The Word Lesbian is POWERFUL Guest Post by Miriam Ben Shalom

The word Lesbian is powerful. If a woman says she is a Lesbian, that means she has discarded much of Patriarchy, has taken the love of her Self to other women. Being a Lesbian means, a woman does not rely on men to define her Self nor does she depend on men to support her or do for her. Saying "I am a Lesbian" means that one will not treat women as men do--as objects to be used and demeaned.

Being a Lesbian (and not 'queer') means that a woman can be a warrior, a fighter, a healer, a teacher, but all her energy is for and by women. A Lesbian is, to borrow a phrase, for us, by us always. To say "I am a Lesbian" is to connect historically with the poet of Lesbos, with the legions of women come before whose names we do not know, but whom we inuit, whom we grieve for amid flames and smoke of the auto-de-fe and Inquisitions.

Lesbian is a word some will not accept because they cannot tolerate the power of the word, they can't abide by the construct of being a free woman to love whom she will, who directs her love, both agape, and eros, to her Sisters. Such women can't give up men, can't give up servitude to men, can't give up the notion that they need men to exist. They can't give up the idea that slavery is freedon, that revolution is what being a Lesbian is. Those who will have sex with a woman but call themselves queer and who pander to men in dresses fear the Lesbian because deep inside, they know she speaks the truth of what a woman is and can be when she takes her power, accepts it, and follows her path whatever that may be.

The Lesbian says, do not call me cis, do not call me queer, do not call me by any name but woman, do not call us by any pronoun but she, her, hers. The Lesbian whom some call butch is not masculine, she is the ultimate of female power. She does not bend to the parody of beauty that men foist on women. She does not shrink from that task at hand. She deals with the world sure in her own presence and power. The Lesbian whom some call femme is no man's dream, is no woman weakness. She stands in her power against the demands of patriarchy and lives as she will in her beauty, in her life, and refuses the definition men might like to place upon her. And then there are Lesbians--we used to be called kiki-- those of us who do what we can, when we can, how we can. It is never a proposition of "may". We do what we must to care for our Sisters and let them care for us. We never lose sight of who we are and what we are and we refuse to dishonor ourselves and our Sisters by using any other name but Lesbian.

We define ourselves in each --our own unique way for our Self and for our existence. As for me, I am what I am: I am the howler at the edge of the darkness of the bent ones; i am the one with red eyes and a fierce growl, the one who will not allow the bent ones to have their way and desire to put shoah upon womenkind. The one who looks for the false and unjust, the one who looks for those who would deny women. The one who howls in warning.  We define our power by ourselves, we define ourselves by our power.

Lesbian is the ultimate act of revolution in the implicit denial of patriarchy, of male demands, of male hubris, of male violence and destruction. Lesbian is the word that stands against the annihilation and erasure of women.

Just my thoughts (and there are more) and I stick to them. But then, I am a Lesbian.
        -Miriam Ben Shalom