INTO THE CANNON

When hit movie theaters in 1996, the neo-noir lesbian crime thriller instantly became an underground classic among queer women, especially femmes. It was the first of its kind to show a romance between two smart women (played expertly by Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon) where their queerness was explicitly wrapped up with their butch-femme gender identities. The filmmakers brought on sexpert Susie Bright to help orchestrate the lesbian sex scenes, and a slew of local San Francisco Bay Area lesbian and bi women turned out as background players to help the bonafides. But it still confounded some that , directed by the Wachowski siblings—whom everyone at the time considered two straight cis guys—felt authentically lesbian. Today of course, Lily and Lana Wachowski, who both came out as trans in the 2010s and are both married to women, can, , and ), is finally getting a second look by Cáel M. Keegan, a professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies and liberal studies at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University. We asked about his new book, (Illinois), after Target inadvertently censored the title.