"Do Not Call Me Cisgender" by Uppity Biscuit

I am uploading this from a post I saw originally on the Michfest list from a member who uploaded it from "Uppity Biscuit". I feel this is such a powerful post that we NAME OURSELVES as bio-Females and as women/womyn/wimmin and Dykes! The website is:
http://uppitybiscuit.wordpress.com/
-M.A.



January 19, 2007
Do Not Call Me Cisgender. You Do Not Have My Permission To Name Me.
Posted by uppitybiscuit under Dykes, Feminism, Gay, Gender, Politics, Transgender
[28] Comments
Do Not Call Me Cisgender. You Do Not Have My Permission To Name Me.




Start/General definitions:

Cisgender is a neologism meaning “not transgender,” that is, a gender identity or performance in a gender role that society considers to match or be appropriate for one’s sex. The prefix cis- means “on this side of” or “not across” (cf. cisatlantic, cisalpine).

The term has been given credit as being created by Carl Buijs, a transsexual man from the Netherlands, in 1995. Additional roots show the name being used on a transgender website prior to 1995.

The term transgender was coined in the 1970s by Virginia Prince, a cross-dresser, transvestite, femmiphile, transgenderist in the USA.

End/General definitions




Do not call me cisgender. You have no right or authority to name me without my consent.

Cisgender is a word used by persons who have decided to name me without my permission.

Cisgender is not a name or identity that females, women as a class, have chosen for ourselves.

It does not come from us, as its origins are from a trans perspective, a person said to be a man, created by trans persons and used to name females/women as a class. Women have not agreed to be named by others, as has been done to us through history, being named, identified and defined by others.

You do not get to name me without my permission.

Do not call me cisgender. That is offensive to me. I am offended that you consider that you have power over me, and can name me.

Cisgender is an epithet, abusive, contemptuous and expresses hostility towards me.

I name myself. The names and words I use include female, woman, her, she, wimmin, womon, womyn. You have permission to use those words when addressing or referring to me.

You do not have the permission to call me names you have created for me, against my will and demand that I own them as mine.

Do not call me cisgender. That is your word, not mine.

Do not call me cisgender. I see that word as derogatory, more so when used in slang as a ‘cissie’.

Consider what you are doing to me when you presume to name me, and why I resist. You are naming me and as though I am powerless to name myself. You consider me less than. It is by your own words that you determine that you have the power to name me, that you have the power to define me … create a name for me, and that I have no right to resist.

Do not call me cisgender. You are demeaning me with your word.

I get to name me. You do not get to name me. You are not allowed to re-classify me according to what language suits your needs.

Males have been naming and defining women for a millennium and more. When you demand the right and proceed to take authority to name and define me, without my permission, you embody and keep company with male’s and man’s traditions. You violate me.

Historically, regarding all other human/civil rights movements, the idea was, oppressed people named THEMSELVES. They didn’t re-name their oppressors. To do so would have either been laughable or dangerous, mostly dangerous. Imagine black people telling white people that from now on, white people are going to be called ‘(whatever)’.

The fact that you presume to re-name me shows that I am indeed not your oppressor. You presume to re-name women because in fact women are NOT your oppressor, and even you know as much.

I am not your oppressor, although blaming women for the actions of the patriarchy is a common occurrence.

Do not call me cisgender. I am not less than or owned by you as property for you to name as you see fit.

Through your privileged position over me, you presume to re-name me.

Do not call me cisgender. That is your word and you have no right to name me. I refuse your word. You are not permitted to re-name me to suit your needs.

You do not have authority or permission to name me cisgender, a ‘non-’, or a ‘not-’.

I am a full human, a female, a woman; I am refusing to be renamed.

I do not embrace cisgender, your name for me. I am what I name myself.

I name me female, woman and myself.

Energy work

"Energy
While not visual, energy work is a Wicca symbol.

Energy-working is what Wicca is all about.

To many people shifting energy, raising energy, and directing energy are quintessentially Wiccan."-From Wiccan Spirituality

I will go more into how I'm a Butch DykeAmazon Warrior/Witch Energy Worker. Both physically, represented by my blue lightening bolt tattoo on my right forearm, and spiritually, represented by my purple lightening bolt tattoo with triple spiral on my left forearm....

About Chaz Bono transitioning, and being a Female Identified Butch

Earlier post from Michfest list. This is simply too powerful writing on my part to
let it languish just on Michfest. It was written earlier than some of my previous posts here on DykesforDykes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Chaz Bono: "I always felt like the male from the time I was a child," he said. "There wasn't much feminine about me."

"Boy, can I relate!"-michfest list member

MasterAmazon's response:

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Well, there's not a whole lot feminine about me either...but feminine DOES NOT equal female...it's why we have a wbw policy. Womyn, Dykes, Females, come in all flavors, from the hardcore Butch, to androgynous to high Femme, to Wildwomon, to Amazon, to Sorceress, Witch, Warrior, Sage, and many others inbetween, reflected by the Goddess of 10,000 Names, appearances, sizes, ethnicities, races, temperaments. Maybe we need a modern Goddess who rides in a rocket ship, though I've definitely transported into outer space with a few of them through visualization and ritual......the Goddess is infinite..and so are we..AS FEMALES. We come in many different Female forms. This is basic feminism...not just for our rights, but for right to be PROUD as a Dyke, as a Womon as a Female, in whatever form we come in, fat, thin, muscular, Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow, Purple or Green....all ages, all types of temperaments, fiery, watery, fairy, floaty, airy, earthy, whether as Maiden, Mother, Amazon or Crone types, so many differing ways we CAN be as Female, and take back our Female Powers...Female, NOT feminine. Just like there are men who don't fit into masculine roles...our fairy queen brothers....why should they be forced or pressured into transitioning to 'female', simply because they're effeminate and don't 'fit in' to hetero norms, in the same way butchy/tomboy girls don't 'fit in' to hetero norms. I never have, ever since at age 7 I rejected dolls, age 10 rejected dresses, age 12 rejected having a baby or ever marrying a man, ect. How did I know these things at such a young age?

I CONSTANTLY argued with my parents that I was 'not a girl'. And they constantly told me I was 'not a boy'. And then we'd get in the arguement, 'well if you're not a girl or not a boy, what ARE you?" And came up with the only answer I could, being a hardcore Trekkie...."I'm an alien from outer space.". No more arguement then.

Years later, I look through my school books, and realized I scratched out all the female pronouns or changed them to male ones. I did not identify with the female roles, housewives, cooking, cleaning, having babies. I wanted to do the fun stuff(and did), ride my bike, climb trees, play baseball, fight, explore, and identified with all the male roles, with the exception of Wonder Woman. Even though she was a bit feminine for me...she had magical powers, AND SHE LIVED ON AN ISLAND OF WOMON ONLY..AN AMAZON ISLAND. Anytime I EVER heard about Amazons I knew that was me...the Amazon Goddess Artemis, and girls/womyn living in the woods with Her, that was what I wanted. I wanted to be in a community of womyn TO BE FREE...COMPLETELY FREE, WILD AND UNFEMINIZED. I wasn't 'tough enough' to make it as a boy, in fact, I really didn't like the boys, and certainly not sexually, I found them repulsive. But I identified with the fun things they did, rather than the drudgery of roles and feminine confining behaviors and games little girls were expected to like, and especially dolls! Hated them, and everything they represented. Hated everything that was feminine....or feminized. But when I saw pictures of womyn that weren't so feminine, more sporty, more athletic, more POWERFUL....and actualized...I identified WITH them. So this is the crisis.

Once all the good Butches, or potential Butches are taken out of the community and ASSumed to be male as in: "you just want to be a man", like so many of us have been told, well, WHERE WILL THE ROLE MODELS BE, for those who DON'T want to transition to love a womon, yet are somewhat masculine, or who too, reject femininity?

Everywhere I go on the internet, 20, or 30 something boyish dyke types are talking about wearing binders to flatten their breasts, ASSuming male pronouns, and expecting that every Butch needs to be referred to as he/hym, hy, ect....the trans movement offers us Butch Dykes NOTHING.....except the erasure of our Femaleness...which goes WAY BEYOND femininity....and we KNOW that, because we have been on womyn's land, and experienced the POWER of womyn, all kinds of womyn, of every stripe, shape, size, ethnicity, yin or yangness....temperament, Butchness, or femmeness, and everything inbetween. Many of these can't even imagine being on womyn's land cuz it's 'discriminatory', their gay male friends can't come, their trans friends can't come(depending on what side of trans they're on), or whatever. There's no value to it, for them...because they DON'T UNDERSTAND the value of it!

I had one young friend of mine go to Michfest, who sits in this stew, and this current 'binary/nonbinary gender issues' political correctness. She was changed going to Michfest, but unless she repeats it many times, she'll fall right back into that trap.

Hell if Chaz wants to transition, whatever...but every Dyke who transitions, every womon, and every masculine/Butch womon who transitions, who literally allows the male energy to live inside her body, through those hormones, and the physical and psychological effects of those surgeries, and the community's celebrating her transition with her..to male..or some version of male....makes it harder for every one of us Female Identified Butches who DON'T constantly want male pronouns used for us, who WANT our Butchness, our Dykeness AND our Femaleness honored and recognized, and seen, for who and what we are...not what others think we should be...

How do I know this? Well, my partner was pressured almost immediately once she got online to transition, by all the other Butch on Butch online, who were playing with their 'cocks' and dildos, and imitating the male...each announcing "I'm taking T', one at a time, or considering the surgeries...it starts innocently enough..the name change to something more male, like Anna to Andy, or Eva to Evan, or something like that....then by starting to insist on male pronouns, then a certain style of dress, what I call the Genderqueer/FTM style(very, very distinct in San Francisco), then the encouragement of wearing binders...then maybe scoring some 'T' from friends to create a mustache, or even wearing fake facial hair before that....and WANTING, oh so WANTING the privileges men have. WE ALL want those privileges......then, getting a script for testosterone...and maybe they'll just stay there for awhile...but eventually, many will want the breast surgery....cuz now they really hate what evidence of femaleness they have left on their bodies, because of all the masculinity and maleness of their genderqueer/FTM friends....and then eventually the breast surgery when they have the money......and most just stop there...somewhere's inbetween...neither really male, nor female....they LOOK LIKE young dykes, many of them, with baby faces, some sporting a little facial hair, some not...the scratchy hormone induced voice...it's very, very 'in'...and their femmes love it..and their genderqueer and FTM and some of their Butch bros.....


But...each one that does it...puts that much more pressure on those of us left behind....those of us Butches who just want to remain female...and then the bombardment of questions of those Butches who are a bit harder looking, who have the more genderqueer forms of dress, or hairstyles, or very short hair, or more hardcore masculine looking..."When are YOU going to transition" "When, when, when?" Yes, my partner had to endure those questions before we met.....until she met someone who LOVED her for her Butch nature, AND her Female side as well....because there is a part of her that is very soft, vulnerable and female...and THAT'S what I want, and NEED in a partner. I LOVE the tough Butch look. I LOVE being Butch..but I gotta know that inside, they're soft and have a vulnerable side...that they are fully Female....and with so many of these young ones, they're made to stuff that down....and only claim the hardness and reject the vulnerability. Truthfully, how many are incest or rape survivors? How many hate their femaleness because they were victimized by it? How many see being female necessarily equals feminine, and that it is a weakness...ok for their femmes, but NOT for them? Yes, sexism. No feminism, not even the most basic kind. THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IN YOUR POWERFUL FEMALE BODY...ANYTHING YOU PLEASE.....BE ANYTHING YOU WANT...AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO WORK TO OUR FULL LIBERATION AS FEMALES!!! AND NEVER, EVER LET GO OF THE STRUGGLE!!!

Well, there's a new movement coming along, and we call it "Butch Feminism". You can be Butch, proud to be a womon, and Feminist...and I will write out my definition of it..others can add to it...you need not change, be somethind different or feel that female=weak. That's patriarchal claptrap, the machine and noise fed to us by media and the power structures and conservative religions. And we are rising once again...claiming the flame...and we are Female Identified Butches that only or primarily want the female pronoun used for us...and ESPECIALLY in women's space and/or women's land! That should be a given. If others dont like it, then let them stay in their queer identified spaces, and leave us womyn and Dykes alone who DO want wbw spaces and places to SEE each other, and CONNECT with each other AS FEMALES!
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon

I'm a Lesbian EVERY SINGLE DAY. Lesbianism is my religion, my spirituality, my sexuality, my sexual orientation, my sex, and my outlook on life. Everything I see, I see with Lesbian eyes. I worship the Sacred Female from the sexual to the spiritual and on every level inbetween, emotional, intellectual, psychological, and psychic levels too.

Butch Revolution

Are you ready to take back the community by and for Female Identified Butches? Ready to reach out to our young Butch youth who are transitioning or being pressured to transition, go on hormones, consider themselves male at alarming rates?

Do you have pride in yourself as a Dyke, a Female and as a Butch, and would like to find a community of Butches that feel likewise, looking at what we've lost, how we've been shunted aside for this brave new world of hormones and surgeries, getting our 'liberation' through them, than through actual Sisterhood, telling our stories, supporting each other, and finding ways to network again within our OWN Dyke networks?

Would you like to create safe space for both older Butches as well as young masculine women who don't really understand their Lesbian/Dyke herstory, and our lifelong resistance against feminization, and being forced into femininity, while at the same time having great pride in being Female and loving other Females?

Well this space is here now, and it's being developed realtime! This is a safe space for all of you who would like to retain your body parts, who would like to be PROUD as the Butch/Amazon/Powerful Butch Dyke Female you are, without the pressure to transition, and to freely talk about it! You are NOT alone. There is a Sisterhood of Butches working on your behalf. You CAN question the trans movement, or decide not to participate in it, or in succumbing the pressure to transition because your pals are doing it, or because you don't feel like you 'fit in' because you're nonfeminine, and you have Lesbian/woman loving woman sexual feelings, passions, desires.

We have resisted so many things, feminization, heterosexuality, shame, going back into the closet, or becoming 'men' even though many of us have been told all our lives "you just want to be a man", or worse "need a man to set you straight". We have a long rich history/herstory as Dykes, as womyn loving womyn that have questioned every box that men or their women have tried to put us in! We're strong, powerful, autonomous, independent, kickass, and Warriors. We don't apologize for who we are, and neither should you! Join us! It's a Butch Revolution! We're taking back our community one Dyke at a time, one Butch at a time! Be OUT LOUD AND PROUD!
-MasterAmazon

Butch Feminism: A Definition

A Definition of Butch Feminism by MasterAmazon

As Female Identified Butches we put our lot in with the women of the world, whether they accept us or not, even if we don't benefit from their privilege since we're nonfeminine. We are bio-females and have no intention to transition to male, or have resisted the pressure to do so. We keep our bodies whole and intact in that regard and learn to love them. We take up our space in a unique way, resisting all messages to conform to that small box that men put women in, or that women put themselves in, for fear of being labeled masculine, dyke, wanna be a man, ect. We OWN our Dykeness, our Manly/Amazon ways, and choose to move as freely about the world as men do. We have our own rich herstory that has lasted for many, many years, decades, if not millenia. We have always existed, and we've always cracked the boundaries of roles and powerlessness foisted upon females as a whole...we show another way to be female, with our power and strength intact!

The Lesbian short by Catherine Crouch, "The Gendercator"

I finally got a chance to watch this infamous film(by many trans standards) "The Gendercator", which got censored from the San Francisco Gay/Lesbian Film Festival 'Frameline', after it had been accepted. Certain members of the trans community sent 130 identical emails to Frameline, and they gave into the pressure. What about the Dyke and Butch Dyke community who desparately wanted to see the film?

After seeing it, I just wish it was a bit longer, developed the character a bit better, and was acted, shot and plotted a bit better, as well as lit with better cinematography than what Catherine Crouch offered up in those infamous 15 minutes, NEVERTHELESS, she got across the struggle many of us Female Identified Butch Dykes are facing these days. I'm not one much for the display of the stoner days, which I certainly participated in from the late '70's onwards till I got clean and sober in 1990, but such is the times of the film she is displaying.

The Butch she chooses to play the main character in her flannel as she wakes up in the hospital, is really adorable. She keeps stating she loves the 'sisterhood', and enjoys being female as all others around her cannot accept her for who she is, and that she must transition to survive in the future culture. This is about the size of it these days, as I see so many young Butch/boyish types making these very same choices, in a culture far more conservative than in the heyday of the '70's where feminism was burgeoning and our lesbian cultures were being built in an out loud and proud manner, and our lesbian institutions coming fully into place in the '80's. All that has been tattered and slowly eroded away as our lesbian businesses, from Osento hottubs, Artemis Cafe, The Brick Hut, The BayBrick, Amelias, Ollie's, The Driftwood, Old Wives Tales Books, Woman Crafts West, A Woman's Place, Mama Bears, Boaedecia's Books and even the gutting of the gay bookstore 'A Different Light', have all gone by the wayside. So many of our Lesbian institutions, refuges for our culture, our voices, mini Lesbian community centers, our Dyke Female oasises, all gone.

It has been replaced by LGBT/Queer/Genderqueer/Gay Male institutions that no longer reflect Lesbian sensibilities or a strong Lesbian voice, including that of Female Identified, Female Centered Butches. The talk is of surgery, hormones, transitioning, gender rights, and trans workshops, organizations, groups. Most women's/lesbian groups in San Francisco are for 'women and trans', or 'past, present and future females', completely diluting Lesbian and Dyke consciousness and our bio female proud to be female centered ways.....there is so much pressure on Butches and young boyish/androgynous/butch potential dyke types to transition, take hormones, genderqueer or consider themselves something male instead, to make that choice, that female=femme or something very soft, and butch=he, hy, hym, something male. Yes, a dualistic thinking.

Here's a quote from an article about the film, with Catherine Crouch herself:
"Jennifer Curtis: What motivated you to make The Gendercator?

Catherine Crouch: While we once believed that transsexuality was a relatively rare medical condition of gender dysphoria that is unbearable for a person, in the last six years I have seen a sudden increase in the number of young women who opt to take testosterone or undergo voluntary mastectomies. Why is this happening now? What has changed?
If we situate this in terms of the larger culture's misogyny, it seems to be a rejection of the female part of the masculine female. Why does a woman do this? Most often, the reasons given are: to avoid harassment, rape and ridicule as a gender variant ( i.e: butch or androgynous ) . It seems to me that what is also going on, but has not been explicitly addressed, is the desire to avoid being perceived by the world at large as female, and/or to avoid the label of lesbian. We should also acknowledge that it has become a trend among some young people who formerly identified, or would be considered by the lesbian community, as butch lesbians. Why can't we talk about this?"*

Yes, WHY CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS? Why have we effectively been silenced? This affects us Butch Dykes most intimately, and YET we can't talk about our fears, our sadness, our grief at so many young Butch sisters going under the knife, because they can't accept themselves as both masculine and female.....or Butch/boyish/androgynous not fitting into feminine roles and female. That there seems to be no power in the female anymore and that feminism is dead. Why is it not o.k. to be percieved instead as a different kind of female, including our dykeness? Have we failed, or has the backlash against feminism, radical lesbianism, and the new carving out of womyn's roles, potentials and possibilities been so strong against us, that the only way our youth can reconcile their womon loving desires, and their tomboyishness, their rejection of socially constructed feminine roles, is to become 'male'?

This is an important film for all Lesbians, Dykes and Butches to see, whether you agree with it's premise or not. It is indeed thought provoking. And then the narcissism evidenced by the masculinized FTM's who brag about their surgeries and show off the results of their newly acquired 'manhood'. Then wrestle each other in a macho way, fitting into the male/female dualism that the main soft butch character defies as she resists becoming 'male', still proud of her femaleness, and craving her Dyke Sisterhood!

Also, Catherine Crouch herself identifies as a Butch, and several of her films have to do with being Butch/tomboy and not 'fitting in'. You can get on her website and see for yourself, order the film on DVD, along with 3 others, 2 out of the other 3 I liked, especially "Pretty Ladies", horny diverse Butch characters who are friends craving companions, and "One Small Step" about a young tomboy who falls in love with her girl neighbor and wants to marry her...I found all 3 of these films, to be thoughtprovoking and affirming, as a Dyke, a Butch, and as a Lesbian and growing up as a hardcore tomboy myself!

Check out: www.catherinecrouch.com
There are also articles of commentary on The Gendercator. Check 'em all out!
-In Butch DykeAmazon Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
*Windy City Times

Female Identified Butches trying to organize

It has been a hard journey the past year to bring Female Identified Butches together. We know who we are. I have already gone through two groups, both which will shortly become/have become defunct partly because the group leaders have not allowed input and democratic process to take place, or even basic feminism/egalitarianism between the womyn. One had a very clear focus but almost too narrow, and expounded upon it without allowing others to really have input, it was a monologue. But at least she has a vision of what she wants the group to be, and in her mind, heart and spirit she truly is a Female Centered Female Identified Butch who is troubled by all her peers genderqueering, taking on the use of male pronouns, identifying with men, or actually wanting to become one by taking hormones or having surgeries.

The other, is a failed FTM, if not worse, an interloper, a traitor, one who wants to harness what little space we have left as Female Identified Butches, who wants to convert us over to the Genderqueer/FTM cause, or at least make as few waves as possible, by actively silencing our voices. She does not represent us. She is NOT us...in fact just a few short years ago she proudly announced at a monthly women's organization meeting I was in that she just had surgery to remove her breasts, and pulled her shirt up to show it off to all in the room....it sickened me, because I knew another Dyke in this same community who was having fundraisers because both of her breasts had been removed due to cancer, and was having trouble with money for all the surgeries and procedures.

My partner and I also followed said individual above at Gay Pride, we didn't know it was her, with 'Butch' proudly on her back, with her shirt off....cuz we love to flirt with other Butches, and when she turned around, she was flatchested, the same individual who proudly announced the removal of breasts...and NOW, fastforward several years later, she wants to lead a Female Identified Butch group under the rubric of 'Butch Voices' a conference supposedly for Butch Lesbians that took place in Oakland, California in August of 2009, and it was completely led by FTM's and Genderqueers. There was only ONE Female Identified Butch workshop, led by said individual above, who had her breasts cut off, an FTM, an infiltrator. It is why I didn't attend the workshop till the tail end. I felt crestfallen when somebody not of our community, somebody who has chosen not to keep her body integrity, her femaleness in tact, not because of serious disease like cancer, but because she no longer wanted to be female, sporting all the genderqueer dress, appearance, scratchy hormone induced FTM voice, and appearance, wanting to represent those VERY BUTCHES who don't want any of that?

Those very Butches who we are constantly told we're a 'dying breed'? Those Butches who are Dykes, Dyke loving Dykes, Womyn Loving Womyn, who refuse hormones, surgeries, male pronouns and male identities being imposed on us? Who had our workshops for Female Identified Butches refused, and turned down by 'Butch Voices', but they have their patsy take over and now 'represent' us? Because we are the DykeAmazons simply too potent to be controlled by them, or to kowtow to their agenda, that we gotta be spoonfed that an FTM, a Genderqueer is as much a Butch as we are? While they run away from essentially what makes a Butch a Butch, is that she is a WOMAN, a DYKE who loves other WOMYN, whether they're Butch, Femme or Androgynous....she has a herstory that is rich, that has resisted men, and male power in the bedroom, and as much as possible in her life. Where she has fought for women, protected them, worked on empowering them, and in honoring both their and her own female body, and Lesbionic Dyke Desires.........so we are to kowtow to them, and accept a stand in who has not lived our reality, in fact rejected it, to 'lead' a group that represents us, and then tell us that now any Butch can be part of the group, any individual who counters who we are at our essence may come, the very individuals that have coopted our identities, who have convinced our young women that transition is the way to freedom from the problems of the Butch Dyke Female position, or even the Female position, that liberation comes at the end of an injection, a surgery or a pill? And that if we imitate maleness, it may rub off on us(at least in our minds) that we might get the same rights men do. Is this right? Not..it's called cooptation. And it has been done to colonized groups over and over again who have fallen for the patsies, the interlopers, the fakers, to sell their lands, their spiritualities, their beings, themselves, and their very souls, like the Native Americans, the Blacks, the Jews, and the radical Dykes.

And on top of that, that the group won't be free, it won't be democratic, or consensus or feminist oriented, it will be under the dominion of the very conference that shut out our voices in the first place, the falsely named 'Butch Voices'. This is my blog for today, my first blog...but I have many more to go on this subject of Female Identified Butches, who we are, and who we are not....but there will be other DyketoDyke topics as well! Women's spirituality, where does it fit for Dykes, and especially where does it fit for Butches? What are our roles in it, and what do we bring to our Female Centered Spirituality? How do we expand our role in that movement, without feeling invisible? We'll talk about all forms of Butch oppression, liberation, empowerment, sex, and sex magic! Yeah! Other topics like Goddess worship/Paganism/Wicca, recovery (clean and sober), creating community for ourselves, or reclaiming community for us Dykes and Butch Dykes...Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and other Festivals I attend, womyn's space, womyn's land, womyn's and dyke empowerment, and defending those spaces....womyn's and especially Dyke and Amazon Mysteries/Rites of Passage/Ritual....friendships and more....Dyke Identified and centered Leathersex, maybe even Science Fiction, being in the Trades as a Dyke and as a Butch....and our struggles together overall as Dykes, Womyn, Butches or Femmes....taking back our Dyke community one womon, one space, one idea at a time...till we are a force to be reckoned with, not bartered, not coopted, not sold out! We are NOT a dying breed!!!!!