by Trish Bendix

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Ariel Levy brings some queer to the best essays of this year

Having a lesbian on the inside of any business is always good, but I find it particularly effective in the media (see: Rachel Maddow). When I found out New York Magazine writer Ariel Levy was playing for our team (back when she was an NPR contributor and the new author of Female Chauvinist Pigs), I was thrilled. A woman on the inside!

October has been good to Levy, who had a high-profile interview with Stephen Colbert as part of last week's New Yorker Festival. Despite his expected wit and jokes (such as referring to the feminist as having "a hot little bod"), Levy was a great interviewer and pulled out a lot of information from the famously funny personality.

An even greater accomplishment, though, is that Levy's story "The Lesbian Bride's Handbook" (from New York Magazine, April 23, 2007) is being featured in the newly published The Best American Essays 2008. The essay was a first-person narrative on her wedding to her partner, and how she had several obstacles to overcome, from what to wear (white?) and if it even constituted a "real" wedding. An excerpt from the piece (which can still be found online):

I am not a total idiot. I always had the sense to say no wedding cake, no officiant, no first dance, no here comes the bride, no Times announcement, and absolutely no white dress. Who are we kidding? And why? We just wanted a big, awesome party where everyone could meet and go bananas. It’s a special opportunity, you know: The only other time everyone you love will assemble in one place is at your funeral. (At most weddings, some people you don’t actually love will also be in attendance.But the silver lining of my parents’ being irreverent and Amy’s parents’ being in denial is that we didn’t have to invite anyone we didn’t want to.)

The thing is, though, you have to serve something, and you can’t very well go naked. You can call it a party about love all you want, but you still have to make all the same decisions that every other bride has to make, and you have to make them very carefully unless you want everyone you know to schlep to some crummy party in the middle of nowhere.

The comical piece should strike a chord with any gay woman who ever considered the idea of a ceremony celebrating "till death do us part." And to the straight people who buy The Best American Essays 2008 and read Levy's account, take a good look at how non-Bridezilla lesbians are. Seriously, we're the least of your problems.

Trish Bendix's blog

Submitted by

Trish Bendix

on October 15, 2008 - 4:00pm.

TAGS ::

I had no idea Ariel Levy was

Submitted by

invisiblegrrrl (12 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 5:16pm.

I had no idea Ariel Levy was a lesbian, I really enjoyed Female Chauvinist Pigs but for some reason I got the impression she was a straight woman. I also had no idea she was an NPR contributor. I'm so uninformed.

Lovedlovedloved Female

Submitted by

Jogma (5 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 5:17pm.

Lovedlovedloved Female Chauvinist Pigs.

Never knew she was on the team! Also thrilled! She's a very gorgeous woman and it's anothet step up for a queer essay to be featured in such a prestigious collection. Very much looking forward to reading it.

Yay, for the feminist! And her "hot little bod"!

Me Either!

Submitted by

Aya (417 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 5:19pm.

That's so cool. I read it too and thought she was straight as well, should have known better. She's good at blending in.

I also liked when Colbert interviewed her too.

great essay

Submitted by

Jess (2 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 8:23pm.

Thanks for pointing out this essay. Even though I read Female Chauvinist Pigs, I didn't know Ariel Levy was such a talented writer. Her honesty about the potential awkwardness about the "lesbian wedding" is really refreshing!

Oh my gosh, I had no idea

Submitted by

snoopypez (9 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 9:00pm.

Oh my gosh, I had no idea she was gay! I remember her being on Stephen's show forever ago and thinking she was incredibly hot, though. Heh.

Love her web site

Submitted by

piebald (94 posts)

on October 15, 2008 - 9:57pm.

The link to her web site in the text above is a bit subtle... it's a wonderful site, so I'm going to reiterate the link here, it's worth a look.

Ariel Levy's web site

Oh, great, I get to be the

Submitted by

KineticStillness (153 posts)

on October 16, 2008 - 1:53am.

Oh, great, I get to be the shallow, looksist one. Ariel Levy is, indeed, very attractive. The BeeGee she married...not so much. That picture from their wedding day is, well, uh, let's just say I hope it was just an especially bad angle for one of the people in it. I'm sure Amy is a wonderful person but, really, BeeGee style? Did she borrow William Shatner's hair for the day? The hair alone made my left eye try to escape my head! The suit made the other eye want to join its fleeing compatriot.

Also, I didn't think the essay on her "wedding day" was very good. There were moments but, otherwise, it seemed a bit pedestrian and shallow. I don't think it would have been included in the anthology if it hadn't been written by an attractive lesbian about a subject in the forefront of many dimensions of our society at present. Which, of course, is probably true of a lot of the essays in any given collection, minus the written by an attractive lesbian part, but I'm not going to judge this one any less harshly due to its personal relevance to me. I just didn't find it that good. The use of parentheses to slip in little comments only emphasized the email-ish quality of the writing. I haven't read her other stuff yet but so far I'm not impressed. Even her website writing is boring and reads like a long resume. I'll check out some of her other writing, though, to give her an honest chance.

I guess it's all a matter of taste but this all falls into one of those categories of things that annoy me, namely, gay things getting more praise or attention merely for being gay. I'll use the example of Ellen's talk show which was not very good in its first year yet won every award known to humankind. It felt like she was being patted on the head and told she was 'a good little gay'. Another example that may be more illustrative of my point is lesbian fiction. Not good books with or about lesbians, but those horribly written books that are published mostly by small presses that never would have seen the light of day if they hadn't been specialty niche books for a specialty niche market.

Well, this analysis of a little essay went further and deeper than I intended. I must be enroute to becoming a curmudgeon because I always have a lot more to say in critique than in praise. Either that or I've missed my calling as an editor!

Normally

Submitted by

Keres (126 posts)

on October 16, 2008 - 4:04am.

I would use the word hawt. Which isn't an actual word, but I digress. Ariel Levy is very attractive, not just in the stills, but the animated way she speaks in interviews. Too bad she is spoken for.

His name is STEPHEN Colbert

Submitted by

Jules (36 posts)

on October 16, 2008 - 9:30am.

His name is STEPHEN Colbert ;)

Wow - I didn't know that

Submitted by

V. (4 posts)

on October 17, 2008 - 1:40pm.

Wow - I didn't know that she's gay. She's intelligent and hot. My sis has her book, but I've never read it. I really enjoyed her wedding essay though.

by Trish Bendix

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Ariel Levy brings some queer to the best essays of this year

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