18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Provactive, Challenging, and Honest, July 11, 1998
By A Customer
A provactive look at real lesbian sexual life at the edge. Some of the photographs are artistically brilliant, some are fascinating, and some may be repellent, but all have an honesty and intensity which is refreshing and unusual. As a photographer, I highly recommend it. Some of the images are quite graphic and powerful.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book could save women's lives, November 22, 2010
This is not "I kissed a girl and I liked it." It's certainly not the Cosmo lesbian (even though I like Cosmo just fine, thanks). Listen to this line from Jill Posener: "When I was 15...I had recently seen the movie "The Fox". I went to the movie theatre on my own, I came away with this blinding headache--you know, that throbbing when you've just been told you have a fatal disease." This is when she told her mother "I think I'm a lesbian."
There is a fierce quality to that quote that defines the whole book: When loving between women is so raw, so unstoppable, that it can't be undone, and a life is altered. Our society would say the "blatant lesbian image" is not marketable, not pretty enough--but these photos show it is.
They are very explicit, especially the BDSM, and the Butch Bois are so, well, BUTCH, that it made my eyes hurt. Even underneath that, the reader can see how gorgeous women are, even when they're dressed up like macho men. The female presence persists, in spite of it all. I laughed when I read that some of the women only watch Gay Male porn, because female porn is just too LOVING.
I found the feminism refreshing, because it's not politically correct. Every photographer in the book agreed: women can't be liberated if our voices are ignored, made soft and sweet--because it's just another cage. It's not misunderstanding of sexuality that leads to violence against women, but hatred of women, period. At least that's what I got out of the essays.
There's alot of grief, too, in the writing. The dedication reads:" for the lesbian artists who are not in the collection, because you fear for your job, because you fear abandonment..." and it's a relief that someone admits it.
When I was in college, I read a pretty heterosexual feminist who wrote "The male body is my homeland." I wonder if she ever had to pay a price for loving men. Did it change her life? Her religion? Did her family kick her out? For the writers and photographers in this book, the female body and soul is the ultimate homeland, worth every fight and every price.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully titillating, January 3, 2011
I bought this book as a gift for my girlfriend. I was looking for a book of photos; something like a coffeetable book and this was perfect! The images captured are fantastic and the subject matter is raw. It is not just pretty pictures of mainstream sterotypical beautiful girls. It has pictures of gorgeous women from all walks of life- femmes, dykes, heavy, small, perfect, scarred, soft and hardcore. I was impressed and she LOVED it. I highly recommend it for those who appreciate the real deal and love artistic expression.
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