Drumming Amazon

Drumming Amazon
Drumming DykeAmazon

Big Dyke from SF Dyke March

Big Dyke from SF Dyke March
MasterAmazon

Saturday, December 26, 2009

"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.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

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:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday, December 14, 2009

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.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

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