bent street 4.1
love from a distance
intimacy and technology in time of COVID-19
Bent Street: Australian LGBTIQA+ Art, Writing & Ideas
Edited by:
Jennifer Power
Henry von Doussa
Timothy W. Jones
Series Editor-in-Chief: Tiffany Jones
Clouds of Magellan Press | Melbourne
© 2020. Copyright for the contents of Bent Street remains with individual contributors.
Bent Street: Australian LGBTIQA+ Art, Writing & Ideas is published twice yearly by Clouds of Magellan Press, Melbourne.
www.cloudsofmagellanpress.net
Bent Street publishes a midyear themed edition with guest editors; and an open-themed end-of-year edition. Bent Street welcomes contributions at any time from the Australian and international LGBTIQA+ community. Visit bentstreet.net for submission details.
ISSN 2652-6581 (Online)
ISSN 2652-659X (Print)
ISBN: (paperback) 978-0-6487469-3-5
ISBN: (ebook) 978-0-6487469-4-2
Series Editor-in-Chief: Tiffany Jones
Contributing Editors: Ashley Sievwright, Gordon Thompson
Editors for Bent Street 4.1: Jennifer Power, Henry von Doussa, Timothy W. Jones
Logo: Andrew Liu
Design: Gordon Thompson
Publication and distribution, Lightning Source, through eBook Alchemy. ebookalchemy.com
Cover: time to get my life together—Jake Cruz
Acknowledgment
In the spirit of reconciliation Bent Street acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this journal.
Indigenous walk – Woodlands Historic Park, July 2020 – G Thompson
contents
Contents
Foreword—Tiffany Jones, Gordon Thompson
Introduction—Jennifer Power, Henry von Doussa, Timothy W. Jones
Intimacy and Unexpected Technologies—Suzanne Fraser
Intimacy, Technology and Emojis—Amanda Gesselman
Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality—Jamie Hakim
ESSAYS
My Queer Sex Bot—Jennifer Power
A Public Feeling—Marcus O’Donnell
Digital Intimacy: An End to the Tyranny of Distance—Gary Dowsett
Intimacy in Online Spaces for Bi+ People—Emiel Maliepaard
Out in the Outer Worlds—Nessie Smith
D/s in the Everyday—Rainicorn
Life, But Not As We Know It—Geoff Allshorn
Viral Lesbians—Tiffany Jones
FIRST PERSON
Not so Distant—Dennis Altman
Body in Retrograde—Samuel Luke Beatty
Architecture at Night—Michelle Dicinoski
Tiny Essential Victories—Guy James Whitworth
Dark POMO—Jean Taylor
Pro-Po: Policing Productivity in the Midst of Pandemic—Jake Cruz
Loose Threads—Max Hayward
Overhead—Elijah El Kahale
A Box of Unused Masks—Holly Zwalf
POETRY
Couch scene—Cat Cotsell
About Me—Georgia Banks
Touch—Tina Healy
Offline—Casey Scanlon
King Root—Brigitte Lewis
asleep in my arms—Rob Wallis
FICTION
Nick’s Story Mode—Ava Redman
Patchouli—Heath John Ramsay
FOREWORD
Since 2017, the year of Marriage Equality, we have produced three editions of Bent Street, a journal variously described as ‘a twisted tapestry of our time’, ‘the road less travelled’, and ‘a page for rainbow essayists,