Dyke Action Machine! is the nine-year old brainchild of Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner. Since 1991, DAM!'s culture-jamming public art campaigns have dissected mainstream advertising by inserting lesbian images into recognizably commercial contexts. DAM!'s media interventions have been sited wherever the public gets its information — the streets of New York City, the Web, interactive phone lines, even matchbook covers have all been used as targets.

When Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet, she precipitated a media frenzy. Since then, the antics of a few celebrity lesbian couples — Ellen and Anne Heche, Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cyphers — are reported ad nausea in gossip columns and on the E! Network. But for the Average Lesbian, without the aid of a publicist, coming out doesn't just happen once in her life, but is a daily occurrence that can be both tedious and frustrating. And, after facing those distinctly unglamorous moments when she responds to yet another uncomprehending query, a gal could use a good laugh over being asked, "Which one's the man?"

Answer girls, Schaffner and Moyer aim to respond with an "infotainment" sensibility. DAM! FAQ opens with a Flash-animated, high-speed car crash in the Information Highway and then segues into some lively answers to the three featured questions: When did you know? Are you two sisters? and Which one's the man?

Moyer and Schaffner, aren't waiting for their PhD in the theories of Nature vs. Nurture to come in the mail. They have an answer good and ready for all the people that ask "When did you know?" — as if you woke up one morning and a light bulb when off in your head, telling you that you were gay. At last, Dyke Action Machine! takes the awkward pause out of answering the unanswerable. DAM! has created a special scientific device to mathematically calculate how many days a person has been gay. After all, giving a cold, hard number is a lot easier than trying to remember if it all began in gym class or after you realized your husband never really turned you on.

Reprinted with permission from DAM! press releases.

Comments from Co-Producer Adriana Salvia

Irshad and I found out about the DAM! dykes because N3TV had done a story on them when they were in the middle of their poster blitz campaign. They were putting their posters all over New York City. Which one is the man? Are you two sisters? and so on.

We wondered what we could do that would be more than just a story. So we decided to do four or five different sessions with them, getting them to approach New Yorkers about their thoughts. This was new for them. What they had done so far was to put up the posters, leaving them there and seeing how many hits they would get on their web site. And they found it to be wildly successful.

They were not totally at ease with the idea at first. We had many a conversation with them, convincing them that they could trust us, that we would protect them when they were talking with the people. We emphasized that it is all about education and that it could be useful to get out there one-on-one, finding out what people really think, because it could influence their subsequent campaigns.

It took them a while, but they did end up having fun. We rented a limo for the day and we went all around New York in a limo so that they could pick spots where they could poster and do the interviews. Only once did a cop ask us to leave the area. It did happen even though we were minding our own business.

He said "I think you guys have been here too long. What are you doing anyway? It's time for you to go."

We did not want to tell him "Oh were here from QueerTelevision". So we said we we're "getting people's thoughts on things".

I think we all got a lot of value out of it. In fact when we were done, we talked about all kinds of ideas about how we could work together. Perhaps in the coming season.