LFW, Author at Lesbian Fun World

Tipping the Velvet: Sarah Waters’ Debut and the Victorian Slang Everyone Looks Up

October 29, 2026May 4, 2019 by LFW

Let’s get the title out of the way, since it’s what everyone ends up searching for. “Tipping the velvet” is Victorian slang for oral sex between women. Sarah Waters put it on the cover of her first novel in 1998, and it has been making library patrons blush ever since. Here’s the setup. Nancy Astley … Read more

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Lesbian, Feminist, Activist and Author, Dies at 72

November 23, 2022August 15, 2018 by LFW

Poet, academic and activist Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz was born in 1945 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parent adopted the surname Kaye prior to her birth; she later appended the family name Kantrowitz to Kaye, linking the two together with a slash to recognize the multigenerational and ethnic histories within her family and within the larger experiences … Read more