"Why can't lesbians just be people?"

At an event last week, an expert panel argued that lesbians on TV and in newspapers are shown as heavily sexualised, wacky, or asexual. When will it change?Actor, comedian and journalist Liz Carr is disabled and in her 40s and says: "I never see anyone on TV that I can really relate to in terms of sexuality." This is not only because of her disability and her age, but also because she is gay.According to the latest National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, 16% of women said they had had a same-sex experience. Twenty years ago, that proportion was 4%. But if lesbian behaviour – or women's reporting of it, in any case – is now increasingly common, why aren't there more gay women in broadcast and print media? And are the gay women we do see an accurate reflection of what 16% of the female population looks like, anyway?Speaking at "Lesbophobia in the Media", a debate held jointly by Women in Journalism and lesbian magazine Diva last week, Carr called for more realistic depictions of gay women on TV. She highlighted how unlikely it is for disability to be a characteristic of an on-screen lesbian. "I'm not seen as being capable of having any kind of sex as a disabled woman," she said. "I'm asexual. Disabled women are very much desexed."Writer Iman Qureshi said lesbianism is never "incidental to a character" in TV and film. "You don't wake up in the morning, have breakfast and think – I'm having breakfast as a lesbian," she said. "Why can't lesbians just be people?"... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In ‘The Liar’s Dictionary,’ People Work on the Definition of Love and Many Other Words

Eley Williams’s first novel follows characters living in London more than a century apart who toil to compile the same ill-fated dictionary. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-05 10:00:02 UTC ]
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‘The Prophets’ reimagines the lives of enslaved people with the epic love story of two men

Jones’s debut is an important contribution to American letters, Black queer studies and the present moment’s profound reckoning with the legacy of America’s racialized violence. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-04 06:53:57 UTC ]
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I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom, Read by the Author

Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Actress and comedian Rachel Bloom narrates her own memoir, I Want to Be Where the Normal... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-29 09:46:38 UTC ]
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The story behind ‘And the People Stayed Home,’ the little poem that became so much more

With one Facebook post, Kitty O’Meara set off a wave of hope — and a creative windfall. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-10 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Bad Sex award cancelled to spare people from more bad things

The Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2020 has been cancelled with organisers saying people have been “subjected to too many bad things this year” already. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-07 20:14:15 UTC ]
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Join the government’s Kickstart Scheme to support young people into employment

Atwood Tate's Lynne Willoughby explains how the company is supporting the government's Kickstart Scheme, and why publishers should too.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-04 21:41:53 UTC ]
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How Klancy Miller Designs Recipes for Single People

“If you have a kitchen and cook and live by yourself … this cookbook is for you.” Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-11-26 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Kamala Harris added to line-up for Little People, Big Dreams series

The Quarto Group's Frances Lincoln Children’s Books imprint has added US vice-president-elect Kamala Harris to its Little People, Big Dreams list for 2021.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-15 14:59:22 UTC ]
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Surveillance, reeducation and the Office of Honesty: How China tames its people

Two books examine Beijing’s efforts to control first Tibet and now Uighur Muslims. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-13 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell review – virtuosic venting

Pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from WigtownThere’s a moment in the first season of the short-lived but influential sitcom Black Books in which an elderly customer appears with a box of attractive old editions of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 09:00:33 UTC ]
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Children's books eight times as likely to feature animal main characters than BAME people

According to UK study, just 5% of children’s books have black, Asian or minority ethnic protagonists – a small improvement from 1% in 2017Two years after the stark revelation that only 1% of British children’s books featured a main character who was black, Asian or minority ethnic, the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 00:01:23 UTC ]
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The 20 reads book people actually want this year

Check out our 2020 holiday book gift guide for the best non-fiction and fiction picks for literary enthusiasts on your list. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-30 15:00:05 UTC ]
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52 Incredible Picture Book Biographies of Black People Creating and Leading

Check out wonderful picture book biographies of inspiring Black icons, including Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-10-26 10:33:00 UTC ]
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The Butch Lesbian Sci-Fi Aesthetic: A Conversation With Tamsyn Muir

TAMSYN MUIR’S DEBUT NOVEL, Gideon the Ninth, the first in her Locked Tomb trilogy, exploded into the world to universal critical acclaim last year. The series doesn’t fit nearly into the castles-versus-spaceships division that characterizes much of mainstream science fiction and fantasy. It has... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-21 17:00:28 UTC ]
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Lesbian Manga and Yuri Manga: What’s the Difference and Where Should You Start?

What's the difference between lesbian manga and yuri? Here are 14 F/F manga titles and series a new reader should start with. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-10-19 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Bernardine Evaristo to UK Publishing: Hire More Diverse People

At the Frankfurt Book Fair conference, writer Bernardine Evaristo delivered a forceful keynote on the systemic bias against people of color in the UK publishing industry The post Bernardine Evaristo to UK Publishing: Hire More Diverse People appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-10-14 18:02:09 UTC ]
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Because money is great, Faber is publishing the complete Normal People screenplays.

As The Bookseller reports, UK publisher Faber has announced that they will be releasing the complete screenplays of Normal People, the popular BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name. Whether or not you understand on a larger level the reason anyone might buy and read a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-14 14:37:05 UTC ]
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Faber to publish Normal People screenplays

Faber is to release the complete screenplays of the television series "Normal People", based on Sally Rooney's novel of the same title.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 21:25:25 UTC ]
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Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood sign open letter supporting trans and nonbinary people

Between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the North American literary world signed an open letter offering support to trans and nonbinary communities. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-09 21:31:58 UTC ]
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6 Audiobooks to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day

From memoir to young adult, there is a little bit of something for everyone on this list of audiobooks by Indigenous authors. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-10-06 10:31:00 UTC ]
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