Three Great Quarterlies (1994)

©1993, 2013 by Dallas Denny

Source: Denny, Dallas. (1993, Fall). Three great quarterlies.Chrysalis Quarterly, 1(6), p. 40.

 

 

 

 

 

View Chrysalis Quarterly Pages (PDF)

 

Three Great Quarterlies

Review by Dallas Denny

Dragazine

What did I expect when I received a magazine called Dragazine, edited by someone called Lois Commondenominator? Not much, but if I hadn’t read it, I would have missed a very interesting and quite funny publication.

Dragazine is a glossy mag with four-color covers and lots of photos, designed for “Halloweeners and In-Betweeners,” or in other words, for those straight, gay, or whatever, who dress for pleasure or profit. It features interviews with such notables as Frank Marino, RuPaul, and Virginia Prince, coverage of critically important events like Wigstock, reviews, and dish on drag divas. But it is Lois’ irreverent sense of humor that makes me anticipate the next issue. I especially like the Name Game, a listing of outrageous names like Alma Children, Amanda Hugankiss, Beth Wethtern, and Wendy Fatladysings. Even the names of the issues are hilarious: the Vaginally Challenged Issue, the Sylph-Indulgent Issue, the Tucked, Plucked, and Duct Issue.

Dragazine is cheap and fun, and about what else can you say that in the ‘90s?

 

Transsexual News Telegraph

TNT, published by Anne Ogborn and edited by Gail Sondegaard, is a transsexual-oriented, politically aware ‘zine, exploring the gender frontiers from a San Francisco vantage point. The magazine includes news coverage, reviews, opinion pieces, and essays on a variety of subjects. The most recent issue, #4, included articles entitled “Neutral Ground,” “Transgender Tuesday at the Tom Waddell Clinic,” The Art of Passing (As a Man,” “The Health Law Project,” “T-Bird: Jerzy Kosinski’s Strange Literary Fascination with Transsexual Women,” “Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Dong,” and “Inhabiting Ourselves: An Approach to Dance Therapy.”

Articles are intelligently written, and absolutely shatter the transsexual mythos that is perpetuated by the “straight” press. “Doctor Strangelove,” by Mustang Sally, describes the way in which a post-op woman comes to comfortably use a strap-on dildo in her love-making.

TNT, like Dragazine, is inexpensive. It is a magazine for those who are politically aware, and those who wish to become so.

 

TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism

Davina Anne Gabriel’s TransSisters is more focused than TNT, being exclusively devoted to transsexual feminism. The latest issue celebrates transsexual history in much the same way as did Chrysalis Quarterly #6. The previous issue included several articles which questioned (rather caustically) the work of medical professionals, and particularly surgeons who place more importance on the ability of a neovagina to receive a penis in intercourse than on orgasmic ability.

Some of the most hostile and damaging criticisms of transsexualism, as well as active exclusion, as in the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, have come from the feminist community, and TransSisters confronts these issues head on. Because Davina positions the magazine in the breech of the cannon, it has potential to cause great change.

TransSisters and TNT are a dynamic duo, two magazines which are on the leading edge of the politics of transsexualism.

 

Dragazine

P.O. Box 691664

Dept. D

West Hollywood, CA 90069

$4.95 sample issue, $9.95/2 issues

 

TNT

584 Castro Street

Ste. 288

San Francisco, CA94114-2588

$4.00 sample issue, $15/4 issues

 

TransSisters

Davina Anne Gabriel

4004 Troost Avenue

Kansas City, MO64114

$3.00 for sample issue, $18/4 issues