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• 1 2021-02-20T16:20:17-08:00 From Deneuve to Curve 24 image_header 2021-03-02T20:31:42-08:00

  “You know how many people shot me down at the beginning because, you know, lesbian was too, too bold, too out there, too revealing? They thought it was suicide from the get-go.”

  Franco Stevens¹

  The magazine faced censorship from state officials and distributors alike. Canadian customs officials rejected the January/February 1992 issue for displaying nude images by photographer Nina Glaser. Glaser described nude images as “more honest and real” than clothed ones, and as artistic rather than erotic. An October 1994 issue featuring a topless Marga Gomez was sold in the South in blue plastic wrappers after a distributor complained. Despite these challenges, Stevens’ grassroots promotion strategy brought the magazine to rural and conservative areas where the magazine was some women’s only contact with the lesbian community.²  
  
  
  
  The magazine nearly went bankrupt after French actress Catherine Deneuve sued the company for trademark infringement in 1995, but community support rescued the struggling publication. Stevens claimed the name was inspired by her first girlfriend from summer camp, but litigation expenses forced Stevens to change the name to Curve in February of 1996. With help from the community, including the celebrities who performed at the "Alive and Kicking" legal aid benefit, the magazine survived.³

   However, by 2010 Stevens was forced to sell Curve to Silke Bader, the Australian publisher of Lesbians on the Loose because of both Stevens’ poor health and the devastating impact of the 2008 recession. After the purchase, the new Editor in Chief Merryn Johns closed the San Francisco office and cut staff. Nevertheless, the magazine lives on in the digital age, and was recently the subject of a documentary entitled Ahead of the Curve. The film demonstrates how despite the shifting landscape of queer identity, Curve’s  mission of building an empowering community for “women who love women” and making their stories visible is still relevant to young activists like queer Latina poet Denice Frohman. As educator Kim Katrin tells the filmmakers, the community shares a commitment to “being the authors of our own experiences,” even as it evolves over time.⁴

  
  1. Audrey Nowakowski Hurbanis Jack, “Ahead Of The Curve: How The World’s Most Successful Lesbian Magazine Created Positive Visibility,” WUVM, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.wuwm.com/post/ahead-curve-how-worlds-most-successful-lesbian-magazine-created-positive-visibility. 
  2. Lee, Gretchen. "All our best." Curve, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000, p. 18. “New Dyke in Town: The Rapid Rise of Denueve.” 156.
  3 Bianco, “This Is What 25 Years Of Lesbian Culture In Print Looks Like.”
  4 “About,” Ahead of the Curve (blog), accessed February 28, 2021, https://curvemagmovie.com/about/.