In founding Vice Versa, Eyde created a legacy and a network in an era when “obscene” content – anything involving sex or queerness, the latter of which is too often conflated with the former – was outlawed. She printed everything herself and distributed 10 copies of each issue by hand, saying: “When you’re through, please pass on to another lesbian.” (Lex of the ‘40s, anyone?) Writing under the pen name “Lisa Ben,” an anagram for “lesbian,” Eyde authored reviews, poems, essays, and short fiction. She came out shortly after moving to Los Angeles and created Vice Versa as a way to meet fellow lesbians. Edythe Eyde, a writer, musician, and science fiction fan, started the magazine during her time as a secretary for RKO Pictures. Vice Versa is the first known lesbian publication in the United States. These reviews signify our right to weigh in on culture – to see ourselves reflected on that great big silver screen, and love or hate (or neither, or both!) how we are portrayed. Their work provides evidence that LGBTQIA+ people have always been everywhere, cultivating and evolving language to describe and share our experiences. Whether they’re opining on canonical or underseen titles, these critics are part of a collective queer legacy. Some began as early as the 1940s and ‘50s, while others are still in print today. Among these new additions are magazines centering trans, lesbian, and gay experiences. This year, we’re adding 10 more outlets to our archives. To celebrate Pride in 2020, the Archival team spotlighted a list of seven pioneering LGBTQIA+ publications, many of which were branches of grassroots organizations, including: ONE, a gay magazine in the 1950s and ‘60s that survived raids and obscenity bans The Lesbian Tide, spawned from a lesbian civil rights group and Transgender Tapestry, published from the 1970s to 2006, which reviewed titles like Tootsie and Dressed to Kill. You can now find contemporary reviews for early Oscar winners such as Gone with the Wind alongside recent retrospectives on the Tomatometer.
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Rotten Tomatoes’ Archival Curation, a branch of the team that gathers the film and TV reviews that make up Tomatometer scores, has been working for the last several years to bolster our historic records. When we see ourselves throughout history, imagining the future becomes more hopeful – something to fight for.
Johnson, Leslie Feinberg, and Larry Kramer, we learn that there have always been people like us – not just looking for us, too, but looking out for us. It’s not uncommon for LGBTQIA+ people to go searching for ourselves in the archives. As part of the celebration, we’re spotlighting some of the work our archival curation team has been doing to bring more LGBTQIA+ publications onto the Tomatometer.
In honor of Pride, Rotten Tomatoes is highlighting LGBTQIA+ voices under our Rainbow Tomatoes banner. (Photo by Christopher Street, Women in the Life, Drag, LadyLike, and Internet Archive)