Salon.com > Jessanne Collins

Gay best friend: The “it” accessory

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:01:00 +0000

Bad news from Teen Vogue: The season's hottest accessory is not available as a Canal Street knockoff. This one needs special attention and maintenance and extra careful selection -- more so even than a Pomeranian. If you thought the old "gay best friend" hat went out when "Sex and the City's" Stanford got hitched, think again. This week, the magazine has proposed that he's "the new must-have accessory for girls."

The idea's not exactly hot off the runway, author Lindsay Talbot concedes. It dates -- practically prehistorically -- to such vintage cultural touchstones as "Clueless" and "Will and Grace." But, like the skinny jean, the GBF has methodically worked his way into the wardrobes of even the least suspecting among us -- and now look! He's everywhere. On "Gossip Girl," "Ugly Betty" and "Glee"! He's even IRL -- in the hallways of American high schools, like the one in California where, "A few years ago, all the popular, pretty girls were walking hand in hand with a preppy jock. Now you'll see them in hallways with a Mulberry bag on one arm and a Johnny Weir look-alike on the other."

In defense of “Twihards”

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Whether your awareness of the "Twilight" zeitgeist comes from casually perusing Sunday Styles or you've already staked your place in line to see "Eclipse" when it opens tomorrow, chances are you've got a pretty good mental picture of the insanely popular teen vampire saga's quintessential fan. She's definitely female, she's a little bit giddy, and she's either a teenager or she's not.

The fact that grown women -- some of them so grown they were introduced to "Twilight" by their daughters -- make up a sizable portion of the franchise's fan base is well documented. As of this writing, a Google News search for "adult Twilight fans" yielded 131 results from the past month. So far this week, there are articles charting the territory of "Intervention"-caliber "Twilight" addicts and the "Twi-mom" phenomenon -- and it's only Tuesday.

A mistake that should last a lifetime

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:16:00 +0000

This Valentine's Day, thanks to the advent of removable tattoo ink, couples can inscribe each other's names into their skin without that nagging fear of "forever." It's practical but unromantic, the fringe culture equivalent of a prenup.

If only I'd put off my quarter-life crisis until this year, maybe I wouldn't be living with my own flawed tattoo: blurry, bumpy with scar tissue, haloed with a permanent blue bruise. I've spent the past few years learning to love it -- not an easy task for someone who color-codes her e-mail, alphabetizes her bookshelves and tweezes compulsively. But as I read about removable tattoo ink recently, flipping through Time's "Best Inventions of 2007," I realized I'm not sorry my ink is permanent. I may have a messed-up tattoo, but I have no regrets.