The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #146: Andrew Solomon
“I can tell my story with precautions; others strip away my armor and expose a beating heart.”
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Posts by: Lauren Wissot
The Rumpus Mini-Interview #118: John Ridley
“It was about showing people taking, or denying, responsibility.”
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview #107: Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek still radiates youth and innocence when she enters a room.
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Empathy Is Cheap: A Conversation with Brandon Harris
Brandon Harris discusses his memoir Making Rent in Bed-Stuy, gentrification in New York City and Brooklyn, the homogenization of American cities by corporate America, and whiteness of film culture.
...moreFetishizing Distress: The Wrong Light and Sex Trafficking
Josie Swantek Heitz’s and Dave Adams’s The Wrong Light, theatrically released in NYC through Cinema Guild on July 14, is disturbing on several levels. First, there’s the story itself. The filmmakers set out to create a portrait of the Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA), a nonprofit boarding school of sorts founded in 2005 by […]
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When Marketing Trumps Truth
This is how gay-male-identifying, biological women become straight chicks. Investigative journalism morphs into emotional memoir.
...moreWhen Clothes Don’t Make The Man: What Suited Leaves Out
Jason Benjamin’s HBO documentary Suited, produced by HBO’s Girls co-creators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, is an eye-opening journey into the niche subject of dressing for success when you’re a gender nonconforming individual. Brooklyn bespoke tailoring company Bindle & Keep is a no-frills, two-person operation consisting of straight, cisgender male founder Daniel who fell into his calling […]
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #52: Lauren Wissot in Conversation with Stoya
Edited by queer porn performer and LGBTQ activist Jiz Lee, Coming Out Like a Porn Star is a wide-ranging compilation of answers to questions only sex industry pros seem to get. (And if you guessed, “Does your mother know?” to be at the top of the queries you are correct.) Since the announcement of the […]
...moreJames Deen and the Myth of Concrete Consent
In the final months of a nearly six-year BDSM relationship—the most satisfying relationship of my life—a line was crossed. My Master (a stripper and porn star at the time) violated my safe word, and I knew in that instant that it was the beginning of the end. Without warning he had confiscated my magic passport, […]
...moreCriminalizing Kink in the UK: The 50 Shades Effect
Last month I reached out to LA-based expat Anna Span, an English porn producer (and one-time Liberal Democrat candidate) who awhile back, fought the UK’s ban on showing female ejaculation in porn—and won! I was anxious to hear her take on the recent crackdown on sadomasochistic practices in adult films, specifically whether “BDSM-themed art porn” […]
...moreCaitlyn is the New Clint: Why Jenner Matters
In all honesty, I’ve been out of the loop when it comes to the reality TV star formerly known as Bruce. Too young to recall Jenner’s decathlon-winning heyday, which launched him onto Wheaties boxes and into media stardom, and having neglected to keep up with the Kardashians, I’ve really never given a moment’s thought to […]
...moreThought Crimes, Sexual Fantasies, and “The Cannibal Cop”
Years ago when I worked at a house of domination in NYC’s Chelsea district, there were a handful of clients who were memorable for breaking up the run-of-the-mill fetish (foot worship, spanking, bondage, role playing, repeat) monotony. One was a dude I never saw, but only heard about whenever one of the few Mistresses capable […]
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World Press Photo Exhibit
Cholitas in traditional garb are now taking each other to the mat, the women flying through the air in bowler hats and ruffled skirts.
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The Rumpus Review of The Battle of Chile
A meticulous and gripping eyewitness account of the events that culminated in the 1973 CIA-backed military coup and assassination of Salvador Allende.
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