Herstory

For Satan's Angel and Big Fannie Annie - legendary performers in the world of burlesque - age is no barrier

Protesting Ms. Magazine: In the 1980s, Ms. Magazine was the publication of record for sex-hostile feminists (who were a much larger proportion of the feminist movement back then, and who claimed to be the entire movement). Here’s a p

klappersacks:
“ 1960-(via File Photo)- on Flickr.
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Dr. Maya Angelou, American Poet Laureate, most famous for authoring I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, passed away at age 86 on May 28th, 2014. Her literary agent Helen Brann confirmed the news to press, and thus began a worldwide outpouring of grief. The top trending tag on Twitter was “RIP Maya Angelou” and,…

A brief interview with Jennifer Cody Epstein, author of The Painter from Shanghai, a novel based upon the life of Chinese painter Pan Yuliang.

“T’aint fair” reads one of the signs held by protesters of newspaper censorship in 1959. Was that a pun? Could very well have been as a lot of the signs are rather clever with the wordplay. These vintage magazine pages were found...

The Devadasi, a centuries-old caste of sacred temple priestesses, struggles to have it's own renaissance. One woman leads the way...

The origins of the practice are often disputed, but historians agree that in India by the 10th century this caste of sacred temple servants enjoyed great wealth & property as signs of respect & clout.

Considered married to the Hindu deities, the Devadasi were talented dancers, singers & even viewed as political advisors. At the core of Devadasi faith is the belief all men are incarnations of the male deities & so in addition to performing sacred temple ceremonies, Devadasis offered sexual services. In the act of making love, a man & a Devadasi enact the sacred marriage of god & goddess which therefore allows them to become divine themselves.

When Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club, in 1960, he was selling men the chance to walk into the pages of his magazine: the swinging-bachelor-pad décor, the carefully garnished cocktails, and, above all, the cantilevered, cottontailed Bunnies. For the women wearing ears, the payoff was entirely different. As a 21st-century Playboy Club opens in London, Bruce Handy hears from Hef, his execs, and a hutchful of former Bunnies about the rise and fall (and rise?) of the nightlife empire that spawned an all-American sex symbol.