About the Editor: Zachary Zane
Photo by David Zimmerman
Our magazine’s title, Queer Majority, is an act of reclamation - both from the word's misuse as a hateful slur and from its sometimes questionable legacy in academia and politics. For Issue XI, guest editor Zachary Zane has rallied our contributors to reflect upon the reclamation of another word – slut. As he explains it:
”My goal is to explore untold narratives about sluthood. In it, we go beyond how ‘identifying as a slut is a feminist act!’ because most of us have known about this idea for years. Instead, this issue of QM addresses new challenges that have arisen in society with modern technological advances. It tackles issues of sexuality that are current, because we all know things have changed drastically even since 'Slutwalk' kicked off in 2011 – and being a slut has changed, too.”
Though the NY Daily News called Zane a “Bisexual Mega Influencer”, he prefers to call himself – as it says on the back of Gigi Engle’s Audible best-selling book, All the F-cking Mistakes – an “LGBTQ Mega Icon and Activist.” His career as such began when he abandoned his pursuit of a doctorate in clinical psychology “on a whim” – a decision which led to his writing “I Came Out as Bisexual and Now Can’t Date Anyone Gay or Straight” for the now defunct publication, XoJane. Since then, his articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Cosmo, The Daily Beast, NBC, GQ, Allure, Slate, Playboy, Bustle, Prevention, Dazed, SELF, and AskMen among others. He’s addressed colleges and universities across the USA, been a featured expert on Dan Savage’s The Savage Lovecast, and attended the “Bisexual White House Briefing” hosted by the Obama administration.
Presently, he writes the sex advice column for Men’s Health, which led to co-authoring the book Best Sex Ever: 200 Frank, Funny & Friendly Answers About Getting It On. He launched the erotic digital zine BOYSLUT, soon to make its print debut in the form of a “best of”. He’s working on his memoir-manifesto (also titled BOYSLUT) forthcoming from Abrams Books. Our readers are familiar with his regular column here at QM (Zach and the City), where he shares “war stories” from his fabulous life as a proud bisexual slutting it up in New York. Needless to say, Zachary Zane is the perfect person to guest edit the "Slut" issue of Queer Majority.
In recent years, the liberal world has made enormous progress where sexual and romantic liberty are concerned, yet outdated stigmas about sex and the people who have it continue to plague society. There is more to be done if we truly wish to rise above our puritanical past. To embrace our sexual mojo and claim it proudly, we need examples like Zachary Zane – who shows us through wit, passion, and kindness that words like “queer” and “slut” don’t have to shame us into boring conformity out of fear, but rather can liberate us if we choose to embrace them instead.
Published Apr 19, 2022
Updated Sep 20, 2022
Published in Issue XI: Slut
