tipping the velvet

Auction items include an autographed photograph of Stirling, an afternoon tea date, or a gold-painted replica Victorian phallus and harness used as a prop in 2002. The actress has donated dozens of show props and memorabilia from her personal collection to the auction. Some items up for fans to bid on include an autographed photograph of Stirling, an afternoon tea date, or your very own gold-painted replica Victorian phallus and harness used as a prop in the 2002 BBC film Tipping the Velvet that was based on the Sarah Waters lesbian-themed novel.

Lesbian author Sarah Waters has been shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Waters joins six other authors in contention for the prize with her novel The Little Stranger. She has famously penned Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity.

This week's installment in our series on women you should know: a novelist who writes both 'lesbo Victorian romps' and great spooky stories, and who's glad her work got her mother to use the word 'dildo.'

Waters talks with SheWired about her sensuous and riveting new novel.

While SheWired covers American and Canadian series that feature lesbian characters, we’re not always privvie to the gay ladies of UK television. But UK-based writer Steph Mann has devised a quick and handy list of the UKs five must-watch, Netflix, Hulu or YouTube shows with lesbians.

Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar for her turn in the deep dramedy Silver Linings Playbook, but she's also one of the biggest female action stars on the planet currently. Since she can pretty much do anything and she's never played a lesbian, we've imagined what it might look like if she did!

From Riot Grrrls to Lilith, the '90s were heady times for queer girls.

As I nurse my third major hangover of the season, I've been thinking about what I, as a lesbian, could not possibly live without, and in the spirit of the holidays compiled Top 10 Things Every Lesbian Should Be Thankful For. I'm trying to stay as far away from stereotypes as possible so flannels, Birkenstocks, mullets, Tevas, cats, Katherine Moennig, and women's basketball are not on my list. Included are Sarah Waters, South of Nowhere, beer, high heels and Facebook.

Once everyone survived Y2K panic, the race for gay marriage heated up around the globe in the early 2000's. While LGBT activists stood in the trenches waging the war for equitable civil rights, lesbians in politics and pop culture came out of their closets en masse and crashed through many a glass ceiling.  Same-Sex marriage, the Hate Crimes Bill, lesbian mayors and Prime Ministers, Ellen Degeneres, Wanda Sykes, AfterEllen, Kelly McGillis, Meredith Baxter, Rosie O'Donnell, Melissa Etheridge,  South of Nowhere, Grey's Anatomy andThe L Word are just a few of the higlights.

While TV of the 50s and 60s depicted women's lives as men imagined it, retro TV about the same era depicts women's lives through a feminist lens.

The largest lesbian Dionysian fest, The Club Skirts' Dinah Shore Weekend, is just under a week away and as we here at SheWired are scrambling to pack our bags with sunscreen - or spray tan -- Chaco flip-flops, and Mac Lip Glass to take to the Dinah we wondered what our favorite "Celesbians" will be packing in their bags! So we polled over a dozen celesbians who'll be attending the Dinah, and here is Cherry Bomb, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Billie Myers, Nicole Pacent, Bridget McManus, Erin Foley, Nat Garcia and more with lists of their Dinah special needs!

This week the bitchy duo take on Brad Pitt and a just 'eh' Cate Blanchett. Meanwhile Kate Winslet's hot even when not lobbing one out, J-Lo and Marc Anthony kiss today goodbye while Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz sing back up. It's a Lohan family Christmas and the Tracy's L Word screeners are on the way. It's going to be a Happy New Year afterall.