“No More Daddy’s Little Girl”- a book by Karen Lee.

Before i read Karen Lee’s book, i received plenty of comments pertaining to it.
Most of them were negative, criticizing aspects from grammar and style of writing to content.

I bought the book anyway, complete with her autograph on it. You never know till you read it, i thought to myself. Besides, i believe in supporting the first Singaporean lesbian autobiography. In the same train of thought [to support local queer writings], i bought the Chinese publication “tong lei” by OC. I finished the book in a couple of days, snatching moments before bedtime and during dinnertime.

The first half of the book touched on her early crushes, with a heavy emphasis on her involvement in Girls’ Brigade. Parts of the book provided information in somewhat random chunks. Sometimes the pieces were too brief to comprehend in detail. A characteristic, i surmised, as a result of length constraint. After sharing childhood memories, the story segued into her stints in Australia, Sweden and eventually Canada.

The greatest criticism was probably on content. Someone commented that the book is screwed up because Karen implied that she is gay as a result of being molested in her childhood. Indeed, in her coming out email to her parents, the uncanny pairing of the coming out declaration with the molest incident hinted at perceived causality. The person went on to say that the book gives fundies ammunition to target the lesbian population: you are gay because you are screwed up in your childhood. It was also pointed out that the book reflects badly on romantic relationships in the community. You can imagine a fundie going “look at how many flings Karen had! This is evidence that lesbian relationships are unstable.”

“She’s probably a screwed up lesbian,” was the concluding remark.

Editor’s Foreward: For the readers of our blog, Dinah Shore is an annual one-week long party for queer women, held in Palm Springs. One of our members, pink_is_in, recently decided to spend a weekend in Dinah Shore with her girlfriend, and here’s an account of her experience being surrounded by thousands of queer women bent on partying it up. Who said gay men were the only ones who knew how to party? Also, please note the personal views expressed herein are the author’s alone, and Sayoni in no way endorses or supports her views.

Vagina Heaven

Dinah Shore 2009 (Organised by Club Skirt) or I would rather call it Vagina Heaven was held at Palm Spring, California, USA. It's basically 5 days full of parties, concerts and babes. To tell you the truth, it sounds to good to be true. Its in the middle of nowhere (well, palm spring is 90% desert), full of hot girls, for almost a week. And the best part is they are lesbian, so the chances are pretty high to get lucky! *wink*wink*

Well, my girlfriend and I decided to go to VH since we are going to USA/Canada for our vacation this year. We were pretty excited and looking forward to the experience, since we were very bored with the lesbian scene in Singapore.

So here it is. The end. The finale of the series that has alternately kept on the edge of our seats, swear in despair, rush to the nearest bar to get a drink at the end of 13 episodes only to wait for the next season to begin, cry, laugh and generally provide a good fodder for gossip and some good old-fashioned bitchfest.

The reason this season review is two weeks late, is because I had to consult a therapist for the acute and schizophrenic feelings of loss and relief. It is kinda like ending a very bad/abusive relationship that just gets worse by the day – you are so glad it has ended (and it certainly feels nice not to be beaten up all the time) but at the same time, you have been with the woman for 5 years and letting go is hard, and you miss being around her.

So, here’s a season review, as tough as it was to write.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

This season is quite possibly the worst season in the entire series. It is like Ilene Chaiken decided that this was the last season, they can throw everything out the window and write whatever crap they wanted, make it as bad as possible so that they can wean us off the show. It is a pity because it started off as a really good series, with witty, sharp, raw writing and likeable characters (of course it had its fair share of criticism, mostly to do with representation). Representation, however, became the least of its issues later as the writers got infected with the dreaded What Happened Yesterday Is Irrelevant (WHYII), characters were routinely transplanted with new personalities (hey, maybe that’s where Joss Whedon got the idea for Dollhouse), and in some cases, got abducted by aliens and were never spoken of again (anyone remember Mark? Papi? Yeah I didn’t think so).

Sice it is the final season, we are letting our faithful viewers of The L Word let loose on their emotions about the final season, as it progressed episode by episode [the entire thread can be found here]. A season review is forthcoming as soon as this writer recovers from the punch the series finale dealt her.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Was it me or does Pam Grier’s contract read “limited lines only and must contain the phrase ‘baby girl’ at least 5 times per episode.”?

badriah

Get Dylan her hair cut back.
Get Max her facial hair cut back.
Stop putting ultra red lipstick on Bette.
Get Jenny killed. Faster.

O’Ren

I think, if not for the fact that I would rather kill myself than watch another episode of the L Word, the Shenny scenes are part of what makes the L Word a wee bit worth watching. It’s not really a drama without those two.

But I’d like to live a little longer, so I’d rather not watch the L Word

Antoinette

I will add the L Word as one of the 7 Wonders of the Lesbian World.

Wonder number 1: Why lesbians still watch The L Word when they always complain about how shitty the show is written along with bad acting from some characters (Max, Nikki Stevens, etc).

Anyways I’ve only just finished watching episode 4. And I want Dylan and Helena back together you may disagree all you want but the two of them are hot together. Ignore all the talking parts and fast forward to the good parts. (yes there are good parts on the L Word even though some say it’s just a myth).

Kudos to Shane for holding on to her sanity when she found her bedroom has been swallowed by Jenny’s brain and turned into Jenny’s very own f**ked-up-playground-crime-scene-for-another-bad-story-to-be-written-by-her. Shane finds herself in the worst place possible… Edgar Allan Poe’s story… no wait that is paradise.

The only way to save Max is to kill her. Let’s face it… Ilene has never been kind to Max. The moment Moira came in with her midwestern butchy-ness, she’s been made fun off. When she decided she wanted balls, she’s been made fun off. When Moira became Max he was made fun off. Even Alice was discriminating against transsexuals (WTF?). Max didn’t want to cut off his tits coz his gf helped get them to come to life. He had a bf. Got knocked up. Seriously just get random strangers to come up to him and beat the crap outta him. Kill him off. Nothing against transsexuals but give that dude some dignity.

Alice, Tasha and Jamie…. HOTTTTT! I like how the whole washing the dishes part is like a little foreplay for a threesome. The way jamie touched Tasha’s shoulder and Alice went over to kiss the other shoulder. Then Jamie hugged Alice then Tasha. The way Alice looks at Jamie and the way Tasha looks at Jamie. Jamie is like the missing link in the relationship.

Bette going back to galleries… hmm… back with her old love interest (we all know Bette likes to bang her co-workers)… Angelica needs children’s aid real soon.

Kit and Drag… They probably paid a lot of money for the Hit Club so they need to show that place no matter how small or how redundant the scene is. We get it… Kit swore off men. So she will sleep with a drag queen. Kit is into Drags… drag kings… queens… men, women… (remember papi?). See this is why alchoholics should not stop drinking. Their life will get f**ked up.

Bring Dawn Denbo back, put her in a wrestling ring, pour oil on her and throw Joyce in with her. Non-stop hot action (something that is lacking from this drama coz L Word is secretly a lesbian porn).

Badriah

Dylan looks really ugly in this season!

I totally adore their love scene at helena’s beach house for the first time. Maybe in this episode they are trying to create the same fire but its just … so so! no doubt the chemistry is still there!

pink_is_in

issit just me, or did this week’s episode of the l word hit new levels of crazy? the willy wonka baby shower was kinda creepy, and jenny really needs a straitjacket.

doubtedly

Yeah, they made us all voyeurs with Jamie taking off her clothes and Alice and Tasha having sex. Very kinky. Can anyone tell me why Jamie is sticking around them to this extent? But omg, that body.

nei

Ep 7 left me so depressed that I think I need to call Jon Stewart and perform a personal re-enactment of the episode for me. I cried at the Tasha-Alice-Jamie bits, and I almost threw something at the TV when Bette and Tina’s birth mother didn’t arrive (though I kinda saw that coming)

pleinelune

I think it’s better than they don’t come up with last episode if it’s going to be like THAT!

pikachu

So are they going to reveal how Jenny died?!

Anj