Articles
On International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), it’s important to consider how the representations of homophobia, biphobia, interphobia and transphobia in our news and fictional media are impacting how we view these issues, and how they affect queer youth. The way we position trans youth in relation to their families paints a …
The first time I tried amyl was not during sex. It was at a music festival west of Melbourne when I was about twenty-one. I’d lost my crew and during the search ran into my mate Dylan. He gave me a beer and dragged me to an experimental stage with a crazy light show and …
Last week I flew back to Sydney to celebrate Pesach (Passover) with my family. If you think seeing your parents once a year is a lot, try an Orthodox family and at least six major Jewish festivals a year. The seder, which recalls the exodus from Egypt, is a night of experiential storytelling. As someone …
As an architecture student in the late 90s, I imagined an LGBTIQA Cultural Centre on a site next to Docklands Stadium. I was free then to idealise a city where my queer, underground musical and my mainstream sporting worlds merged – and naive enough to associate queer culture with prime real estate and government funding. …
In hindsight, getting through high school is still one of the most arduous experiences I’ve ever had. When I look back, the most vivid memories that come to mind are vignettes of a scared, frightened teenager whose biggest fear was being outed as gay against his will. It didn’t help that the circumstances back then …
There’s something magical about putting makeup on. Seeing your face transform and feeling pretty and delicate for a bit.
Lady Sings It Better is a comedic cabaret made up of four women who perform misogynistic songs by the likes of Robin Thicke, Usher, and Nine Inch Nails. This tongue-in-cheek cabaret quartet is bringing their show to the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and Charlotte Long caught up with one of their members, Maeve Marsden, for a …
Esther Godoy is the editor of a new zine, Butch is not a dirty word, which had its launch in Melbourne in March. Lottie Turner caught up with Esther to find out more about the project. A: Tell us about BINADW? EG: Butch is not a dirty word is a publication that celebrates butch identity and culture.Whilst we …
Trans visibility, Safe Schools and living vulnerable: fighting back against the demonising of Transgender people
Today is Transgender Day of Visibility. It is a day – like many other such ‘days’ – that celebrates or makes prominent something in the public mind. For a day. Of course, the people who are represented by these days are living the issues associated with it every other day. International Women’s Day, for instance, is …
It bubbles. The sensation in my ear is just like the pop rocks mixed with Pepsi I had as a kid – explosive, intense and overwhelming. That percolating noise my phone makes when the other person is typing a message to me is my kryptonite. The simple circular shapes as someone is typing their message is …
Say your life turns out really lucky, and one of these days you find yourself standing at the corner of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue, New York City. You should feel like you’ve landed in one of the queerest places in the world. Take less than twenty steps in any direction and you can choose …
For my identity, I look for language, because language and understanding have always been my left and my right, and the only way I ever get anywhere. But there are also words I seek to escape, because there are many places that I do not fit. Categories of gender and place, and where we are …
The Archer Magazine team is a loved-up group of people who reckon the media – and the world – should be a lot more inclusive. We love our work. We believe that talking about real people’s sexuality and gender will change our society’s weird belief that sex looks a certain way, and that we all fit into a few …
‘Red’ and other safe-words allow people to revoke their consent absolutely and for whatever reason, even after sex has been thought out, planned, negotiated, and renegotiated.
When I was in my first year of University, a friend sent me a link to scientific paper about female mice that exhibited ‘male-like’ sexual behaviour. His comment was something along the lines of ‘well, now this explains you!” A few years later, the first genome-wide study of male sexual orientation came out. It fascinated …
Happy endings, massage and exploitation: Stuck between a towel and a hard place
Sometimes the smallest shifts are the hardest to make. So you make a drastic move and opt, instead, to change everything. Moving to Australia from Turkey was that change for me. I came to Melbourne to escape an abusive relationship, the cultural codes stuck to my body from birth, my job as an art director, the prestige of my education …
“When are you going to stop writing about [Insert issue]?” An author’s guide to writing about your own oppression, part two
This is the second in a two-part series from author Charles O’Grady, whose play Kaleidoscope is currently showing in Sydney as part of the Official Mardi Gras program. Part one can be read here. 5. Everyone will assume everything you write is about you One of my best friends from high school came to see Kaleidoscope. …
“When are you going to stop writing about [insert issue]?” – an author’s guide to writing about your own oppression
This is the first in a two-part series from author Charles O’Grady, whose play Kaleidoscope is currently showing in Sydney as part of the Official Mardi Gras program. Part two can be read here. It’s hard to forget the very first time you share work with others that concerns your own identity. For me, it …
Two years ago, Sydney’s infamous lockout laws were introduced on Mardi Gras weekend. While the official Mardi Gras party lay outside the exclusion zone, the raft of parties on Oxford St and the CBD scrambled to remind revellers to be in by 1:30, create makeshift smoking areas, and decide what to do once last drinks …
I became truly fearless the day I returned to the old school, no frills, male-dominated boxing gym that I had attended for years as a female. My friend had outed me to a huge, burley macho guy. But I stood strong before him without showing any fear while awaiting his reaction, even though I was terrified …
Popular TV is now littered with lesbians: Orphan Black, The L Word, Sugar Rush, Lip Service, Lost Girl, Glee… need I go on? Cheesy or not, we’re out there in prime time. What draws me to these programs is their realism: lesbians exist in their everyday ordinariness (well, and with superpowers). I can’t say the …
The protest at this year’s annual Pride march in Melbourne, and the violent reaction it subsequently received, draws critical attention to the ethical compromises the queer community has made to gain the power, funding and visibility we now have. A group of queer and transgender activists disrupted the march in front of the NAB faction …