Fat femmes to the front: Pushing back on false representation

Fat femmes to the front: Pushing back on false representation

The word fat is one steeped in stigma, but many fat people are reclaiming the word. Fat people are multivalent, sexy and fashionable, too.
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Chosen names, affect and identity: A rose by any other name

Chosen names, affect and identity: A rose by any other name

Chosen names offer a synthesis of literary and psychoanalytic analysis. When you choose a name, it is imbued with references, history and storytelling.
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Butch language, lineage and expansiveness: What is a butch?

Butch language, lineage and expansiveness: What is a butch?

The truth is, you can’t ask, "What makes someone butch?" without also asking what makes someone cis, trans or non-binary. The borders blur. The categories leak.
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On the G.O.D gang of Sydney’s 1990s, queer objects and archives

On the G.O.D gang of Sydney’s 1990s, queer objects and archives

Seeing objects from my life in a museum does not make me feel old. It makes me feel valued. Queer feminist history matters. My story matters.  
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Josefine Aspvik’s creations are bold, genderless and speaking their minds

Josefine Aspvik’s creations are bold, genderless and speaking their minds

My characters are genderless, stunning creatures. They are not afraid to talk about what really needs to be talked about.
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Learning that you’re autistic as an adult: Big feelings

Learning that you’re autistic as an adult: Big feelings

Being diagnosed as an autistic person was the best thing that has ever happened to me. It just didn’t feel like it at the time.
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Butch lineage: The difficulties of chronicling a subculture

Butch lineage: The difficulties of chronicling a subculture

Our patchwork is a poorly tattooed symbol of Venus on a forearm, a home-job buzz cut on a middle-aged dyke, torn posters of t.A.T.u., wardrobes full of colour-coordinated plaid and dog-chewed Calvin Klein underwear....
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Being Maghrebi in France: Xenophobia and lost family history

Being Maghrebi in France: Xenophobia and lost family history

If I don’t avoid everything French, it feels like I’m endorsing the country that causes my communities so much misery.
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Decolonial portraiture by Kali Spitzer: Resilience and resistance

Decolonial portraiture by Kali Spitzer: Resilience and resistance

Decolonising portraiture offers empowerment and authentic self-expression for BIPOC and queer individuals.
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Coming out as disabled

Coming out as disabled

I'm repeatedly coming out as disabled so those around me know why I’m behaving a little differently, or why I’m not helping with the chairs.
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Nightlife as a queer Egyptian-Australian: Learning how to dance

Nightlife as a queer Egyptian-Australian: Learning how to dance

Meet Daniel Nour: Egyptian and Australian; loud and painfully awkward; conservative and very confused (especially about other boys).
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Impostor syndrome is a colonial, patriarchal construct: On mediocrity and white supremacy

Impostor syndrome is a colonial, patriarchal construct: On mediocrity and white supremacy

Capitalism, neoliberalism and the myth of meritocracy fuel impostor syndrome by insisting that individuals alone are responsible for our success or failure. This is a lie.
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A guide to Yarra River beats

A guide to Yarra River beats

A Guide to the Yarra River's Beats by Sam Wallman. Sam Wallman is a Melbourne-based cartoonist. He has published four books of drawings, in which he captures the ridiculous, the visceral and the personal...
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Trans rage, metal and music: What is the trans ‘sound’?

Trans rage, metal and music: What is the trans ‘sound’?

Uboa and Liturgy’s music acknowledges the trans rage of disempowerment, and how unleashing that rage can create a sense of self-affirmation.
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Shaving my head as a queer person: Gender and growing pains

Shaving my head as a queer person: Gender and growing pains

I think I knew deep down that if I shaved my head, it would be curtain call for Straight Girl.
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Archer Asks: Essayist and critic Cher Tan on weirdness, hyperreality and capitalism

Archer Asks: Essayist and critic Cher Tan on weirdness, hyperreality and capitalism

"If we were to jointly refuse normalisation, then there’d be no outsiders." Cher Tan chats to Archer Magazine about her debut book, 'Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging'.
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Bi Visibility Day: We want bisexual existence, not just visibility

Bi Visibility Day: We want bisexual existence, not just visibility

Bisexual Visibility Day, held annually on 23 September, is nominally about bi+ people being able to be seen. Bi+ advocates often note that the “B” in LGBTQIA+ is “silent” – listed within the acronym,...
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The makeup of masculinity: Deviating from society’s rules

The makeup of masculinity: Deviating from society’s rules

I am a male-presenting non-binary individual: I have stubble, body hair, a deep voice, a balding head. All of these align with society’s acceptable image of masculinity. However, I also wear makeup, which deviates...
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Archer’s MQFF picks: Traversing gender, sexuality and disability on the big screen

Archer’s MQFF picks: Traversing gender, sexuality and disability on the big screen

Deciding which films to attend with the myriad on offer at this year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival? Don't stress – we've made this painstaking task easy.
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Non-Binary People’s Day: A roundup of pieces from non-binary writers

Non-Binary People’s Day: A roundup of pieces from non-binary writers

For Non-Binary People's Day, we wanted to round up some of the pieces from over the years by the non-binary writers in our Archer community.
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But is Singaporean culture not also other trans Singaporeans? The transfemmes I’ve spoken to, gotten advice from online?

“We are of the land, and the land is of us, symbolising brown boys coming back to land as a way to find themselves.” Daniel Mateo chats to Alex Creece.

Then, a friend posed a question I had been rubbing against this whole while: is non-monogamy something I do, or is it part of my identity?

It’s Phone-a-Dyke, Archer’s queer advice column. Today’s reader: I’m transmasc, am I welcome at the dyke events?

“We knew what men of the time wanted and how they wanted it, and we gave it to them in spades.” Ülo Klemmer chats to Laura Castagnini.

For this month’s Queer Fashion Files, we chat to Danielle Fitzgerald about Venus 8, her project documenting the backstage worlds of dancers and sex workers.

Mortality, ageing and accepting death

Could we stop seeing death as a failure? My death will happen. Like the piglet’s, my dead body will disintegrate.

We tend to think of digital interactions as ephemeral because we can’t hold them like letters, and can’t feel the weight of a photo album in gigabytes.

I aspire for this exhibition to serve as a visual archive and a platform for dialogue, aiding future researchers and activists in challenging prevailing perceptions of Albinism in South Africa.

This month, we went to New York City and chatted to founder of Girls Carrying Shit and editor-in-chief of ‘pinky’ the magazine, Halle Robbe.

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Sexuality - Gender - Identity