Kiss and Tell is a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

based performance and artist collective whose work is concerned with lesbian sexuality. In 1990, collective members

Persimmon Blackbridge Persimmon Blackbridge (born 1951)Inductee: Persimmon Blackbridge
queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

community around sexual practice in the early 1990s to create the photographic exhibition ''Drawing the Line''. Their photographs depicted a continuum of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

sexual practice ranging from kissing to whipping, bondage, and voyeurism. The project encouraged gallery viewers to comment on what they saw and how it made them feel by writing directly on the walls around the prints; allowing the viewer to "draw the line" and examine their ideas and beliefs about different sexual behaviors. “Drawing the Line” was made in response to the “porn wars” of the late 80’s-the feminist debate of if female sexual imagery was more oppressive to women, or if it was empowering to women. Kiss and Tell’s work explicitly embraced depictions of female sexuality, and encouraged the conversation between anti-porn feminists and

sex positive The sex-positive movement is a social movement, social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality (in the countless forms of expression) as a natural and he ...

feminists. The art was controversial, even more so as it was released in the era of the Red Hot Video Store bombings. The collective displayed their work to point out the double standard in which artists exploring politics and sexuality are “cause for alarm” and yet

adult films An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

and

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

that are much more explicit are of no concern. This show was about desensitizing the view of queer sex and relationships. It intended to make lesbian relationships just as visible as straight relationships. Through the intimate exploration of queer bodies, The Kiss and Tell collective gave space for lesbians to perform and share their experiences. The show traveled widely in Canada and the United States in the 1990s, as well as showing in Australia and the Netherlands. In the summer of 2015 Kiss and Tell had redisplayed and revisited their exhibition “Drawing the Line.” This was featured at the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival in celebration of the work’s 25th anniversary, and was the first time in 13 years that it had been displayed. Group member Lizard Jones remembers the impact of the show in her community of Vancouver, and beyond: "There was/is a lot to say, and a lot to learn from audiences at our talks. Our first performance piece... ''True Inversions'', evolved quite directly from those experiences, from a desire to say things that were non-verbal, visual, or more emotive, things that had no place in talks". ''True Inversions'' was a multi-media performance that caused a similar stir across the country, and resulted in the book, ''Her Tongue on my Theory: Images, Essays and Fantasies'' which won a

Lambda Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

in 1995. Their book ''Her Tongue on My Theory'' had a good reception and went on to be nominated for Lambda Literary Awards in the categories of Lesbian Studies Award, Small Press Book Award, and the Lesbian Poetry Award. They had won the Small Press Book Award. Lorna Boschman directed three videos about ''Kiss & Tell: Drawing the Line'' (1992), ''True Inversions'' (1992), and Before the ''New Millennium'' (2007). Kiss and Tell premiered ''That Long Distance Feeling: Perverts, Politics & Prozac'' in Vancouver in November 1997.

Artist biographies

Persimmon Blackbridge Persimmon Blackbridge (born 1951)Inductee: Persimmon Blackbridge
Press Gang Publishers Press Gang Publishing was a feminist printing and publishing collective active in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, between the early 1970s and 2002.Pike, Lois. "A Survey of Feminist Publishers and Periodicals in Canada" in ''Women and Words/ ...

in 1997. * Susan Stewart has been producing photography and multi-media performance works since 1978. She also teaches and has an M.F.A. from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

. Her most recent work, "Lovers & Warriors: aural/photographic collaborations," was an installation produced in collaboration with 25 women, mostly lesbians, which explores issues of gender, marginality, and the politics of photographic representation.

Bibliography

* Kiss & Tell ''Drawing The Line: Lesbian Sexual Politics on the Wall''. Vancouver, B.C.:

Press Gang Publishers Press Gang Publishing was a feminist printing and publishing collective active in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, between the early 1970s and 2002.Pike, Lois. "A Survey of Feminist Publishers and Periodicals in Canada" in ''Women and Words/ ...

, 1991. * Kiss & Tell (Persimmon Blackbridge, Lizard Jones, and Susan Stewart). ''Her Tongue on My Theory: Images, Essays and Fantasies''. Vancouver, B.C.:

, 1994. * Blackbridge, Persimmon and Sheila Gilhooly. ''Still Sane''. Vancouver, B.C.:

, 1985. * Blackbridge, Persimmon. ''Sunnybrook: A True Story With Lies''. Vancouver, B.C.:

, 1996.

References

External links

Records of the Kiss and Tell collective are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
{{Authority control Feminism in British Columbia Feminist organizations in Canada Lesbian culture in Canada LGBT culture in Vancouver Canadian artist groups and collectives LGBT organizations in Canada LGBT art in Canada Lambda Literary Award winners