How the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival’s Topless Womyn Changed My Lesbian Life Forever
Updated Editors Note, March 12, 2013: We’ve caught wind that this essay is being used in some college courses, so we thought it’d be a good idea to check back on what it is that was said here, because we used to be pretty ignorant and didn’t question the cissexist and trans misogynistic implications of this position and ensuing commentary. We’re very sorry. We recommend that you check out this piece on Bitch Magazine (ETA: and our piece on the policy), which contains links to lots of other sources of valuable ideas, for more information on Michfest’s unacceptable trans-exclusionary policies. We’re not going until all women can go, and we urge Michfest to reconsider their policies so all women can enjoy this potentially transformational experience!
ETA #2: Read Andrea Gibson’s statement on why she won’t perform at Michfest, read the Indigo Girls statement on why this is their last year at Michfest, read Queer Porn TV’s explanation for why they’re not screening their film at Michfest, read Nona Hendryx’s tweet saying she won’t perform at Michfest, and read this article on Transadvocate which contains Nancy Burkholder’s story.
ETA #3: Read our own article about Michfest’s trans-exclusionary policy here.
Ed. note: Autostraddle reader Lindsay wrote us to say she was going to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival this year and asked if we wanted coverage of the event. Obvs, YES! However, because of MichFest’s emphasis on being a safe space for womyn, no photography is permitted. So we found visual aids elsewhere: 1. Some stunning photos by Angela Jimenez via The New York Times — actually, Angela turned her MichFest photojournalism work into a book called “Welcome Home”, 2. Google Image Search! and 3. We got our master cartoon recapper Stef to do some homespun cartoon-rcap art for the piece. Without any further ado, here’s Lindsay, our Canadian roving reporter! And Stef’s cartoons! 
“It was nothing I expected, and it was everything I expected.”
-Staceyann Chin, “Michfest: Nature, God and Free-Roaming Vaginas“
Welcome Home
During the six days I spent with about 10,000 other women camping out on 650 acres of Western Michigan woodlands, I was asked multiple times how I’d heard about the Michigan’s Womyn’s Music Festival to begin with.
My answer to that is the same as my answer to why it took me so many years to actually attend the event; the Festival was part of the intrinsic Lesbian Folklore I’d been hearing about since I started coming out ten years ago. Therefore, I thought MichFest was for old lesbian hippies who like folk music, not younger womyn like me. I was wrong. Not only did it defy all my (admittedly unfair) expectations … but it felt like coming home.
In fact, it was a lot like how I felt returning to my homeland of Canada after a year studying abroad in Norway. Despite how adept I’d become at Norwegian culture and language, I hadn’t realized how little I’d been myself there ’til I was back in my comfort zone with friends & family. Similarly, the womyn-only “home” of MichFest made me feel more like myself than all the years I’ve spent living in a patriarchal society.
The sense of safety, well-being and complete Freedom I felt at the festival, which I attended with my cousin and her three young daughters, caught me by surprise. In the best way possible.
Beat on the Street: Who Needs Love When There’s Amanda Palmer Cartoon Recaps?
Ladies and gentlemen(?), as of late I’ve had a lot of feelings. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and there’s nothing I needed more than a goddamn rock’n’roll show. With this in mind, I dragged my friend Hilary out on Friday night to Amanda Palmer’s sold-out Highline Ballroom performance. Hilary had never heard Amanda’s music before, didn’t know who the Dresden Dolls were, and isn’t nearly as freakishly obsessed with music as I am. Although the cult of Amanda Palmer is far-reaching and powerful, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s self-explanatory – so although Hilary was interested, she didn’t exactly grasp my excitement about the show. Understandably, Hilary had a lot of questions.
Lady GaGa’s New York Show: The Beat on the Street Cartoon Recap
Two years ago, when I first met the artist we know today as Lady Gaga, she was a dark-haired sweetheart in stripper heels who was hustling for a gig in New York City.
The production company I was working for at the time had booked her to open a show, and they sent me to cover it because they knew I was into pop, glam rock and other unsavoury things. That first night at the Knitting Factory, I watched this super-confident, glittery bikini-clad stranger flawlessly execute one total pop gem after another, winningly pounding the keys with her adorable partner in crime, DJ Lady Starlight. Her stage presence was — then as in now — incredible. She was totally magnetic, and totally weird. It was obvious that all this kid needed was a budget, and she could take over the world.
When she stepped off stage, disco ball in hand, I grabbed her arm and begged her to release an album as soon as possible. She smiled, thanked me, and promised she was working on it. And she did. And that record, The Fame, has uhh… well, it’s done better than we all expected. It’s shattered records across the globe and proved that it’s still possible to create pop art and move records in this graveyard of a music industry. Saturday night’s sold out homecoming gig at Terminal 5 proved that regardless of the hype, this girl’s onto something, and New York City is damn proud of her. There was no way I could miss it.
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Beat on the Street: Cartoon Recap: t.A.T.u the Terrible/AWESOME
Hey dudes! So I know I’ve been the strong, silent type on AutoStraddle lately, but I thought maybe that’d add to my Jordan Catalano-esque mystique…?
Um, actually, I was prepping for what I thought was gonna be my greatest post ever – an interview with a major international pop star! BLIND ITEM! However, as it turns out, said pop star’s managers weren’t totally comfortable with the idea of their client talking to uh, a site like this one, so I’ve been sort of stuck on what to write about.
Instead of talking about a singer who’s not comfortable being thought of as IN ANY WAY GAY, we’re gonna talk about singers who totally wish you believed they were gay. Long before Katy Perry pissed off her religious parents by pretending to kiss a girl and like it, we had my girls Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina, known internationally as t.A.T.u. (more…)