Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

We love movies with older people! They show that we can be happy when we are older and we love the idea of growing old together. And even if people don’t have anyone while growing old, it’s never too late to find someone. And, maybe most importantly, these movies star old(er) actors and particularly actresses who so often aren’t engaged anymore—even though they experienced so much in their lives. As actresses and as protagonists. Here are a few of our favorite movies: Something’s Gotta Give (2003) We love Diane Keaton! In this movie, her character continuously changes and develops. She is self-confident and comfortable in her body and her life. The movie illustrates that we can love and find love in every phase of our life. This movie tells a wonderfully amusing story about love later in life. The Leisure Seeker (2017) A movie about a married couple who spent their entire lives with each other—including all the ups and downs. To reminisce about their shared life, they go on their last ...

"Ever had a threesome?" "Hello. Can we have sex all three? Are you active or passive during sex?" "I reduce stress by putting my 10 inches between two sets of lips like those." As probably every other lesbian couple, we regularly meet (well, 'meet') men who objectify us, who use us for their sexual fantasies. Living in Cologne with a rather diverse population—a recent study speaks of 10.6% queer identifying people in Cologne, while just 6.9% identify as LGBTQ+ in Germany's total population—we experience this objectification only occasionally. But as soon as we leave the city and travel in regions where queer people are less open with their sexuality and gender (or left for more open cities), sexual harassment, remarks, and salacious gestures are part of the experience. Representing our lives on social media has intensified this issue. Sometimes, we don't get any obvious messages or comments in days. At other times, we get a few within a day...

Three weeks ago, we talked about virtual harassment and objectification where we also cited the sentence used as a title for this post. We are aware that this sentence was supposed to be an insult and that many same-sex couples would feel hurt. But: we don't. Both of us don't want kids. There was a time Ilse thought she would have children one day, but Else never really planned on it. So telling us that we can't have a child doesn't do anything to us. At least not directly. But it still maddens us. This intentionally hurtful comment is based upon the heteronormative supposition that every woman eventually wants to have at least one child. Most of us have been told that ‘we just don’t know it yet,’ that ‘we haven’t met the right person (man) yet,’ that ‘we will see that we really do want children eventually,’ and that ‘we will surely regret our decision one day.’ No. No. No. No. We are indeed capable of making this decision. We are able to know what we want. It’s not abo...

This last week was filled with so many inspiring, helpful, saddening, important, uplifting, creative, and maddening posts and stories. We can’t believe how many people suddenly started educating themselves. We hope everyone will keep this up. We believe that supporting Black artists is one way to support the Black community. Thanks to our awesome virtual community, we were directed to fantastic BIPoC artists who present their work on Instagram. Today, we would like to share three incredible Black artists we found on Instagram: Pretty In Ink Press ©  beautifully illustrates Black people, mostly womxn. Her illustrations are colorful and portray each person in a powerful way. It's hard to settle on one, but we think her illustration of  Amorous Ebony  might be our favorite one. Artist (and writer)  Autumn Joi  paints amazing portraits (mostly) of Black people that we simply love. The paintings transport so much emotion even though we sometimes cannot see the f...

As a bookseller, Ilse is always curious when books are published that don't serve the mainstream. Living in a world where—sadly—many children’s books still show their protagonists in stereotypical roles, we love that an increasing number of books prove that nowadays, people are thinking more outside the box. Above all, we love the trend to publish books about strong and independent girls or princesses who don't just wait for a prince to rescue them. The girls in these books are tough and ambitious and don't rely on the help of male friends (princes) to help them achieve their goals. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli, for example, illustrates the stories of important and strong women in history who became famous for achieving their goals and being opinionated. But we don't want to say that there should be books like that only for girls. There is an equally great book for younger boys called Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Diff...

As white persons born and raised in a Western European country, we are very privileged —more than most people in the world . But, at the same time, we are women and we are lesbians. We are from non-academic working/middle class blended families. We are not skinny. Still, we count ourselves lucky. We know that so many people struggle. Struggle with discrimination in so many ways, on so many levels. And we believe that society/societies should acknowledge these struggles. All of them are valid. Some struggle more, others less. Maybe, some people don't struggle at all. But we never know how severe a struggle is felt that we would disregard. We believe that it is important to share experiences of discrimination, that it is important to make these visible. Perpetrators should not be protected. Perpetrators should be called out. It should be normal to call them out. Both of us have experienced discrimination as a woman, as a lesbian, as a child from a non-academic working/middle...

We love to read! As a bookseller, Ilse tries to have a broad insight and reads almost everything: crime thrillers, science fiction, romance, children's books, cookbooks, travel literature, social criticism — you name it. Both of us particularly enjoy social criticism books, stories about everyday life, books about queer experiences of life, intense stories, and travel literature. Else also reads fantasy novels and Stephen King since her childhood/youth and a diverse range of literature with her book club in Cologne. In addition, we recently joined a feminist book club online. Yet, we often struggle to find good queer books, so here are a few of our favorite ones: One of our favorite books is Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Less was published in 2017 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2018. At the center of the story is Arthur Less, a gay writer, who travels the world to evade his former lover's wedding. The beautifully written story is charming, thoughtful, and funny an...

Welcome, dear visitors, to Else & Ilse . We invite you to look around, leave a comment or write a message, and come back in the future. A few months ago, we started an Instagram account where we share our 'adventures.' It started out as an account mainly for our travels and explorations, but it soon became more: we began sharing pictures and stories about everything important to us: intersectional feminism, queer rights and visibility, body positivity, and books! Here are some individual introductions that we would use to describe each other (not conclusive): Ilse is big-hearted (including frightening insects), emphatic, spontaneous, perfectly insane, funny, book loving, smart, adventurous, strong, open, curious, badass feminist, gorgeous, and a traveling superheroine. Else is so glad she chose to be with her! Else is a dinosaur-loving, gorgeous Wonder Woman! She is funny, so caring, considerate, sweet with the most gorgeous smile and a life changer, because...