Welcome!
Welcome to Paging Dr. Lesbian by me, Kira Deshler. Here you will find articles and essays primarily about lesbian or “sapphic” (one of my favorite words) pop culture, but anything else that strikes my fancy is fair game.
In regards to the title of this newsletter – I am not a doctor! I have only a humble master’s degree, so please do not call the academic police on me. I have however spent several years in academia studying queer and sapphic pop culture and consider myself something of an expert on the topic. (You can read my Master’s thesis on “Queer Female Fans” here). So, yes, to answer your question, Dr. Lesbian is my given name – I gave it to myself, it’s given to me by me.
If you’re still wondering about the rest of the title, I can readily inform you that no, I have never used a pager nor do I quite understand how they work. In addition to my feeling that the 1990s were a particularly sapphic decade, I chose this title because for me it conjures up an image of Dr. Lesbian (that’s me!) being called to duty when something of lesbian importance happens on the internet. Think Kim Possible (call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me) or Buffy The Vampire Slayer (if the apocalypse comes, beep me!), but for queer pop culture.
But What Will You Write About?
All of this is to say that this newsletter can and will cover anything I deem of sapphic importance that occurs in the realm of pop culture. It could be something obvious, like why there are so many lesbian period pieces, or something less so, like the eternal star power of Patrick Swayze or my obsession with the exceptional heterosexual angst of TV procedurals (Mulder and Scully are a gay straight couple, don’t ask me to explain! Or do, and I will). My fascination with pop culture can generally be boiled down to a single question – what moves people, and why? Whatever unexpected directions this question takes me, I’ll hope you’ll join me along the way.
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