Radical Love and Sexual Liberation
In each issue, Deneuve’s writers and advice columnists provided sex positive and empowering perspectives on lesbian love and sexuality.
The magazine emerged in the aftermath of the “sex wars” over the politics of practices like sado-masochism or the use of dildos and pornography, that divided the lesbian community throughout the 1980s. [1] Unlike the lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs, Curve rarely included nude photographs but it took a sex positive stance by offering frank advice and commentary on everyday love and sex. Curve also embraced the legacy of On Our Backs by both interviewing its former editor Susie Bright and lesbian sex educators like “the riot grrrl of anal sex” Tristan Taormino. [2]Readers sought relationship advice from the “Ask Fairy Butch” column from the fall of 1996 onwards. The columnist offered advice on issues ranging from lesbian bed death and incorporating toys in the bedroom to finding representative lesbian pornography to avoiding sexually transmitted diseases. [3]
One of Curve’s most popular features was its photo contest, which began in 1995. The photographs illustrated many aspects of lesbian and queer life, from romance to travel to domestic life and pet ownership. Readers submitted photos which were categorized into envelopes like these. As the January 1997 issue described:
“Once again, we invited you to send us photographs reflecting any and all aspects of lesbian life and once again almost a thousand images flooded into our office, bringing new meaning and power to lesbian visibility. Selecting the winners was a labor of love – so many beautiful women, so many emotions: from laughter, to love, to solitude, to friendship, to celebration and beyond. [4] ”
Amber L. Hollibaugh boldly asked "Where Is the Sex in Our Politics?" in a June 2001 article that pushed back against the desexualized civil rights advocacy of mainstream LGBT organizations. She urged lesbians to “discover how to value and incorporate human sexual yearning, gender divergence, and desire for pleasure into the core values we bring to our political ideals. To grace our movement with the power of a vision drawn from the passion that brought each of us out and gave us hope.” [5]
This radical analysis also informed articles like Diane Anderson’s profile of Suzzane Triano, a formerly incarcerated lesbian in Delaware who served as a safe sex peer educator. "Women in prison tend to rely more on their sexuality as a coping mechanism for stress than other people out in free society." Triano explained. Delaware Lesbian and Gay Health Advocates trained Triano as a peer educator, and certified her to perform safer sex demos and facilitate discussion groups. This program was revolutionary given that all incarcerated people are legally obligated to remain celibate, but often break that rule . The article detailed Triano’s unique AIDs Education comic book featuring a lesbian superhero protagonist who teaches with a condom-covered banana, rubber gloves, and a grapefruit girlfriend. The character spouts lines like "Nothing comes between me and my woman except plastic wrap," referencing the do it yourself safer sex tools incarcerated people might use because dental dams and other tools were illegal at the time, given the illegal status of sex behind bars. [6]
On the other hand, the magazine also covered the ever-evolving world of lesbian romance. Aside from the aforementioned advice column, The February 1995 issue offered commentary by femme Leslea Newman and butch Pat Califa on dating and relationships. Newman focused on creating a romantic evening while Califa discussed the cycle of lesbian love. [7] A few years earlier, historian Lillian Faderman analyzed the resurgence of butch and femme identities in the 1980s and early 90s’ and found that the roles were now “not the life-or-death identity they often were in the 1950s, but rather an enjoyable erotic statement” after the height of lesbian feminism and its influence on lesbian presentation and sexuality. [8] The magazine also tackled the controversial topic of couples with significant age gaps over 10 years in a July 1999 article interviewing 50 couples. At the end of the day, lesbian sexuality informed the magazine’s content as a whole, from articles about marriage equality to those profiling celebrity crushes.
“Curve didn’t try to create a culture of respect for lesbians; we demanded it.” -- Dianne Anderson-Minshall, former editor-in-chief
[1] Groeneveld, Elizabeth. “Letters to the Editor as ‘Archives of Feeling’: On Our Backs Magazine and the Sex Wars,” n.d., 16.
[2] Smith, Alison. "Her Darkest Desires." Curve, vol. 9, no. 2, May 1999, p. 32.
[3] "The best of Fairy Butch." Curve, vol. 16, no. 9, Nov. 2006, p. 20. "Ask Fairy Butch." Curve, vol. 11, no. 5, Aug. 2001, p. 11.
[4] Picture: "Curve's Second Annual Lesbian Life Photo Contest Winners." Curve, vol 6, no. 6, Jan. 1997. pg 20.
[5] Hollibaugh, Amber L. "Where Is the Sex in Our Politics?" Curve, vol. 11, no. 4, June 2001, p. 50. March 1998
[6] Anderson, Diane. "Teaching Safe Sex behind Bars." Deneuve: The Lesbian Magazine, vol. 3, no. 5, 1993, p. 40.
[7] Lee, Gretchen. "All Our Best." Curve, vol. 10, no. 3
[8] Faderman, Lillian. “The Return of Butch and Femme: A Phenomenon in Lesbian Sexuality of the 1980s and 1990s.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 2, no. 4 (1992): 594.