Features

Our Favorite Feminists, Old and New

This list, created by the editors, editorial assistants, readers and staff of Fringe, and compiled by Ellen Mahoney (with help from Katie Spencer and Sarah Dowden), represents a nowhere-near-complete list of our favorite feminists, old and new. more »

(de)Classified

Young Mother: Three Portraits

Icarus You were ashamed in those days: forgive yourself. Boiling water, washing those babies, tugging at your heels as if allergic to themselves, gnawing on you like woodpeckers gnaw on... more »

Criticism

The Harlot's Curse: Feminism and Prostitution

“But it’s different when it comes to sex” I ask you “Well, why is it different?” You believe only in “Let’s find a way for prostitutes to escape.”…What is so terrible about fucking for a living?…Who am I, and who am I to... more »

Short Short

Wanting

I had, I will admit it only to myself, wanted Cassidy to have a different father. I had wanted Cassidy’s mother not to be a mother. But in my defense, I had also wanted to be the kind of person who didn’t think those things, who didn’t judge.... more »

Poetry

5 Poems

Fissures She holds AJ, short for Angelo Joseph, on a dirty couch. She tells me about the fiskula in her ass. “Fistula,” her sister corrects, “Fist,” and holds hers up. “My... more »

Nonfiction

Fearsome Beauty

I have never been able to stand yards, those tiny cramped plots of grass guarded over by the windows of neighbors. At seven I realized most of my mother’s omniscience was in fact simply the work of an elaborate... more »

Longer Poetry

In the Art of Her

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Fiction

Word Perfect

I want to write a story. Set in Singapore. About a girl who never felt like it was home. Who always felt different from everyone around her – her German name, the way she talked, the way she thought. Who moved away and thought she’d found home... more »

Features

An Interview with the Guerrilla Girls

You have to love the Guerrilla Girls for “fighting discrimination with facts, humor, and fake fur” as their website states. This anonymous collective of women artists don gorilla masks to criticize Hollywood, the art world, and others for their... more »

Featured Artwork

7 Photographs

Artist David Barnes’ commentary on The Sideboard:

My original intent in creating “The Sideboard” was a commentary on American media — “If you are going to portray women as slabs of meat, why go half way?”  The objectification of the woman portrayed in this photo goes to an extreme, and my hope is that the savy viewer will get the implied social jab, rather than mistaking it at face value.  I also think that it turned out to be a beautiful picture, not just a political statement.

Artist David Barnes’ commentary on Facing Peril, Ximon9050 and Fly the Kite:

My recent photographic art is accomplished using a multiple-exposure-like process in a digital SLR camera. None of these pictures were manipulated or pieced together in Photoshop, they were all done in-camera using studio lighting techniques that I discovered through experimentation.