WHEN I SAY DYKES YOU SAY OMFG

Resident lesbian expert Nell has brought my attention to the New York Times piece on Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, which I cannot but recommend as exceedingly hilarious. The article, of course, mostly reveals more about the reviewer, American political culture, and the paltry tools most Americans have to think about politics beyond an extremely narrow partisan scope than it ever tells us about Bechdel's work. Reviewer Dwight Garner, for instance, assesses the political content of Dykes to Watch Out For as "Greenpeace meets PETA meets MoveOn.org" to which I can only properly respond via kittycat:

Garner also seems sort of surprised that a lesbian writer of comics would be familiar with Foucault, Butler, et al, demonstrating that he has never actually met a lesbian who went to Oberlin. I did appreciate however his comment that "You'll come to notice that lesbians have been, over the last 25 years, on the cutting edge of just about every cultural trend in this country." HEAR HEAR! Tho AJ might offer a tiny rejoinder that on the matter of tattoos, lesbians tend to be about 12 years behind the times. Other things our journalist discovered thru his perusal of Dykes to Watch Out For:

- lesbians became the first foodies when they all went vegetarian

- lesbians composted stuff way before the rest of us even knew what a carbon footprint is

- lesbians had weird names before the rest of us

- lesbians wanted to impeach the FIRST Bush!

In the end, I have to concur with our intrepid reviewer: Dykes to Watch Out For is not (just) a comic, it is ETHNOGRAPHY. And should be considered required reading for lesbians and non-lesbians alike!