I dont believe in"political Lesbianism". Either you are Lesbian and attracted to women or you are not. Almost EVERY so called "political lesbian" I dated ended up going back to men, or were bi. They just stayed in the Lesbian lifestyle when the Lesbian community was strong, hip, where its at, and where we had our Lesbian infrastructure, businesses, bookstores, workshops, Festivals just for our primarily for us. Soon as that was no longer the case these women jumped ship and went back to men. Now the trans community is the "hip"place to be.
It is no more correct to pressure women into Lesbianism because of a politic than it is to pressure Lesbians to accept males as sex partners because of societal pressure or now, trans politics "lesbians have penises too"(mtfs INSISTING they are Lesbians).
Fact of the matter unlike some of us oldtimers who HAD a vibrant STRONG Lesbian community to come into, both politically and sexually, bars, clubs, events, conferences, bookstores, festivals, hot tub places, martial arts schools, printing presses, Lesbian Lands, coffeehouses which ALL catered to us as Dykes and womyn, we COULD live an almost entirely Separatist lifestyle centering womyn and each other with the exception of our jobs, even so I still got alot of side jobs from Lesbians and womyn friends.
But when the economy soured, womyn nested or got complacent, started buying their books from Amazon dot com(our very WORD stolen and used against us), instead of the independent Lesbian/womyns bookstores to save a few pennies, and invested more in their personal lives than community, or gay males dying from AIDS, and went back to the male run churches, bought their houses, had their lesbian version of white picket fences, stated they were done with being "political" or were "nonpolitical", while still enjoying Michfest or the once a year Dyke Marches or Dykes on Bikes, other forces friendlier to Lesbians who felt left out began moving in.
And the fact also that gay male culture is so much glitzier with so many more economic resources than Lesbians have EVER had access to, being THEY ARE MEN with MALE privilege.
Once the tatters of the great Lesbian Nation began to show, and the incessant infighting, Lesbians began moving away from it, whether identifying more as "gay", or "queer", Or eventually trans and transmasculine, which Lesbian Feminism has not accomodated Butches particularily well, or differences like Butch/Femme or the more invisible Butch on Butch.
Women went to friendlier territories. Meanwhile MTFs always did their best to crash our spaces, and since they werent told "no" often enough, they persisted continuing to infiltrate our culture. Between the young women identifying not as Lesbian, but as queer, gay, genderqueer, transmasculine or even FTM, then aligning with mtfs who had always felt maligned by more Separatist Lesbians among us, myself included who said "no", and gay men who would so willingly take our support and help around AIDS and THEIR causes, but rarely supported us in OUR OWN, or considered us "fish", or too strong and strident for them, or not willing to share their power with us in our mixed community organizations like Pride, or a host of Lesbian/Gay organizations being sexist males themselves, some with THEIR OWN Separatism and distaste for womyn, we began to wane in our collective power.
ANY young Lesbian coming out today, and especially if shes Butchy or tomboy, would get pressure to align with the trans movement, with gay males, accept yes Lesbians have penises(mtfs), and shamed if she fought that craziness, and that anybody can be anything that they say they are, and why would she want to discriminate against ftms or mtfs if she wanted womyn only spaces or sought them? And maybe because shes nonfeminine maybe shes an ftm too, so join us on the bandwagon so we can feel good about growing our little goatees and having our breasts chopped off.
She wouldnt be emerging into a real Lesbian culture at all, or one that was even at its most basic womonaffirming.
Even the proud Dykes on Bikes and so many Butches that were proud ground breaking Females that so inspired me and that I followed me, now, a large number are on T, or wanting to transition, or thinking about it, or insisting on male pronouns, that she would be utterly confused and completely in the minority if her inner voice said "But I AM FEMALE, I AM NOT FEMININE, I resisted feminity all my life, BUT PROUD TO BE FEMALE, I WANT TO BE WITH WOMYN AND PENIS IS NOT FEMALE, THAT IS WHAT I AM LEAVING BEHIND", the MOMENT she utters what shes thinking she will be labeled "terf", "cis", "one of those" "monosexual", "bigoted" "I like people, not genitalia", and other such similar claptrap.
The Lesbian community has gone underground, so it would be immensely hard to recruit new, younger sisters to the cause, UNLESS we SEE them fighting among their peers as I have online, and come to their side and say: " there IS a place for you, we were once strong resisting males and male ideology, but now we must rebuild our Amazon Nation once again...come with us where you will find Sisters and friends."
No comments:
Post a Comment