BoLT Magazine Issue 6 Is Out

MsStroggatrix

BoLT Magazine Issue 6

Come and get it! Shiny new Issue 6 - The Gender Issue - is now online.

We didn't have enough funds to print issues for distribution this time , so it will only be available online unless you are a subscriber.

Subscribers will receive their printed issues in the post shortly! Please allow extra time for shipping if you are an international subscriber.

http://www.boltmagazine.ie

If you like what you see, please also vote for us on the Sister's website at http://www.sisters.ie!

Love,

Team BoLT!

About BoLT Magazine

BoLT is an inclusive, interactive publication designed to give a voice to all women within our national LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community.

BoLT Magazine is produced on an entirely voluntary basis, with articles, features and artwork contributed by the community. Share your stories, poetry, thoughts, articles and anything else with us!

The magazine is free, is distributed all over the country, and is also be available online. We will create a space specifically for women of all ages to talk and connect on a national level.

SugarHigh

Now they REALLY head wreck me. I am
lesbian. Like I think with most lesbians,
I have one or two very rare exceptions,
men from whom I would at least accept
a dinner date from. Though moves to
go further on their part would result in...
well, let’s just say it would involve their
bleeding and leave it at that.

A magazine aimed at women that makes casual jokes about male violence, how rare.:rolleyes:

deirdre_dub

SugarHigh wrote: »

A magazine aimed at women that makes casual jokes about male violence, how rare.:rolleyes:

An expectation from a priviledged person that one of the demographics who experiences the most amount of violence (trans women) are not human enough that they respond to that threat of violence in kind even in fiction - how rare. :rolleyes:

FWIW I thought that the authors comment was a bit OTT. But I think a bit of understanding of the reasons behind why she made such a comment would be very useful indeed.

SugarHigh

deirdre_dub wrote: »

An expectation from a priviledged person that one of the demographics who experiences the most amount of violence (trans women) are not human enough that they respond to that threat of violence in kind even in fiction - how rare. :rolleyes:

FWIW I thought that the authors comment was a bit OTT. But I think a bit of understanding of the reasons behind why she made such a comment would be very useful indeed.

So you read "moves to go further on their part " as a threat of violence.
Where the does the "not human enough" bullsh1t come from. Stop trying to put words in my mouth to support your argument.

If someone comes onto you and you don't like it then you turn them down. Why get violent?
It's like straight men justifying gay bashing because the guy came onto them.

The fact Trans-women experience violence does not excuse this in the slightest and there was no suggestion in her fictional story that the other person was being violent.

bitter_lemon

it is an opinion piece. she is entitled to her opinion. she admits she is confused and hence must act in a confused state.

i'm actually more aghast at the punctuation, grammer and spelling mistakes. :rolleyes:

SugarHigh

bitter_lemon wrote: »

it is an opinion piece. she is entitled to her opinion. she admits she is confused and hence must act in a confused state.

i'm actually more aghast at the punctuation, grammer and spelling mistakes. :rolleyes:

What if there was an article in a lads mag that made a throw away comment about beating the crap out of a trans-gendered person who had the cheek to try it on after a date?

I'd imagine you wouldn't be so blasé.

bitter_lemon

SugarHigh wrote: »

What if there was an article in a lads mag that made a throw away comment about beating the crap out of a trans-gendered person who had the cheek to try it on after a date?

I'd imagine you wouldn't be so blasé.

i would actually. it was a throw away comment. i treat it as such.
i have a go at transgendered people when i see fit. same as i do with lesbians or gays. i am not a flag waving feminist lesbian.
neither do i take sides. i have the maturity to step outside the box and comment as i see fit.
i am a strong believer in opinion pieces. the writer is allowed a point of view.
the problem with the world today is people are waving their flags from a height screaming discrimination from a pulpit.

my interpretation of the piece was that the person in question was confused and it was a personal piece. i have no right to judge when i don't know what is going on in the persons mind.

i have said here plenty of times that people need not be so offended.

MsStroggatrix

bitter_lemon wrote: »

i'm actually more aghast at the punctuation, grammer and spelling mistakes. :rolleyes:

I would ask you to kindly remember that BoLT Magazine is not a professionally produced publication, the team are all amateurs at magazine production. We are doing this because we felt women in the LGBT community in Ireland needed a publication aimed at them.

We make BoLT Magazine in our spare time on a shoestring budget. No one gets paid. We do not have professional proof readers or editors either. Some of our writers might not be native English speakers either.

We realize that grammar and spelling has been a problem for the magazine since it started and are trying to improve.

We welcome any opinions on the magazine, constructive criticism or suggestions.

Please send them to us:

info@boltmagazine.ie
editor@boltmagazine.ie
artdirector@boltmagazine.ie
webmistress@boltmagazine.ie

Chuchoter

I actually really like Bolt and I think its brilliant we have something for women within the community, and its great that you can do it with basically no budget. The only criticism I have is that it might be nice to have some softer/fun articles. Most of the stuff is pretty difficult (maybe I'm just not smart enough now) but I find I have to concentrate really hard to follow the articles.

bitter_lemon

MsStroggatrix wrote: »

I would ask you to kindly remember that BoLT Magazine is not a professionally produced publication, the team are all amateurs at magazine production. We are doing this because we felt women in the LGBT community in Ireland needed a publication aimed at them.

We make BoLT Magazine in our spare time on a shoestring budget. No one gets paid. We do not have professional proof readers or editors either. Some of our writers might not be native English speakers either.

We realize that grammar and spelling has been a problem for the magazine since it started and are trying to improve.

We welcome any opinions on the magazine, constructive criticism or suggestions.

Please send them to us:

info@boltmagazine.ie
editor@boltmagazine.ie
artdirector@boltmagazine.ie
webmistress@boltmagazine.ie

oh ffs and this is the crux of the problem. you find the need to comment on my journalistic criticism of your magazine and skip over the burning issues people have here. it says it all. :rolleyes:
well if you are going to go down that road it dosen't take long to skim a piece to proof read. jesus i will do it for you for free. if you are going to do a publication aimed at women make sure it is indicative of all women.
(please note yes i do not use caps at the start of a sentence - yes i am aware of this)!
you even used spell check yourself there and failed. you should get rid of that U.S. version if its aimed at an irish market. i just think its the least people could expect to see a magazine to be properly grammatically correct. its not rocket science now is it?

MsStroggatrix

bitter_lemon wrote: »

oh ffs and this is the crux of the problem. you find the need to comment on my journalistic criticism of your magazine and skip over the burning issues people have here. it says it all. :rolleyes:

I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that.

bitter_lemon wrote: »

well if you are going to go down that road it dosen't take long to skim a piece to proof read. jesus i will do it for you for free.

By all means, send us an e-mail offering to proof read. We would welcome you volunteering to proof read articles.

bitter_lemon wrote: »

if you are going to do a publication aimed at women make sure it is indicative of all women.

Could you please tell us how, in your opinion, we are not indicative of all women ?

bitter_lemon wrote: »

you even used spell check yourself there and failed. you should get rid of that U.S. version if its aimed at an irish market.

Some of our articles in previous issues were written by Americans or people who learned American English as a second language. I am currently using my work PC and I work for an American company which is why the spell check is set to US English, company policy.

You seem to think you know how to run a magazine. Please, send us an e-mail about your interest in helping out. Get involved and show us how it is done.

kbix

bitter_lemon wrote: »

oh ffs and this is the crux of the problem. you find the need to comment on my journalistic criticism of your magazine and skip over the burning issues ....
i just think its the least people could expect to see a magazine to be properly grammatically correct. its not rocket science now is it?

It's actually nice to see the feedback here, even though it's not all hugely positive. So firstly, thanks to everyone who read and responded.

It's not rocket science but you'd be amazed how hard it can be do get everything right when everyone is trying to do way too much in too little time. We have four or five people who write, edit, fundraise, illustrate, design, promote, distribute, maintain the website and a million other bits and bobs. There are extra writers and artist obviously but a lot of it boils down to a small handful.

We've come to accept that we can't get it perfect, but hopefully if we keep at we can keep making it better. We are sorry when we fall short of the mark and disappoint people, and it delights us when we hear back from someone who has just discovered the magazine and gotten really excited about Bolt.

We make loads of mistakes, the project is huge and the team is small. We are home grown and looking to grow more - we are really enthusiastic about more people coming on board. If you think you could help out with something like proofreading once every two months why not volunteer a few hours? We'd be delighted to have you join the team.

A note on the article that was debated all through here - to a certain extent we publish what comes in unless we find it utterly inappropriate or don't have the space. If you think an article is out of line, write to the editor and say why. That will guide us when we're making decisions in future. If you think we're missing something we should have (like the ability to spell apparently ) tell us that too. We can't magically divine what the community would like to see in the magazine, so feedback is like gold dust to us.

And yeah, proofreaders - we really need a few pairs of fresh eyes at the end of 6 weeks production...

ForeverEnding

TBH, in terms of editing I don't think that we did that bad a job. There is always room for improvement, what gets left behind in the editing is simply the systemic result of being way too close to the work and of it being largely concentrated in the hands of two/three individuals.

In terms of the casual violence alluded to against men, BoLT in no way condones such behaviour. Amanda Harper is an opinion piece writer, it was an offhand if reprehensible allegorical comment. We appreciate any feedback that will allow us to make BoLT the best magazine that it can be.

We at BoLT strive to be representative of all women in Ireland through the publication of articles written by women in or experienced with the Irish LGBT community. If you feel we are not representative of you, as an Irish woman, then we are always looking for submissions and feel free to give your own spin on a topic. Our call for submission for issue 7 is currently out with the theme being 'Stages of Life'.
Issue 7 will also be our birthday issue. We'll be 1 year old.

I enjoy writing/editing for BoLT. I believe that we are much more representative of LGBT Women in Ireland than any other Irish publication that I have come across. And I am particularly proud of the high trans related content.

Criticism is always welcomed,but constructive criticism is what is needed.

bitter_lemon

i did not want to go down the road of dissing this magazine. lets make that clear! but if someone is gonna selectively pick at my posts i will retaliate.

this is the first time i read this magazine and to be honest it will be the last. my sarcastic throw away comment seemed to cause offense. that was all it was.
the last two posters i give credit to with dealing with the problems. i understand what you do and in these economic times you do it well. but sorry i cannot accept **** poor publication. that is my opinion. i'm sure there is countless others who would disagree.
why don't you get in touch with me? i feel no need to get in touch with you.

MsStroggatrix

@bitter_lemon - I don't understand why you are picking on me and I still don't have any idea what you meant by a lot of what you said.

You seem to know how to do things properly, start your own bloody magazine then. I think you'll find it a lot harder than you think.

I knew it was a bad idea to post this on boards.ie - I got exactly the reaction I expected .

bitter_lemon

MsStroggatrix wrote: »

@bitter_lemon - I don't understand why you are picking on me and I still don't have any idea what you meant by a lot of what you said.

You seem to know how to do things properly, start your own bloody magazine then. I think you'll find it a lot harder than you think.

I knew it was a bad idea to post this on boards.ie - I got exactly the reaction I expected .

ah will you stop! there is plenty of people here that support you. i'm not picking on you - far from it.
please don't be getting all serious lesbian on me

look the boards are here to air our views. granted its not what you expect and get all the time - deal with it sistah - kinda like how you're getting all serious and stuff

wonderfulname

MsStroggatrix wrote: »

@bitter_lemon - I don't understand why you are picking on me and I still don't have any idea what you meant by a lot of what you said.

You seem to know how to do things properly, start your own bloody magazine then. I think you'll find it a lot harder than you think.

I knew it was a bad idea to post this on boards.ie - I got exactly the reaction I expected .

259 people read this thread, you got free direct advertising to all of them.
I had never heard of your magazine, I went and had a nose through the back catalogue.
I went away mildly impressed, sure your magazine has its problems but for something out of nothing, its fairly good.

Then I came back.

I noted first how you, as a representative of the magazine, felt it necessary to go on the defence with regards spelling and grammar mistakes, something which any keen eye and any computer can keep to a minimum, but failed to exercise any damage limitation arising from an offhanded comment about violence.

Then you continued to pick on the poster who dared to question the spelling etc. in the first place. Furthermore your team signed up to back you up, and team up on that one, simple, helpful comment. Now I don't know if whether you told them to or failed to tell them not to but that is grossly unprofessional.

Then you threw a strop.

I am not a professional. I am a student, I have only ever worked manual jobs. Even at that I know how to present myself, I know what constitutes professional conduct, I know that if your magazine were a business, everyone from it who posted here would be fired. You can't play the "not professionally produced" card on this one, I would have assumed most people could recognise when to conduct themselves like adults.

This thread comes up on the first page of a Google search for "bolt magazine", odds are it will continue to do so for a long time to come, and it is a horrific reflection on your magazine. Potential readers will see it. Future advertisers will see it (assuming you do indeed want to go that way). And its all your own fault.

I for one won't be bothered checking out future issues of your magazine, I don't want to be responsible for further page impressions on your site, I wouldn't like the team behind the magazine to do any better from that. Pity about the writers.

Annasopra

Folks - Please halt the unnecessary antagonistic postings - If you have a problem with my warning send me a PM

bitter_lemon

wonderfulname wrote: »

259 people read this thread, you got free direct advertising to all of them.
I had never heard of your magazine, I went and had a nose through the back catalogue.
I went away mildly impressed, sure your magazine has its problems but for something out of nothing, its fairly good.

Then I came back.

I noted first how you, as a representative of the magazine, felt it necessary to go on the defence with regards spelling and grammar mistakes, something which any keen eye and any computer can keep to a minimum, but failed to exercise any damage limitation arising from an offhanded comment about violence.

Then you continued to pick on the poster who dared to question the spelling etc. in the first place. Furthermore your team signed up to back you up, and team up on that one, simple, helpful comment. Now I don't know if whether you told them to or failed to tell them not to but that is grossly unprofessional.

Then you threw a strop.

I am not a professional. I am a student, I have only ever worked manual jobs. Even at that I know how to present myself, I know what constitutes professional conduct, I know that if your magazine were a business, everyone from it who posted here would be fired. You can't play the "not professionally produced" card on this one, I would have assumed most people could recognise when to conduct themselves like adults.

This thread comes up on the first page of a Google search for "bolt magazine", odds are it will continue to do so for a long time to come, and it is a horrific reflection on your magazine. Potential readers will see it. Future advertisers will see it (assuming you do indeed want to go that way). And its all your own fault.

I for one won't be bothered checking out future issues of your magazine, I don't want to be responsible for further page impressions on your site, I wouldn't like the team behind the magazine to do any better from that. Pity about the writers.

i couldn't have said it better myself. it obviously touched a nerve!

bitter_lemon

Johnnymcg wrote: »

Folks - Please halt the unnecessary antagonistic postings - If you have a problem with my warning send me a PM

to be honest i never saw your warning. maybe other stuff has been posted here that i am not aware?
as far as i can see (and i stand corrected what i can not see) its a very healthy debate. and that should be embraced rather than moderated heavily.

its gone way off topic anyway. but in the same breath i feel it is important to bring this up - so shoot me!

Annasopra

Bitter Lemon as far as I can see your contributions here have not constructive just antagonistic and critical. If you don't really have anything constructive to add to this discussion please don't post in it again. If you have a problem with moderation please send me a PM as per the forum charter. Further charter breaches won't mean I'll shoot you but I will infract you.

If you have a problem with any of the moderation techniques used, please feel free to take it up via PM, or you can report it on the feedback board. We will not discuss it in any of the threads. If you feel that a particular post requires attention by a moderator, then feel free to report that post using the "report post" link visible underneath that post. If the decision to report is upheld action will be taken

I was sent a PM asking if my warning above was aimed at 1 individual - It wasn't. It was aimed at everyone in this thread.

bitter_lemon

Johnnymcg wrote: »

Bitter Lemon as far as I can see your contributions here have not constructive just antagonistic and critical. If you don't really have anything constructive to add to this discussion please don't post in it again. If you have a problem with moderation please send me a PM as per the forum charter. Further charter breaches won't mean I'll shoot you but I will infract you.




I was sent a PM asking if my warning above was aimed at 1 individual - It wasn't. It was aimed at everyone in this thread.

i was only commenting on the thread. i am sorry i don't bow down to you. there is no need for all this drama!
i feel my comments were very constructive. everybody has different views. this should be appreciated.
and regarding your reference to a pm i don't know anything about that nor do i care.
what does infract me mean? is it like a banning?
i would hope you have ample fuel to do so because its a sad day in the LGBT community when someone cannot put their point across if it it dosen't suit the masses.

Annasopra

bitter_lemon wrote: »

i was only commenting on the thread. i am sorry i don't bow down to you. there is no need for all this drama!
i feel my comments were very constructive. everybody has different views. this should be appreciated.
and regarding your reference to a pm i don't know anything about that nor do i care.
what does infract me mean? is it like a banning?
i would hope you have ample fuel to do so because its a sad day in the LGBT community when someone cannot put their point across if it it dosen't suit the masses.

Infracted for being unnecesarily antagonistic, breaching the forum charter and disregarding the directions and requests of a moderator.

If you have any questions or comments send me a pm.

If you want to know what an infraction means read this although you have received three already

bitter_lemon

Johnnymcg wrote: »

Infracted for being unnecesarily antagonistic, breaching the forum charter and disregarding the directions and requests of a moderator.

If you have any questions or comments send me a pm.

If you want to know what an infraction means read this although you have received three already

i think i may have received 4! but thanks for explaining

now is there any chance we can get back to the topic in hand? that would be super!

Eebs

bitter_lemon wrote: »

now is there any chance we can get back to the topic in hand? that would be super!

Sure. BoLT is a great free magazine run on a voluntary basis and shoesring budget which (I think) seeks to create more dialogue within the Bi lesbian trans and queer womens community. They seem to be open to proof readers and editors and quite receptive to people coming on board. Issue 6 is now out and they are taking contributions for issue 7 currently. Emails are above.

Think that about sums it up...

If you don't like something then change it. They're hardly forcing the paper on you. Read or don't read. If you have constructive criticism I suggest emailing it directly to the people at BoLT since they might be a bit busy to go trawling through all the boards and forums to see all this 'feedback'.

deirdre_dub

SugarHigh wrote: »

So you read "moves to go further on their part " as a threat of violence.

She was speaking metaphorically. She was trying to convey how she would feel about a man coming on to her, and the way she chose to do it was to write about blood being spilled.

I think it is pretty clear, from what she was saying, that any date between her and a cis man would be a friendship thing, and hence "moves to go further" would be a violation of the contract of the date from her point of view. Are you saying that you read it as "I'd make him bleed before bothering to tell him that the contract of the date is being violated"? Because if that is what you read, then I think that says more about you than about her.

Where the does the "not human enough" bullsh1t come from.

The thing about trans women in straight relationships is that even if we don't come on to some of these men - even if they are attracted to us and take us out to dinner etc and then find out that we are trans - or even if they find out we are trans before getting around to asking us out on a date - they will accuse us of coming on to them (even if that didn't happen), accuse us of "tricking them into a gay relationship" (even though it isn't a gay relationship), and use those two excuses to bash us. So I hope you can understand why we are sometimes a little pissed off at these men and sometimes exercise fantasies of violence against them. It's a human reaction thing. We are human too.

The fact Trans-women experience violence does not excuse this in the slightest and there was no suggestion in her fictional story that the other person was being violent.

There was an implicit implication that he was disrespecting the contract of the dinner date. Yes, that doesn't excuse spilling blood, but spilling blood was a metaphor, and it is also, I believe, a perfectly understandable human fantasy for a person in her situation to have.