Drumming Amazon

Drumming Amazon
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Big Dyke from SF Dyke March

Big Dyke from SF Dyke March
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

"I don't look, act,want to be a man. I'm a woman..." Quoting Tallon

I hope you all can see this photo of Tallon, a handsome Butch Dyke who fights for us Female Centered Butch Dykes. And her statement below:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151480217067164&set=a.485667372163.260946.838137163&type=1&theater

From Tallon:
"I don't look like a man, I don't act like a man, I don't want to be a man. I'm a woman, and the way I look, act, live, and love, are all the ways of a woman too. I'm different from many women, and many women are different from me, yes, I recognize this, and I celebrate these differences when I call myself butch. We need feminism, because patriarchy's dictation of what a woman is, and is not, is oppressive to ALL women."
— with Devin Alexa Kiehn.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Words are Weapons, Use them Wisely Part Two

So considering all I just revealed to you, I went to Pantheacon for the very first time on Saturday, February 16th with a young friend just coming out into Leathersex whom I met through my womyn's spirituality community. It was her Leather debut, and both of our debuts at Pantheacon. Like someone said to me at the Conference "There's not much left at our age where you can still be a Virgin!" And I told her that was true! I remember the first time I was at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 2001 after a very difficult breakup and losing my house as a result, being a Festi Virgin as they call it! And they tease us, it IS a Rite of Initiation and Introduction for sure!

As I knew I would be going into Battle as an Amazon Warrior, defending Dianic Wicca and WBW space in some capacity or another, I decided to go for my Inner City Leather Witch/LeatherAmazon  persona, rather than as my lighter 'Amazon in the Woods' persona which I feel on womyn's Lands or in womyn's ritual.....my Leather is my Armour, my Top's hat, my Crown. For those of you into the whole 'Queen' thing perhaps you can relate. The only Queen I am is an Amazon one, but the word doesn't resonate for me, as I have other far more stark terms for that. And my Leather Crown, my Top's hat, expresses THAT clearly for me and to others.

I checked in with my womyn's spirituality community, and we were giving away buttons, one of them with Labryises, and they didn't even have them out, and I put them out. We talked and hugged each other, and of course I wanted to shock and surprise them, because for all the reasons I previously mentioned I vowed to them I would NEVER go to Pantheacon because it had men and trans, and it was hostile to Dianic Wicca and WBW space and ritual, especially the last two years, and that basically I don't mix my magic with nonFemales. Those who aren't proud to be Female and WBW.

But, I've ALWAYS been curious about Pantheacon since so many of my Witch friends and womyn from my womyn's spirituality community attended, and kinda always felt left out about it. Also in February I've rarely had much money to go since it's always the time of year when I have the least work, Wintertime. However this year I got my taxes back and had some funds to work with. And other blessings of the Goddess granted to me perhaps by Brigid, after doing a WONDERFUL dedication ritual with a Dianic circle in my neighborhood I attend frequently. Though mostly straight women and led by one, they are friendly and welcoming and I am bonding with them more and more. It's also NICE to have a local circle only a mile or so away from me! We raised alot of energy that night on Brigid exactly two Saturdays before Pantheacon, and She has been blessing me ever since, and we've endured a hard year.

A Sister from my womyn's spirituality community texted me that a woman from one of the online Goddess groups was asking for me at Pantheacon, and I told her I wasn't there. Then I talked to my young friend online and we both really wanted to go, so we decided to carpool. I told her if I wasn't back to her by 10am, I wouldn't be going. I talked to my partner that morning she gave me her blessing and I called my young pal and told her I decided to go...so that put everything in motion.

We didn't arrive till about 3 pm, and checked in with our womyn's spirituality community, before each of us was off to workshops. I went to one about 'Telling Your Story', but the woman was so manic, and so nerdy, she really wasn't a very good presenter, and it wasn't participatory at all...there were a few exercises she gave us, and some good ideas, but with her manicness, she just droned on and on, without allowing us to really get into our creativity and write our stories much, or into 'right brain' space. I finally left 15 minutes before the workshop was up.

I went back our womyn's community suite, and had a hard time deciding on the next workshop: would it be "Queering the Great Rite" OR  'The Goddess Morrigan and Fighting Your Battles" which looked like a heavy ritualistic workshop. I read about all the presenters of each workshop, and as much as I felt strongly about 'fighting my battles with Morrigan at my side, those things I felt passionately about', I also felt strongly about Queer Sex Magic and have to say I was  a bit intrigued by the workshop leader's Leather credentials, as well as having been a Tantrika, and perhaps hearing how others in the Lesbian/Gay and other queer communities expressed the intersection of their sexuality and spirituality together. A pal told me she thought that would be right up my ally, and that the person leading the Morrigan workshop was kind of full of herself....self promotional. I was also fearful of taking on such a powerful energy as the Morrigan at this time. Especially after having been through such immense Darkness the last several months.

So, off I went with my young pal to 'Queering the Great Rite'. We sat at the end of the table in the big plush executive chairs, a place of power.  We socialized with others waiting for the presenter to arrive. When she did, she was perhaps in her 30's, MAYBE her 40's, hard to read agewise, butch looking and medium height and weight. She set a large Athame, more dagger/short sword sized and a cup on the table. There wasn't much more prep than that in her setting up of an altar. Then she dinged the sword against the cup to get people's attention. She identified herself as 'Genderqueer' and 'brown'(Hispanic). Then she asked everybody how they identified. 'Are you also Genderqueer like me? Are you a Cis Male, Cis Female?' Explaining Cis to be the other side of trans, or someone whose 'gender presentation matches their sex'. Are you Trans male, Trans Female?' ect. ect. There was NEVER anything mentioned about being a Dyke, a Lesbian or a Butch! Those terms were NEVER used. I do not identify as 'Cis' because it is used as a hate word against us by the Trans, and it is THEIR TERM for us, NOR does it speak to me, since my so called 'Gender' does not fit my Biological sex....because the way THEY speak of 'Gender' is always referring to heterosexual femininity  for females, and heterosexual masculinity for males...so NO NEITHER fit me AS A BUTCH DYKE! I've always been OUTSIDE OF heterosexually defined female gender roles... and suffered the price, but NEITHER will I allow ANYONE to take away my Femaleness OR my womonhood!

This I learned from the Dyke Witches, Radical Dykes and Butch Dykes I came out with, who TAUGHT me PRIDE in my Femaleness, spiritually, sexually and emotionally AS A BUTCH, and that I had a place, at last, in womonhood. Back then, Butches were PROUD to be Female and the Guardians and Amazons of the impending 'Women's Revolution' we were all working for. When we had our Dyke bookstores and coffeeshops, our Dyke printing presses and businesses, and burgeoning womyn's festivals and plenty of Lesbian only and women only space. I remember going to Lesbians Colorado and my first Women's/Lesbian concert was with Meg Christian and ONLY women were allowed to attend! No men! This was in the city, in a large auditorium. I LOVED that it was women only, and almost all Lesbian only.

I'm digressing again. It did not bode well for me. But neither did I want to be an asshole and say 'Cis is a hate word for many of us', even though I was itching to say it....I would do a 'wait and see'.




Words are Weapons, Wield them Wisely Part One Introduction

For those who know me realtime, I just attended Pantheacon, this is a big, HUGE yearly Pagan conference always in mid February at the Double Tree hotel in San Jose. Just about every famous Pagan author, lecturer, teacher or performer come to this conference, but as told to me by one of the organizers and volunteers, they always open slots for others as well, not as well known, or in other words 'regular pagans'.

I have always REFUSED to go to Pantheacon because I don't mix with male Pagans, and especially because in the last two years Dianic Wicca, the Goddess only, originally Lesbian led, bio female/Womon Born Womon only Path started by controversial Lesbian Witch Zsusanna Budapest, has been severely under attack for it's Womon Born Womon policy of allowing only bio-female women into it's workshops and Rites, because THAT IS WHO DIANIC WICCA IS FOR!~

These days, Dianic Wicca is largely led by nonLesbians, but almost all the original Dianic teachers like Ruth Barrett and her partner Falcon(who has an Amazonian spinoff called The Guardian Path), even Shekinah Mountainwater who had her own Dianic spinoff separate from Z. Budapest, and also Ffiona Morgan who is a Lesbian Witch as well, and many other strong Goddess/matriarchally oriented Lesbian teachers and participants were drawn to Dianic Wicca BECAUSE IT WAS A PLACE FOR LESBIANS AND WELCOMING OF LESBIANISM AS BOTH A SEXUAL AND SPIRITUAL PATH OF POWER. There were handfastings between Lesbians(a form of Pagan marriage or bonding between partners) performed by Dianic Priestesses and Rites specifically written FOR Lesbians. This was being done in almost no other religion, except a more ancient version done by Native Americans called the "Rope Baby Ceremony", that I know of.

As Z herself has said, it's not for Lesbians only, and in fact to make money, she went out into the heterosexual and bisexual female community and organized them and brought them into leadership emphasizing more the Round of Maiden/Mother/Crone and the Goddess' more pro-creative abilities, than keeping with more explicitly Lesbian Rites. Back in the time of the origins of Dianic Wicca, Lesbian Separatism, Feminism and Lesbian communities and politics were strong. They also were none too approving of S/M/LeatherDykes either or those who felt differently, and Z and I had it out about the Leather/kink issue many years ago, so I drifted away from her specifically. HOWEVER there was NO OTHER PATH for me, because the Goddess made VERY CLEAR TO ME that my Path and Mysteries were meant to be BY AND FOR Goddess only and Womyn only.....so I did the best I could, often practicing solitary, and joining women's circles, often pick up Lesbian oriented circles and other women's Goddess circles for the larger holidays.

I also wanted to travel to Michigan Womyn's Music Festival where many womyn honor the Goddess as well as being in the company of thousands of Lesbians! But that was not in the cards for me then, so I traveled to a much closer Festival which is much smaller but strictly womyn only and for womyn and girls.

I live at the intersection or rather border of two almost exclusive communities: the LeatherDyke community which is part of me, and the Womyn's Spirituality Community, along with having basically Radical Feminist and Lesbian Separatist politics. I maintain my Separatism completely when it comes to both my Dyke Sexuality and my Goddess spirituality and working exclusively with bio female/WBW ONLY. Both of these absolutely FEED my soul.

I am no happier than when I'm in the throes of powerful Lesbian sex, OR in the throes of ecstatic womyn's ritual! I can feel connected to Goddess in BOTH realms, and high for days, naturally. Nothing like worshipping a sex positive religion(which I mean, feeling joy and happiness within my sexuality and ecstasy and NOT shame around it) and in the company of beautiful and powerful womyn of all sizes, shapes, ages, races, and temperaments, ESPECIALLY my DykeAmazon Sisters. Both are intimate and powerful, and BOTH share energy, the most intimate sharing as a Female I can experience...going right to my soul.

I have made many friends and allies within the womyn's spirituality community. Way less so for the LeatherDyke community, and especially when many started going down a more male identified Path. But still Leather will always be a part of me, and those who feel similarly and are Female and Dyke identified Beings understand the intersection of both within our Selves and our Soul. For me LeatherSex is more about the Dark Goddess mysteries and even powerful underworld Crone Wisdom. We all have our Shadow sides we often refuse to acknowledge. Leather demands one do so, and understand clearly power relations and the full nature of meaningful consent. Also about limits and boundaries, but EVERYONE needs to understand their limits and boundaries on ALL levels, not just the sexual one, but emotionally, psychically, spiritually, otherwise, as womyn are wont to do, they will be eternal caretakers exhausting themselves like the good co-dependents they've been TRAINED to be through patriarchy and never having the ability to say 'No' or 'No more!'

Well, I'm seriously digressing in this article, but this is where this article has taken me, so let's call this the introduction of who I am and what I believe in some of these realms and my place in two almost mutually exclusive communities, though they need not be. And if they are part of myself, then Goddess meant for me to integrate ALL my Selves together, as She charged me with years ago to 'be true to my deepest desires', and that 'all acts of Love and Pleasure are My  Rituals', and as someone in recovery to bring to wholeness ALL my fragmented Selves. THAT brings wholeness no matter who believes what.
                                                         -In Sisterhood,
                                                           -M.A.


Sunday, February 3, 2013

"Brain sex does not exist" by Bess Hungerford

check it out:

http://sexnotgender.com/brain-sex-does-not-exist/#comment-479

Saturday, February 2, 2013

It's not Butch Oppression it's Lesbophobia? IT'S BOTH!!!

 In response to anntagonist "It's not Butch oppression it's Lesbophobia
 
https://anntagonist.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/its-not-butch-oppression-its-lesbophobia/#comment-47
 
 
Utter b.s. There are TONS of Butches that are NOT the dominant sexual partner in the relationship, or who like to recieve sex as much as give it…you and your kind really have it out for Butches, and Feminine women are far more employable than Butches where we’re always told to ‘femme up’ or ‘pass better’ or pressured to wear humilating feminine clothes or put down one way or another to try to get work, or when working, or to wear makeup…ALL women are targeted for male harassment, feminine ones for ‘passing’ as straight and looking available to men, and butch ones for looking obviously Lesbian and ‘threatening his manhood and let’s make an example of her’. You don’t address the disparity of employment issues and struggles we have JUST TO SURVIVE, especially the more blatantly Butch and nonfeminine we are! I won’t be erased, nor will I allow my Butch Dyke brethren to be erased either! And don’t assume just cuz I’m Butch I prefer Femmes, in fact the opposite. I’m a Butch loving Butch..cuz I like being with a Dyke who looks like one, and shares my struggles on the most intimate levels, and can both give and recieve…
-FeistyAmazon

Lesbian is MORE than just a label! We have a rich and long herstory!

Ok, so this REALLY burns me up. Because Lesbian is MORE than just a label! This was posted to another women's and mostly Lesbian  Facebook group I was in without question or comment. I felt I had to, and my response is below. As predicted, the moderator of that group moved it IMMEDIATELY to instead of open commentary, that EVERY posting is now fully moderated. Very, very predictable. And she's a Lesbian herself! Let's NOT let our community or our words be coopted, rewritten or used in ways that don't reflect US. Lesbian is NOT a catchall label for anyone who is not bio gay male, or for the rest of the 'queer' alphabet soup! We are Female Homosexuals, we are womyn loving womyn, we are DykeAmazons, we are Butch, we are Femme, we are anything inbetween, we are born female, bleed as females and LOVE FEMALES ONLY! I will fight till my dying day FOR our Lesbian/Dyke communities, personhoods, and presence, intact, with integrity, and in Sisterhood! And yes, we have a Sex, and that sex is FEMALE. We are not 'genderless' or 'sexless'. Though we may want to throw out all 'genda' roles or boxes, we are still FEMALE and lust and LOVE FEMALES!!!!!!
                                                  -In  DykeAmazon/Lesbian Sisterhood,
                                                     -M.A.
Lesbian Visual Artists Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/122068251293542/
  • ALA is a online community of lesbian artists, a place for professional and beginner artists to share their work. "Lesbian" is just a label... bi, trans, queer and genderless are welcome. Posting ...
  • My response:   Sorry, but Lesbian MEANS something. It's not 'just a label' some of us FOUGHT for our identity, some DIED for our identity, we MAINTAIN our identity and Beings as Lesbian FEMALES, WBW, and womyn loving WOMYN.

    We are not the trans community, the bi community or 'genderless' either! We are not an alphabet soup. WE ARE LESBIANS, we are DYKES, and WE HAVE OUR OWN HERSTORY. It is disrespectful to coopt it. Otherwise the group needs to be named a different name, like 'queer women' or American Queer Artist. -FeistyAmazon, a lifelong Dyke of 3 decades plus!