Drumming Amazon

Drumming Amazon
Drumming DykeAmazon

Big Dyke from SF Dyke March

Big Dyke from SF Dyke March
MasterAmazon

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Where are you Sister?

I look for you everywhere I go. On the job, in the grocery store, at the hardware store, in the factory, at the restaurant.

Here you are rare and elusive.  I have one at home; but we are two alone. We have no community; but still I hunt and search for you elusive breed soul sister of mine in your Dykely sensibilities like me. The way you carry yourself, the way you take up your space. Your sensual Butch Being.

We shop in the men's department, we like big watches, our hair short,  boots and sensible shoes close to the ground. I think I see you;  but find you are with a man carrying a purse,  no, an imitation. Disappointed I recalibrate, these country women look like you but are not you. In my isolation I begin to mourn.

I have my mate but no companions, we are drowning in a sea of conservative hetros.  Others name themselves differently flattening their breasts hiding their plumage, imitating males;  but not you, that female juxtaposition, that rare breed of Amazon holding her ground, her strong female gaze, who breaks into new territory as a female.

My Butch sisters; everywhere I hunt for you and spy one in a Target, two at a small pride event calling themselves by male names but are they you? Will they hear the siren song of hormones and surgeries to pass as male? Leaving our tribe in the dust?

My love for Butch Dykes is my love for myself as one, and loving another;  but one cannot love what one what cannot see, forever an anomaly.

It is your strong gaze,  your powerful stance, the full embodiment of dyke unashamedly, some camouflage themselves for a moment as men for safety in the world, those who cannot see who she truly is;  but once in the safety of her Tribe  reveals herself  fully as Butch Amazon female taking up her space.

Where are you sister? Are these territories too hostile for you?

 You  who  break through every barrier men erect, daring to pass through them claiming new territory for yourself.  You who dare...It is your strength and defiance I love,  hearkening back to our Tribe of Strong,  Defiant women who love women, the Amazons of all time.....






Saturday, February 20, 2016

Lesbianism is an entire Worldview....

Lesbianism/being a Dyke is not just a sexual orientation but an entire worldview! Putting women first forever and always..especially erotically but also on every other level, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually as well. I see the World through Lesbian eyes....

In Defense of WBW space..won't be Attending Temple of Sekmet at this time...

Well I guess I wont be attending Temple of Sekmet anytime soon...one of the Priestesses mentioned :

"Here at the Temple of Goddess Spirituality, dedicated to Sekhmet we address this issue individually. I ask the group how they feel about having a person calling themselves female but not necessarily having been born with a female  body participate in a Women Only event, and the group decides.  I am happy to say this arrangement has worked out well, and that  to date, the women have always welcomed the  person and the event has gone well."

"My personal feelings are anyone willing to take on the mantle of "woman" in a society where women are at best second class citizens, has my support."

 Well here's MY response:

And I can tell you thousands of Goddess women, most of us Lesbian, Amazon and Dianic oriented who do not feel that way as men usurp the last of our Spaces..and our Mysteries. The Castrati, Two spirits, those born male who feel "womanly" have THEIR OWN Mysteries.

We feel VERY STRONGLY about Female Soveriegn/WBW/WBF space and as Amazons, Dianics, and DykeAmazons will defend it forever...

Call us the Michfest Amazon Sisterhood..we are in.mourning at the end of the most Matriarchal space on the Planet..and yes we went out with Fireworks..6609 of us and more are in mourning..no Amazon Homeland to return to next year. And there were MANY rituals wothin that last 40th Gathering last August 2015...including the LARGEST Dianic womyn's ritual I have EVER attended...400 strong..taking over the entire meadow..with a 30 ft Goddess statue erected at the beginning of every Festival...it was Amazing..and the last large Gathering.of our Tribe..many of us cried...myself included...at this great loss...

Guest Post by Elaine Charkowski "Throwing Down the Gauntlet"

Throwing Down the Gauntlet
By Elaine Charkowski
(Copy, Paste, Postable and Shareable).

The first step to eradicate oppression is NAMING the oppressor.

“Silence is the first thing within the power of the enslaved to shatter. From that shattering, everything else spills forth,” said Robin Morgan in her book “The Demon Lover”

The phrase “to throw down the gauntlet” means to challenge or confront someone. I am throwing down the gauntlet and breaking the silence by naming MEN as the primary source and originators of ALL the horrors we see in the world today. 

Yes, ALL of them.

These include, but are not limited to: war, racism, sexism, homophobia, femicide, torture, concentration camps, factory farms (concentration camps for animals) “everyday” rape during peace time, rape of “enemy” women as a weapon of war, rape camps (concentration camps for women who are used as soldier's sex slaves) and pornography.

These also include child sex slavery, overpopulation (MANdated pregnancy), genocide, including but not limited to the Jewish Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition and the Women's Holocaust (300 years of men burning European women alive as “witches”) female genital mutilation, foot binding and hand grenades.

These also include sport hunting, deforestation, mountain top removal, fracking, global warming, ocean acidification, Fukushima, Chernobyl, automatic weapons, traumatizing children to make them into “child soldiers,” chastity belts, and land mines, (including ones that look like toys to blow up enemy children).

These also include throwing acid in the faces of women who reject them, napalm, nationalism, nuclear weapons, computer operated drones that can kill “enemies” from thousands of miles away, dropping bombs from aircraft, and cluster bombs with hundreds of razor sharp pieces of metal that shred every living thing within hundreds of yards.

But what about violent women? Violent women are the ABERRATION cast as the NORM while violent men are the NORM cast as the ABERRATION!

And what about collaborators such as women who collaborate with men (“What about Margaret Thatcher” etc.)? And what about race traitors who collaborate with white men (such as Clarence Thomas of the US Supreme Court)?

MEN created ALL the unjust systems we must endure and unjust systems ALWAYS breed collaborators. This is the reason people collaborate. However, reasons are NOT excuses for collaboration.

Also, collaborators did not create nor do they control the unjust systems MEN created. Collaborators do NOT change the fact that ALL the horrors we see in the world today ORIGINATED with MEN!

Elizabeth Dodson Gray, a feminist theologian said that patriarchy is the fatal need to rank diversity. Naturally, the suffering of people specifically targeted by each type of male violence would cause them to feel that their oppression is the worst. Thus, women would say sexism is the worst oppression, people of color would say its racism, Jewish people would say its anti-Semitism and so on. 

However, ranking one's own oppression as the worst unfairly diminishes the importance of other people's oppressions. It also unfairly diminishes the importance of the people themselves. To respect all sufferers equally, ALL types of male violence must be regarded as EQUAL horrors. 

Also, ranking each oppression also diverts the focus from MEN and MALE violence. The fact is that MEN are the SOURCE and the common denominator in ALL these abuses- racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, economic oppression and all the rest! 

However, the only kind of male violence that CAN be ranked as the worst of all is men's systematic destruction of the Living World to feed the endless demand for economic “growth” on a finite planet-with finite resources. Since we all need a healthy Earth to survive, this is the worst kind of male violence.

Think of ANY horror you can name and MEN will be the source. So I'm throwing down the gauntlet and challenging anyone to name a horror that did NOT originate with MEN.

MALE VIOLENCE IS THE WORST PROBLEM IN THE WORLD.

Break the taboo of silence.

NAME IT.

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”  Muriel Rukeyser — Poet and investigative journalist

Eunuchs guarding the harem...

Ok so I came to the conclusion that like long ago, where eunuchs guarded the harems and hemmed women in, modern day trans arent satisfied with mere acceptance they wanna be more "woman than woman" more " lesbian than lesbian", more "feminine than most females" and they completely want to hem us in under their control and have us reflect their lies of their "woMANhood" back to them. 

Its not enough that they force themselves into all our spaces, no they want to silence us from all criticism of them as well and have the State do it for them and gut all forms of the Feminist movement in the process and destroy EVERY female sports program  including Olympics while still wearing their penises..guardians of the harem indeed...

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Nature vs Nurture or is it both??

I agree with the Feminist thinking in the arguement. For me its both Nature and Nurture...but then Id say I REJECTED femininity(gender) at the young age of 7..and actively came out in a very active Lesbian and Feminist community when both were strong at 21. Het sex NEVER felt right...I chose to come out and sought it out..but once I did it all made perfect sense(my nature).  So, yes, both. And I remember exactly when the gay movement went in the "born this way" direction. While Lesbians lwft men in droves once connecting with the Feminist Movement or women only Festivals that came out of that movement.

It was done for political expediency by Gay Inc. And so was smashing all 4 communities/identities together instead of keeping the focus gay/lesbian.

I was at a meeting when the bisexuals joined with trans to INSIST San FrAncisco Pride be renamed instead of San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Pride, San Francisco LGBT Pride.

Gay men ALWAYS resented how independent us Lesbians were abd that we could largely do without them (Separatist) with OUR OWN Bookstores, coffeeshops, hot tubs, events and other Lesbian businesses. We didnt need them and they could not control us.

But they knew for the "big issues" in Washington DC they would need us as foot soldiers...and have for all too long treated us just like het men treat straight women:  as a force to be used but never as equals. Lesbians tried to have say so on the San Francisco Pride board and other mixed homosexual venues in San Francisco..but the gay boys always treated us poorly  or ran us off.

They STILL hold the power with LGBT..it is STILL their agenda and the only women they keep on are Lesbians or faghags who kowtow to them...not Lesbian interests who PUT Lesbians first and foremost and truly choose coslition when expedient and needed.

No they made sure we couldnt organize independently from them again..by crashing our spaces and especially SF DYKE MARCH and shaming us when we want Lesbian or womyn only environments..WHILE RETAINING THEIR OWN MALE EXCLUSIVE ONES. 

With the help of LGBT they basically broke the back of Lesbian community. EXCEPT MICHFEST. Then their Gay Inc. LED BY TWO LESBIANS, their mouthpieces, threatened to boycott Michfest last year..till Lisa Vogel called it and said ENOUGH!!! And yes, us Dykes wrote those organizations and those two Lesbian Executive Directors and said ENOUGH!!!

If we were completely fluid sexually and it was all nurture(choice) everybody would be bisexual then. But some of us are not...while I chose to come out because it wasnt working with me and men, I have NEVER gone back. There is indeed a Lesbian sensibility and Way of Being that is very real, familiar and originates from childhood.

I am all for womyn choosing the sexually intimate partners that best suit them and treat them well...no matter which sex they are.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

post traumatic stress and working in the male dominated trades ruff draft

I am writing this in response to my trade sister and former electrician trades woman she has a blog too. She worked her way up to being an electrical inspector and she has since retired she also was on the board for many years of trades women Inc I greatly admired her anyway we were talking a couple weeks ago and she wrote out about just the level of stress women in the trades are presented with and especially if you're a lesbian as we are; or different in any other way.  

What she wrote deeply triggered me and reminded me of just how paralyzed I became towards the end in 2013 as I was trying to find my way out after having been in the trades for 23 years or rather my trade. It ended up in homelessness because of the Great Recession and the lack of work. 

 I couldn't get myself to go down to the Union Hall any longer because of the rejection when I went out on the job, it simply got too painful and not until being removed from all of it did I realize how deeply it had affected me. 

There was an electrician friend of mine and we both vowed to get out. We had work together on various jobs in the same union. She took training on computer repair. In between I worked on part time jobs,  one for a candidate halftime and the other for Home Depot in the electrical section but I found out that Home Depot does not hire full time only part time so I burned up a lot of my unemployment. 

I was hoping work would break; but with the Recession there were far fewer contractors in my county;  and the ones that were left basically dictated who they would hire and who they would not no matter the job.  They had a lock on practically all the jobs in the county for a couple years;  and if you couldn't get hired on with them or they wouldn't hire you that is blacklisting then you had no work. 

The best I could get where to get short  calls but nobody can live off of just two weeks of work every couple months. 

After working for Home Depot I was hoping for my next extension and I called unemployment twice in California;  and was told I was eligible for an extension but the last time this woman, a real bitch,  told me I was not,  so I started panicking.  We had to come up with rent. To survive my partner didn't make enough money to support both of us without unemployment. The rents are simply too high. We tried to interview for a roommate through Craigslist that all fell through and we realized we had to get out eventually. My father wouldn't help out and I had nowhere to turn so her mother offered to take us in in Nebraska. 

 I spent 30 years in the Bay Area for my sexual freedom I made my whole life in the Bay Area but I had no family there;  and friendships unfortunately can only sustain so far especially when you're constantly struggling.  

Many of us struggled,  many guys in the union hall had their homes foreclosed on.  In fact many people were going through foreclosures. To put to put it in perspective construction workers were particularly hard hit through the Recession and especially if you're a woman or minority. 

We had up to 25% unemployment in construction this came up from the highest levels including a business manager I talk to for the Iron Workers Union. Normal people had 12% unemployment which is high enough 25% is depression-era numbers like in the 1930s. Surviving several years of this was hard enough in a jobless recovery  Wall street was making the money but not us nor were we getting decent jobs. 

Those of us over 50 were having a huge problem getting the employment for coming back to jobs paying way below what we are worth service sector pay. 

 Well you can't make service sector pay in the Bay Area and survive.  5 people competing for every job even for crappy part time jobs like Home Depot. 

So we packed up I arranged for two of my kitties to be adopted by a mutual friend who had a large house and loved cats and we took three with us. 

We packed up all our worldly goods that would fit into two small u hauls and our vehicles, we left all our furniture behind. I left some of my jewelry, clothes, ritual objects and other valuables as well as my friends, communities and Dianic circles, my whole life.

 I still mourn. It is still is very hard to see the Golden Gate or Bay Bridge on TV and movies especially now that the Super Bowl is being played in the Bay Area dammit but we couldn't make it and we aren't the only ones. 

Sooooo we drove Nebraska and lived with her mother which wasn't easy as also two kids live there in the town of 25000 when I'm used to living in a large metropolitan area with a gay community lesbian community and Pagan community as well as other communities I belong to. I hate there isn't an established out gay community around here or infrastructure for one, or lesbian gatherings of any sort.  They have PFLAG but that's it. It is very very isolating especially coming from the Bay Area very very christianized so no religious diversity. And mostly Republican so I didn't feel understood. 

I found a job at a factory warehouse and I connected with all the former Californians, we reminisced and they told me their stories while I told them mine and I felt immensely sad I felt sad giving up my trade and the money and settling for jobs that pay very little, I felt sad leaving the ocean trees, forests,  the diversity and the bay. 

I have been out on every single job I've been on I would not compromise there no matter what I was told about this being a right to work state and with no laws to protect lesbians and gays from job discrimination I have none the less done better out here work wise then I ever did in California. 

I realized I put up with an immense amount of discrimination on the job as a woman as a big woman as a butch as a lesbian. In the Trades.
I work more steadily here than.I ever did in CA, but there are also far more jobs available. Not good paying ones, but then everyone is pretty much in the same boat, the working class.

A response: what to do with male perpetrators and empowering womyn

The That would be an awful lot of men....what with the likes of Daesh/Isil, Boko Haram, that rape advocate burning up the internet, the number of incest and rape and abuse survivors...WORLDWIDE and rape used as an instrument of War. Time to end all Worldwide Patriarchies and bring forth many Matriarchies to choose from and for Goddess to Awaken and Arise in the hearts of All Womyn. 

And womyn training in self defense and martial arts and squads of them to protect their Sisters...a Worldwide Sisterhood so strong it could not be broken and refuge for every girl and womon leaving an abusive/coercive/exploitative situation. Teaching them to take back their pride and Power, teaching them real skills for the workplace, nurturing them to hear their stories and holding them through the pain...

I would rather see women brought FULLY into their Power...and find ways to stand so strong that men would find themselves shunned, alone, imprisoned or otherwise who dared....and their militaries and male religions disbanded that advocate control over women's bodies or sexuality...

Thursday, February 4, 2016

fascinating chair

http://www.hrgiger.com/furniture/furnit18.jpg

The REALITY of Womyn's lives...and give me ONE Amazon Matriarchy!!!

 I'll take an Amazon Matriarchy thank you very much...because I have seen them in action..namely Michfest. And ONly in that gynomorphic field of womonhood and Goddess and Female Energy on ALL levels does this DykeAmazon feel free and acknowledged on ALL levels... No shouting..but pointing to what we are up against...very real in all of our lives. The Recesssion hit many womyn very very hard myself included. As a result I had to make a major life change and move 1700 miles to survive economically leaving my life of 30 years and all my communities including Dianic Goddess and Lesbian communities behind. We faced near homelessness as a result of the Recession.

Any philosophy which doesnt take into account the sheer difficulty of Female lives due to sexism and how it deprives us on all the levels above mentioned..including economically is victim blaming..not empowering women and SHOWING them a way out...and at the very least giving them some comfort to rebuild and find their Power Within..connected with Goddess and Mother Earth...and their Sisters in Sisterhood. Then we are talking past each other as our life experiences are very different.  But I see an easy victim blaming here...I could not possibly think of how to heal societies except to let the women rule for a change and the emergence of Female Centered Spirituality..i.e. Goddess Energy to counter the violent deadliness of Patriarchal war mongering religion and thought...

Do not take on shame for not being in Power..find your Inner Power

Staying in your power:  The whole blaming those stuck on the lower echelons, those of us actively oppressed  by those in power as having to "overcome the victim MENtality" smacks of New Age shaming "create your own reality" b.s.  

Those in power, namely MEN are not going to give up that power..they are going to.hold onto.it tooth and nail. Just look at Donald Trump,.the Koch brothers and all the CEOS and millionaires and billionaures who have VERY CONSCIOUSLY amassed and consilidated their wealth off of other people's backs, who don't care how many people they hurt or dangerous products they put out or corrupt officials they can.MANipulate they put into.office or environments they pollute callously or workers they exploit paying as cheaply as possible,  attempting not to.provide medical care or cutting benefits,,working them.parttime instead of fulltome and on and on and on...they amassed even greater wealth by getting politicians to.lower THEIR taxes and cutting away societal benefits, they want to take us back to the 19th century and straight/bi women who have sex with men are very close to losing the right to abortion. 

I have worked practically all my life to bring myself and other womyn into their power: through martial arts, through Goddess Ritual, through Feminism, through Sexual Empowerment, through learning our skills in the Trades when the men don't want to train us, hire us or keep us on.

Its called Sisterhood. Having each other's backs, true solidarity and a long vision of seeking Matriarchy everywhere possible. For me its been at women's Festivals, both Michfest and women only Goddess Festivals. In between, rituals honoring the Moon and the Solar holidays and Mother Earth.

Getting the patriarchal boot off our necks is immensely difficult, but we must keep true to our Visions, our Hearts, our Goddesses,,Mother Earth and our Sacred Sisterhoods and EXPOSE THE LIES. Not shame those who are not in power. We are dealing with 2 millenia plus of patriarchal rule: religiously, politically,,socially, economically,sexually, ect. And men and women who know no better or who side with those in power are NOT giving it up willingly and ESPECIALLY those with power, influence and money!!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Candlemas/Brigid/Imbolc Storm 2016

Frost upon my upper window the wind roaring through with its lonely sound,
Rivulets of water upon the lower one white everywhere and the stark treees nodding in the breeze.

The howling of the wind such a lonely empty soul sound not a creature stirs in that foreboding white
Nightscape.

Brigid is frigid now blanketed in snow the only warmth burrowed in our shelters, here with my sacred Felines. The Wintry Ice Queen reigns.

Time to snuggle with my furry warmers and nest of blankets in these early morn hours the brown of the dark sky that always indicates snow
The wind howls fiercely, glass between the harshness of the white world and my warmth.
I rise to take my bed and slumber further but awoke to see Her regal crystalline beauty of snow. As the trees bow in abeyance.