associated with most cases.
There are two things about your situation I hear from others, too: fear of
health impact, and fear and shame when it comes to talking to potential sex
A:
90
partners. It sounds like you and your doc are
addressing this first issue, so I’d just remind
you to stay aware about health issues on a
holistic level. In a fairly sex-negative society
like ours, STCs (sexually transmitted conditions) compound the reasons you might
feel bad about having sex. But they’re just
microbes. They, and zillions of others, live
with us and on us. They do their thing, and
sometimes that’s a problem for us human
hosts, and sometimes, as with beneficial gut
or vaginal bacteria, it helps us stay healthy.
You can have sex without catching a bug and
you can have sex with catching a bug, and it’s
the same act. You didn’t do anything wrong.
Sometimes, people decide that they’ll
have safer sex only, whether they know they
have an STC or to avoid getting one in the
first place. They announce it to their partners up front, and that’s that. Many people
use barrier methods regularly to prevent
pregnancy and STCs. There’s no shame in
it, and it’s pretty easy to figure out. Other
times, people disclose what they know about
their STC status and negotiate about what
their partner wishes to do. It’s fairly likely
that said new partner already has an STC,
regardless of whether or not they know it.
You’re stressed that you have to protect
them from you, but remember that you also
want to protect yourself from them. You’re
not broken or dirty, and neither are they.
Bugs hitch a ride; it’s what they do.
If you communicate with a new flame
about your safer sex preferences, and they
give you grief, guess what? That’s not the
only thing they’ll give you grief about. Seek
out people who are comfortable talking
about sex. Besides it being easier to address
safer sex, they are also way easier to communicate with about pleasure—win-win!
My new book, The Sex & Pleasure Book: Good
Vibrations’ Guide to Great Sex For Everyone, addresses this issue and more. You can
also look into HPV support groups like HPV
Hope (hpvhope.com).
Got a sex or relationship question you need
answered? Submit it at bust.com/sex
illustration: Marcellus Hall
Dr. Carol Queen takes on boning after baby and hpv angst
92
one-handed read
Raising the Saddle
sexy cyclists straddle more
than just their bike seats
The downtown bike shop operates a valet service on the side. It’s
not cheap, but it’s a small price to pay for the pleasure of starting my mornings with a pack of rangy, tattooed bike mechanics at least a decade younger
than I am. The place is always bustling before 9 a.m., but when I stroll in this
morning after 11, it looks completely unmanned. As I’m propping my bike in
the rack, I hear someone behind me.
“How’s your saddle?” I spin around to see a handsome Korean guy with a
shaggy pompadour and horn-rimmed glasses walking out of the back.
“It’s...fine? You startled me. Oh, you raised my seat last week!” It occurs to
me that he’s also replaced the bolt on my rack and refilled my tires.
“Yeah,” he says, wiping his hands on a blue bandanna. His nails are painted
with chipping gold glitter.
“Actually, I think it might be too high,” I tell him. “I always feel like I’m
about to fall over when I stop. It’s hard to get on and off.”
“That’s the worst,” he says, his eyes on mine.
“Maybe it’s the angle,” I say, after a beat.
“I can work on that,” he says. “Do you want to stay here?” I shrug and nod,
so he starts riffling through a tray behind the counter, comes back around
with a set of Allen wrenches, and kneels on the other side of the bike. “This
should help you get off,” he says, standing up just inches from me and taking
his hand off my saddle. “Try it.”
I look over my shoulder at the entrance to the shop. “Put your hand back,” I
tell him. He looks at me steadily and places his hand back on the leather.
“No one comes in this time of day,” he assures me. I ease myself on top of
his hand and lean forward so his knuckles are directly under my clit. I gasp
when he bends his fingers, puts his free hand on my lower back, and leans
into my ear. “Is that better?” he asks. He kisses my ear as I grind against him.
Soon his tongue is in my mouth. “We’re closed for lunch between 12 and 1,”
he whispers. “But I can close early, if you want.” I nod. He locks the door,
turns the sign around, and wheels my bike into the back. I follow him into the
office, lean against the wall, and smile as he shuts the door and locks it. “My
name’s Trevor,” he says.
“Is this how you usually spend your lunch break, Trevor?” I ask. He pulls
me to him and kisses me again.
“No,” he replies. “I usually eat lunch.” I laugh. “Wait a minute,” he says,
disappearing behind a door. I hear water running, and when he comes out, he
shows me his clean hands. I smile, and Trevor’s clean, cool hands go under
my tank top, cupping my breasts through the lace bra. He maneuvers me onto
the desk as I pull off his T-shirt, revealing the colors of his tattooed sleeve
and the traditional heart-and-swallows across his chest. He shivers as I lick
his tattoo, and moans as I tease his nipple with my tongue and teeth. I start to
unbutton his pants but he stops me.
Trevor pulls down my leggings and the little lycra skirt I wear over them
and kneels down. I scoot forward and he licks my thighs, then looks up at me.
“Next time I do this, I want you fresh off
your bike.” He opens my legs and drags
his tongue along my clit, using his chin
to push with gentle pressure against
my pussy. He slips three fingers into my
mouth to suck and then slides one slick
finger inside of me at a time. Just as I’m
about to come, he stops and withdraws.
I growl and reach for the waistband of
his jeans. A quick unzip reveals Trevor’s
beautiful cock, thick and slightly bent.
He puts the condom on quickly and I
wrap my legs around him. The first few
rocks are tremendous, and as he fucks
me deeper, an electric thrum barrels
through my veins. I come with a shiver,
closing tight around him. He puts his
hand on the desk below us and feels the
wetness. Then he carefully pulls out and
bends me over the desk. My chest rubs
against papers and manila envelopes,
rubbery handlebar grips and random
valve caps. He pulls my tank top up and
kisses my back, inhaling deeply.
“Put your fingers in my mouth again,” I
tell him. I suck and bite them as he fucks
me harder, and the wave washes over me
again, lightning all over. Trevor slowly
slides a wet finger into my asshole, and
I wriggle up against him so I am full of
him, everywhere. I come again, and this
time he does too, grunting and panting
my name, which he knows from the valet
register, but hasn’t said until now. He
turns me back around, laying me back
on the desk and covering my body with
his torso. “I’m glad you asked about my
saddle,” I say.
Kissing me, he grins. “You should have
heard what I wanted to say to you when I
fixed your rack last month.” – fanny bae
Send your original One-Handed Read to
submissions@bust.com and you may see
it in an upcoming issue of BUST !
BUST (ISSN 1089-4713), No. 93, June/July 2015. BUST is published bi-monthly in Feb/Mar, Apr/May, June/July, Aug/Sept, Oct/Nov, and Dec/Jan by BUST, Inc. 18 West 27th Street, 9th Floor, New
York, NY, 10001. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices, payable in U.S. funds, are $19.95 for one year (6 issues). Additional
postage: In Canada add $10 per year, and in all other foreign countries add $20 per year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BUST, INC. P.O. BOX 16775, NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA, 91615.
93
IN STORES NOW!
glasses
necklace
great
girly
gifts
shop the bustboobtique.com
94
X GAMES by Tracy Bennett
Second Wave Wisdom
Across
1. Winehouse hit from Back to Black
6. Priestly French dude
10. Premature ejaculator’s utterance
14. ___ acid (protein builder)
15. One-handed read, perhaps
16.Destroy
17. No-tell ___ (trysting spot)
18. Writer in Tamblyn’s “corner”
19. Fey of Bossypants
20. Start of a 1970s feminist quip often
attributed to 53-Across
23. Speak crow, in a way
25. Shop ___ you drop
26. ___-fi (Alien genre)
27. Scannable bars on mdse.
28. Part 2 of the quip in 20-Across
32. Big brawls
33. Spreading quickly, as an
Internet meme
34. “La ___ Bonita” (Madonna song)
35. “Illmatic” rapper
36. Tosses in
40. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse ___
43. Reenact Meg Ryan’s legendary
45.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
57.
58.
59.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
lunch scene in When Harry Met
Sally, say
End of the quip in 20 and 28-Across
___ Arbor, Michigan
Snowden’s former workplace,
for short
Baby salamander
Street haunted by Freddy
Ms. Magazine co-founder portrayed
by Marisa Tomei in an upcoming
HBO miniseries
___ pot (deteriorate)
Linguist/activist Chomsky
Guilty confession when you’ve just
been mean but hilarious
Tied up
Like Michaelangelo’s David
Cutlass ___ (old Olds)
Arnaz who married Lucille
Banned apple pesticide
Went astray
Down
1.Head-butt
2. One Paramore genre
3. Come to an impasse
4. All over again
5. Cowboi accessory
6.Disgust
7. Great blessing
8. Beers for bros
9. Seductive sort
10. Combining form meaning “straight”
11. Yvette’s climactic approval
12. Poster models like Bettie Page
13. Crass vadge
21. Long to hold again
22.___-CREF
23. Strappy top, briefly
24. Iowa college town
29. “___ the cover of October skies…”
(“Moondance” lyric)
30. The Donald’s first wife
31. Unreliable and ditz-like
35. No one
37. Month of the longest night
38. Pickler’s herb
39. ___ cell research
41. Kama Sutra pussy
42. Alabama banjo-player’s sweetheart,
in a folk song
43. Cliché French poodle name
44. “Don’t be a jerk”
45. Shook, as a tail or finger
46. Beyond smitten
47. Some govt. investments
48. Trust fund kid’s first car, slangily
54.Rice-A-___
55. “Be amazed by this magic!”
56. Saudi ruler
60. FUN.’s “We ___ Young”
61. Many a lullaby singer
Answers to “Knitting Circles”
from the APR/MAY ’15 issue.
For answers to this issue’s puzzle,
see the next issue of BUST.
95
Parting Glance
96
“untitled (Romantic Story)”
by Heather Benjamin
Ink on paper.
Image courtesy of the artist, heather-benjamin.tumblr.com
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anywhere online. The only place to get this rare content in either digital or print format is our back-issue
store, where these fine cover-gals (and guys!) are still available for only $5.99 for a limited time.
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no sex? no prob. - Oberlin College

Transcription

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