In high-school, I had SUPER short hair, dressed in all black and wore chains connected to my wallet, yes, wallet, NOT purse! I went to the bathroom and one girl said "The boys room is over there!" She totally thought I was a boy though, I still look back on that and smile. I am more feminine now though. less

That's not bad at all. Gender is fluid in all cases. YOU decide what parts of gender you want to express. It's for your benefit. Not anyone else's.

I love being recognized as male. I used to work at Dairy Queen (I was of course presenting as a female but I do have short hair. So I guess as a butch lesbian). My best friend was the manager. One time this customer got angry and said "Why don't you have that lil blonde boy go make me a hamburger??" My best friend and manager totally defended me. I honestly laughed when I heard what happened. I didn't mind it at all. less

Another question: do you think some readers might be put off by the extent of BDSM and general kink in the book? Not you lot, of course--I know you too well--but others?

I was actually tickled to find a bit of dungeon gadgetry in "Out on Loan" I'd never heard of before, but maybe I've led a sheltered life. less

Uh oh, I blew it. I'll have to tell Giselle, not Anna. But here's what Anna wrote about her perspective as a femme in "Femme Fatigue."


Anna Watson—Femme Fatigue

"I think a lot about femme invisibility and how femmes are portrayed in fiction and in smut in particular. Because our society is still so sexist, I notice that butches and trans men often get much of the attention when it comes to talking about gender queer and gender fuck and just plain queer fucking. When Tristan put out a call for a trans and genderqueer erotica anthology, I wrote asking her if she considers femmes to be a part of genderqueer, and she wrote back that she does and bring it on. I can’t remember if that’s when the title “Femme Fatigue” popped into my head or if I thought of it later, but the title came first for this one. Then the femme herself came to me and started telling me her story and I just wrote it all down.

I think a femme is gender queer in the most stealth fashion possible, because, most of the time, someone looking at a femme can’t tell that she’s queer and can’t possibly be aware of her subversive nature. You are a girl but you don’t do what girls are supposed to do. You are absolutely fucking with your gender – to paraphrase from Tristan’s intro, sex complicates gender and gender complicates sex. In my story, I write about how sometimes a girl can get tired of being the wind beneath the wings and needs to have the focus be on her, her complicated sexuality, her precious body. That the femme in “Femme Fatigue” ends up in bed with a “regular lesbian”, fucks her, eats pussy (neither of which is possible with her trans husband), ends up being another kind of genderfuck as well as some seriously transformative, transgressive sex, even though it looks like just 2 lesbians having a one-night stand." less

That's not bad at all. Gender is fluid in all cases. YOU decide what parts of gender you want to express. It's for your benefit. Not anyone else's.

I love being recognized as male. I used to work at Dairy Queen (I was of course presenting as a female but I do have short hair. So I guess as a butch lesbian). My best friend was the manager. One time this customer got angry and said "Why don't you have that lil blonde boy go make me a hamburger??" My best friend and manager totally defended me. I honestly laughed when I heard what happened. I didn't mind it at all. less