I really have to share about this.
My current partner, who is Butch, once she got online, and began to flirt with/cyber other Butch on Butches, so many of them were 10 years or more her junior, were flirting with gender, genderqueering, and then considering transitioning, rather than owning up to the beautiful/handsome WOMEN they are, as Butch Dykes, so eager and ready to trade in their femaleness, kept asking her when SHE was going to transition, ect. ect. ect.
And my partner(before we met) was a LONGTERM BUTCH DYKE OF AT LEAST 15 YEARS OUT!
It was almost like a cult, they draw you in, tell you what you want to hear, 'love bomb' you, and/or flirt with you, acknowledge you as a Butch in ways you've never heard before, but like ALL cults there is a heavy price to pay...
It fucked with her head so bad, she ALMOST considered transitioning, she had packers, and dildos galore, packing everyday with either softies or hardies, even to work, ect. ect. ect, cuz all the rest were doing the same.....that out of all this, she decided not to date anyone for two years so she could figure out where she was at with all this.
This questioning NEVER happened to her UNTIL she got online. Once she got online, the bombardment and pressure to transition or genderqueer was enormous, just like so many of the young ones are getting today, rather than the pride I got through Dykes in the Lesbian movement, where we were going to change the world, as Amazons, as Warriors as "an army of lovers can never fail", an old Lesbian saying that was new back then, well sadly, we HAVE failed. Even though back then what with our new institutions we were quickly creating, lesbian music recording companies, bookstores, events, festivals, printing presses, ect. ect..our OWN cultural institutions BY AND FOR OURSELVES......so many of them gone, gone, gone. Other Butches taught me PRIDE IN BEING FEMALE, a different KIND of Female, with power and strength, and holding our space as the Warriors for Women, the take no bullshit no man is gonna tell me what to do!
Now instead, they're becoming 'men'. That Dyke Female pride has been sadly lost.
Well, she figured out after two years of this journey she DID NOT want to have her breasts cut off, and she was PROUD to be both Butch and Female, she went back to dating both Butches and Femmes. But it was online that fucked with her head, and because she had been a longterm OUT Butch Dyke in a difficult part of the country to be out, she had more strength than most, who have NEVER been out yet as a Butch Dyke, with that kind of Female Dyke herstory...just new on their journey, and detered offcourse and caught up in the promises and excitement of the trans movement. But the price is a heavy one to pay...not just renouncing one's Femaleness, or even Dykeness, but in having one's body physically altered through painful surgeries, and then to go on hormones that do who knows what to the body in the longrun! All that just to 'fit in'?
I for one am glad, and when she met me, as a Female Identified Butch, I told her she didn't have to 'prove' any of this to me. She could put away the dildos and packers and such, and show me her Female side without fear....and we have both found the kind of match that we know these days would be very hard to find 'out there'. We celebrate our Butchness, our Femaleness, our Dykeness and ultimately our Amazon natures together....AS WOMEN. We LOVE each other's FEMALE bodies...instead of despise them, and from each other's admiration of our bodies, we learn to love our own bodies too....
I'm so glad this woman came to her senses through reading your blogs Dirt.
-In Butch DykeAmazon Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Butch and Proud
Butch and proud, and I've rejected femininity ALL my life. We are another version of Female, and for me, Butch=Amazon, not male, not trans. Period. There is no other definition of womonhood that even comes close to it for me....and I also lust and love other Butch Dykes....who are out loud and proud, both about being Butch and being Dykes, and while I don't agree with the butch writer on "Dykes Loving Dykes" Bev Jo on some matters, I found that section of her book very, very validating on Butch oppression. It is NOT something we can put on and take off..it is who we are at our core, since a very young age...at 7 rejecting dolls, at 10, dresses, at 12 never wanting to marry a man or have children, and always taking up my space, doing ice hockey when no other girl in the entire league did, and karate even full contact, when no other female in the dojo would, at the age of 15...and severely censored and harassed by family members, classmates, and teachers and the world for not being properly 'feminine'. I was a lifelong hardcore tomboy who grew up to be a Butch Dyke and when I came out I found a place that honored me, in a way no other culture or subculture does....along with other Butches.
As Female Identified Butches, we ARE organizing and taking back our identities, one Butch Dyke at a time.
-In Sisterhood,
-FeistyAmazon
As Female Identified Butches, we ARE organizing and taking back our identities, one Butch Dyke at a time.
-In Sisterhood,
-FeistyAmazon
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Keeping College Women's Spaces by and FOR WOMEN
I have something to say about this, LIVED this past week. I was in a situation with my brother and nephew where they were threateningly violent, and had to call cops and leave the situation. Fortunately it did not translate into the physical, but the intimidation was very, very real.
The next day I took my partner across my campus, my alma mater in that town, and we ended up in the Women's Resource Center with two lovely young women, EXACTLY where we need to be. Now, 30 years ago when I was going to school, I was part of the Feminist Alliance and Lesbian Caucus. These two groups faded away, and now there's the Women's Resource Center. It is where we needed to be after male violence and threat in my own family.
I felt safe, acknowledged, the only thing that dismayed me was when they mentioned men were permitted in there too, so women really didn't have a safe male free space to just be..but any men were expected to behave with dignity and respect towards the women, and were INFORMED of that should they come into the Center. At least there were SOME rules.
Fortunately, none appeared while we were there, and we got just the validation we needed from the situation we had just been in with family...the male violence and intimidation.
They also informed us that they also hosted a 'queer women's group' which sounded good to me. There also was a major LGBT center on Campus too in another building.
For us, in a town where we didn't know anyone but family, a State where we no longer had connections, this safe haven ON CAMPUS was ESSENTIAL for us.
The same is true if I were to take Women's Studies, and did take Women's Studies back in the day.
Women's Studies was taught by WOMEN! What a fucking concept! It was revolutionary because we were learning our OWN HERSTORY, our OWN VOICES, and OUR OWN REALITY reflected back at us, after 2000 plus years of completely patriarchal civilizations, religions and values.
The next day I took my partner across my campus, my alma mater in that town, and we ended up in the Women's Resource Center with two lovely young women, EXACTLY where we need to be. Now, 30 years ago when I was going to school, I was part of the Feminist Alliance and Lesbian Caucus. These two groups faded away, and now there's the Women's Resource Center. It is where we needed to be after male violence and threat in my own family.
I felt safe, acknowledged, the only thing that dismayed me was when they mentioned men were permitted in there too, so women really didn't have a safe male free space to just be..but any men were expected to behave with dignity and respect towards the women, and were INFORMED of that should they come into the Center. At least there were SOME rules.
Fortunately, none appeared while we were there, and we got just the validation we needed from the situation we had just been in with family...the male violence and intimidation.
They also informed us that they also hosted a 'queer women's group' which sounded good to me. There also was a major LGBT center on Campus too in another building.
For us, in a town where we didn't know anyone but family, a State where we no longer had connections, this safe haven ON CAMPUS was ESSENTIAL for us.
The same is true if I were to take Women's Studies, and did take Women's Studies back in the day.
Women's Studies was taught by WOMEN! What a fucking concept! It was revolutionary because we were learning our OWN HERSTORY, our OWN VOICES, and OUR OWN REALITY reflected back at us, after 2000 plus years of completely patriarchal civilizations, religions and values.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Alixx Dobkin's "The Emperor's New Gender"
Excellently written article which kept me going when all this insanity was starting to really take off, before we had blogs stating these opposing points of view, that Alixx finally brought up in her truthfilled and well thought out article.
minstrel blood
"The Emperor's New Gender"
by alix dobkin, originally published in off our backs
April 2000
"...disappointment takes out its knife..." Butch resisting the pressure to change gender – Elana Dykewomon
You know that glazed look certain born-again Christians get in their eyes when they're not listening? Or how voices of loud mouthed Republican politicians and TV pundits get even louder to out shout the opposition? To foreclose debate defends the fainthearted against attack, even when no attack is intended. Beloved tactic of cowards and bullies everywhere, shutting down discussion stymies challenges to the firmly held, vulnerable doctrine of the True Believer. Thus does insecurity unite with bluster to frustrate education's advance.
This brings to mind an incident occurring twenty years ago in Europe. At a concert in Zurich I identified myself as Jewish, whereupon a small group of women got up and left the theater. Why? They didn't say, but we can guess.
My deal with myself was that if I agreed to tour Germany and Switzerland it would be on condition that I declare my Jewishness at every show. Otherwise I could not have endured setting foot on those killing fields. But I was as unprepared for the shockingly defensive reaction that statement would provoke in my audience ad they were to hear it. Naively assuming that German Dykes were as used to discussing sensitive race issues as we USA veterans were, it never occurred to me how personally they would take this (seemingly) simple declaration. If I hadn't immediately calmed my audience with friendly assurances they would have shut down and shut me out, and by the time I reached Switzerland I understood that going public as a Jew required the following instant affirmations:
1) that I did not believe in God
2) that I did not necessarily support Israel's every action, and
3) that I did not blame any of them for the holocaust
These three disclaimers usually relaxed most of the crowd enough so that they could sit through my show without excessive distress. Passionate English and German post concert dialogues proved wrenchingly difficult, but they moved everyone forward, and we were all glad to have stuck with it.
I hadn't thought about that old story for many years until Elana Dykewomon told me of a similar experience at a reading only weeks ago of San Francisco Jewish Lesbian writers. When she spoke the name of her new poem (Butch resisting the pressure to change gender) a group of transgendered individuals and their supporters got to their feet and left the theater. Had they stayed they might have learned what this award winning writer and long time survivor of Lesbian community struggles (since before some of them were born) had to say, proving that closed minds are not limited to anti-Semites.
Like my Swiss departees, this bunch also refused to listen. Too bad, they lose. Experiences such as these and others have prompted this extensive preface to my (next) column on transgender, particularly FTM (female to male). I am well aware of how volatile an issue it is in our community and how personal it can feel.
Jim Fouratt, long time activist, writer, independent thinker and faery has lately taken quite the trashing for his forthright critique of Genderpac's "ruthless and aggressive attack in the gay and lesbian community based on gender bias..." Jim and I agree that, "once again men are defining who and what women are."
That's our opinion and we are entitled to it without being called "nazi," "fascist" and the like, as we each have in the past when overstepping the party line on gender. Therefore, in the hoops of contributing more light than heat to the discussion, let it be known that I am aware that:
1) transgender issues present complex and difficult terrain loaded with quicksand and stumbling blocks which I approach respectfully and with an open mind.
2) Over the past decade I've accumulated masses of information and engaged in much study, reflection, thoughtful discussion and process with a variety of people representing diverse perspectives.
3) In conversations with transgendered individuals and their supporters, some of whom I like and some not, I am aware of their pain and try not to add to it.
4) Everyone needs a community where they feel respected and safe.
5) There is more to learn.
Further credentials are available upon request.
Now here is the question to my Queer/LGBT community, particularly young butch Lesbians who are considering "changing" genders: Is thoughtful, open discussion possible without personal attacks and hurt feelings?
"A thousand years from now... the archaeologists who dig up their bones will know that they were women"
– The Whole Woman, Germaine Greer
"FTM" means women, usually young, who undergo hormone injections, sometimes breast reduction ("top") surgery in their pursuit of "maleness." Reservations about this procedure, when voiced at all, are frequently answered with hostility and charges of "discrimination," discouraging even further candid exploration of the "transgender" vogue and it's meteoric rise to the top of the "queer" order.
Transgender presence and issues dominated the 1999 "Creating Change" Conference. Notable and new, to me at least, was the spectacle of matronly gents dressing up as their mothers, aunties and schoolmarms in dowdy conservative outfits, cheerlessly dispensing disapproval over all. More unsettling though, were the sheer numbers of FTM's everywhere in evidence, their flight from womanhood conspicuously endorsed by the oddly invisible gay men and Lesbians running the show and bent on "inclusion."
When at the end of a butch/FTM panel I asked how constructed "males" felt about the lifelong commitment to the medical establishment and their utter dependence on doctors and drug companies for their identities, the only response was a noticeable chill in the room. If I was FTM I wouldn't want to think about that either.
Germaine Greer notes, in The Whole Woman, that, "Born women are all too aware of a disharmony between who they are and what their gender role requires of them." Everywhere at the conference young FTM's defied gender roles and "performed" "masculinities." But say, isn't "masculine" a construct preserving male rule? And isn't being/creating our own individual version of a woman what lesbians have always been about? So why would a Lesbian embodying infinite female potential ever think she needs to be - or actually could be - a man? Impatience for male power and privilege combined with monumental lack of faith in the future of women could explain it. But "woman" is much bigger and expansive than a stunted masculinist vision of female possibility.
Can you conceive a population more exquisitely groomed to "change gender" than the generation informed by deconstructionist Queer Studies? In the blur of "Gender," represented as little more than a "social construct," injustice might easily be confused with inconvenience. To girls confronting their powerlessness, scant attention paid to "gender's" political roots and historic consequences leaves "masculinities" looking good, and personal adjustment through technology even better. Hey, why not jump at the chance to escape "gender distress" - the universal female condition forever afflicting "the second sex"? How instantly gratifying, how perfectly consumer friendly. This postmodern all-American quick fix comes complete with academic sanction.
In today's "LGBT" hierarchy the last may indeed be first, but beneath the surface of lock-step acceptance lies an unspoken universe of discomfort. Doubts and qualms fill the closets of newly silent Lesbians and gay men now afraid of being labeled "bigoted." Rather than injure feelings or appear oppressive toward a sexual minority, many remain silent, unwilling to deviate "...from the politically correct gender rhetoric (which) subjects one to being called and dismissed as transphobic," as long time gay activist and independent thinker, Jim Fouratt, writes.
To my eyes and ears, young butch dykes walking the FTM path look and despite vocal alteration, sound , quite like the young butch Dykes many of us have been and known for decades. However, these days we hear mostly their echoes and see only their backs as the flee womanhood. But they are our line, and by rejecting their female bodies along with our shared history, they break our hearts.
Gays and lesbians have struggled for decades to be able to name ourselves and to BE ourselves. But now, in our own community we are expected to applaud Dykes rejecting womanhood and embrace men taking it over. In our smart, brave and compassionate community, being "different" is the unifying thread holding us together in a diverse crazy quilt of which queers are justifiably proud.
But while we're at it, let's also honour our identity and history. And our women. Then maybe our girls won't be so eager to run. So lets put away the knives. Can we talk?
minstrel blood
"The Emperor's New Gender"
by alix dobkin, originally published in off our backs
April 2000
"...disappointment takes out its knife..." Butch resisting the pressure to change gender – Elana Dykewomon
You know that glazed look certain born-again Christians get in their eyes when they're not listening? Or how voices of loud mouthed Republican politicians and TV pundits get even louder to out shout the opposition? To foreclose debate defends the fainthearted against attack, even when no attack is intended. Beloved tactic of cowards and bullies everywhere, shutting down discussion stymies challenges to the firmly held, vulnerable doctrine of the True Believer. Thus does insecurity unite with bluster to frustrate education's advance.
This brings to mind an incident occurring twenty years ago in Europe. At a concert in Zurich I identified myself as Jewish, whereupon a small group of women got up and left the theater. Why? They didn't say, but we can guess.
My deal with myself was that if I agreed to tour Germany and Switzerland it would be on condition that I declare my Jewishness at every show. Otherwise I could not have endured setting foot on those killing fields. But I was as unprepared for the shockingly defensive reaction that statement would provoke in my audience ad they were to hear it. Naively assuming that German Dykes were as used to discussing sensitive race issues as we USA veterans were, it never occurred to me how personally they would take this (seemingly) simple declaration. If I hadn't immediately calmed my audience with friendly assurances they would have shut down and shut me out, and by the time I reached Switzerland I understood that going public as a Jew required the following instant affirmations:
1) that I did not believe in God
2) that I did not necessarily support Israel's every action, and
3) that I did not blame any of them for the holocaust
These three disclaimers usually relaxed most of the crowd enough so that they could sit through my show without excessive distress. Passionate English and German post concert dialogues proved wrenchingly difficult, but they moved everyone forward, and we were all glad to have stuck with it.
I hadn't thought about that old story for many years until Elana Dykewomon told me of a similar experience at a reading only weeks ago of San Francisco Jewish Lesbian writers. When she spoke the name of her new poem (Butch resisting the pressure to change gender) a group of transgendered individuals and their supporters got to their feet and left the theater. Had they stayed they might have learned what this award winning writer and long time survivor of Lesbian community struggles (since before some of them were born) had to say, proving that closed minds are not limited to anti-Semites.
Like my Swiss departees, this bunch also refused to listen. Too bad, they lose. Experiences such as these and others have prompted this extensive preface to my (next) column on transgender, particularly FTM (female to male). I am well aware of how volatile an issue it is in our community and how personal it can feel.
Jim Fouratt, long time activist, writer, independent thinker and faery has lately taken quite the trashing for his forthright critique of Genderpac's "ruthless and aggressive attack in the gay and lesbian community based on gender bias..." Jim and I agree that, "once again men are defining who and what women are."
That's our opinion and we are entitled to it without being called "nazi," "fascist" and the like, as we each have in the past when overstepping the party line on gender. Therefore, in the hoops of contributing more light than heat to the discussion, let it be known that I am aware that:
1) transgender issues present complex and difficult terrain loaded with quicksand and stumbling blocks which I approach respectfully and with an open mind.
2) Over the past decade I've accumulated masses of information and engaged in much study, reflection, thoughtful discussion and process with a variety of people representing diverse perspectives.
3) In conversations with transgendered individuals and their supporters, some of whom I like and some not, I am aware of their pain and try not to add to it.
4) Everyone needs a community where they feel respected and safe.
5) There is more to learn.
Further credentials are available upon request.
Now here is the question to my Queer/LGBT community, particularly young butch Lesbians who are considering "changing" genders: Is thoughtful, open discussion possible without personal attacks and hurt feelings?
"A thousand years from now... the archaeologists who dig up their bones will know that they were women"
– The Whole Woman, Germaine Greer
"FTM" means women, usually young, who undergo hormone injections, sometimes breast reduction ("top") surgery in their pursuit of "maleness." Reservations about this procedure, when voiced at all, are frequently answered with hostility and charges of "discrimination," discouraging even further candid exploration of the "transgender" vogue and it's meteoric rise to the top of the "queer" order.
Transgender presence and issues dominated the 1999 "Creating Change" Conference. Notable and new, to me at least, was the spectacle of matronly gents dressing up as their mothers, aunties and schoolmarms in dowdy conservative outfits, cheerlessly dispensing disapproval over all. More unsettling though, were the sheer numbers of FTM's everywhere in evidence, their flight from womanhood conspicuously endorsed by the oddly invisible gay men and Lesbians running the show and bent on "inclusion."
When at the end of a butch/FTM panel I asked how constructed "males" felt about the lifelong commitment to the medical establishment and their utter dependence on doctors and drug companies for their identities, the only response was a noticeable chill in the room. If I was FTM I wouldn't want to think about that either.
Germaine Greer notes, in The Whole Woman, that, "Born women are all too aware of a disharmony between who they are and what their gender role requires of them." Everywhere at the conference young FTM's defied gender roles and "performed" "masculinities." But say, isn't "masculine" a construct preserving male rule? And isn't being/creating our own individual version of a woman what lesbians have always been about? So why would a Lesbian embodying infinite female potential ever think she needs to be - or actually could be - a man? Impatience for male power and privilege combined with monumental lack of faith in the future of women could explain it. But "woman" is much bigger and expansive than a stunted masculinist vision of female possibility.
Can you conceive a population more exquisitely groomed to "change gender" than the generation informed by deconstructionist Queer Studies? In the blur of "Gender," represented as little more than a "social construct," injustice might easily be confused with inconvenience. To girls confronting their powerlessness, scant attention paid to "gender's" political roots and historic consequences leaves "masculinities" looking good, and personal adjustment through technology even better. Hey, why not jump at the chance to escape "gender distress" - the universal female condition forever afflicting "the second sex"? How instantly gratifying, how perfectly consumer friendly. This postmodern all-American quick fix comes complete with academic sanction.
In today's "LGBT" hierarchy the last may indeed be first, but beneath the surface of lock-step acceptance lies an unspoken universe of discomfort. Doubts and qualms fill the closets of newly silent Lesbians and gay men now afraid of being labeled "bigoted." Rather than injure feelings or appear oppressive toward a sexual minority, many remain silent, unwilling to deviate "...from the politically correct gender rhetoric (which) subjects one to being called and dismissed as transphobic," as long time gay activist and independent thinker, Jim Fouratt, writes.
To my eyes and ears, young butch dykes walking the FTM path look and despite vocal alteration, sound , quite like the young butch Dykes many of us have been and known for decades. However, these days we hear mostly their echoes and see only their backs as the flee womanhood. But they are our line, and by rejecting their female bodies along with our shared history, they break our hearts.
Gays and lesbians have struggled for decades to be able to name ourselves and to BE ourselves. But now, in our own community we are expected to applaud Dykes rejecting womanhood and embrace men taking it over. In our smart, brave and compassionate community, being "different" is the unifying thread holding us together in a diverse crazy quilt of which queers are justifiably proud.
But while we're at it, let's also honour our identity and history. And our women. Then maybe our girls won't be so eager to run. So lets put away the knives. Can we talk?
Who Defends Dyke Spaces/Identities? Who says no to the FTMs?
"You know, here, the bisexual and straight women leather groups, they don't have any problem at all saying "No, sorry, you're a guy," to FTMs, keeping them out. It's sad that the only women who can't say no to these guys are lesbians. To me it speaks to how weak we've become. That separatism, I'm sorry, made us week. the minute guy energy came into our spaces, we couldn't stand up to it, because our skills in dealing with it had been weakened by lack of use, and all our training to put mens needs first reasserted itself. The straight and bi girls, they have no problem saying "No" to FTMs in womens spaces. And the FTMs if they get angry, are told, "too bad." We're weak."-Taz
This is in response to a pal who stated that it's Dyke separatism that made us weak, unlike straight or bisexual women, who can stand up to an FTM and tell them they can't come into women's space, "No, sorry you're a guy" that its only the lesbians who can't say no to these guys because of separatism, that our ability to say no to men and their needs is weak because we quit dealing with men and our ability to say no to them had been weakened through lack of use...like there are TONS AND TONS of Dyke Separatist spaces to choose from these days, bookstores, Dyke bars, tons of Dyke Lands, events, conferences, women's music festivals, ect. ect. ect....NOT...most of these spaces have sadly disappeared BECAUSE they've been coopted by those women who weren't strong Dykes or Separatist oriented, with strong Female/DykeAmazon boundaries.....fuzzy logic if I've ever heard it. It's the Separatist and aware Dykes, who truly VALUE Dyke culture and women's space who have CONTINUALLY fought to keep those spaces intact!
Feisty Amazon August 25 at 12:42am I don't believe in transsexualism. I don't believe in it's premise, and it's a lie. You know I've already spoken about this. To me, it's a sham movement. Every Separatist or separatist oriented Dyke, whether Leather or Vanilla, has ALWAYS been the strongest in keeping women and dyke space, women and dyke space. To me, it's all the trans apologists in the queer women's communities and sold out dyke communities, that shouted down every Separatist oriented woman, or even Dyke that wanted Dyke and women's space to STAY Dyke and women space, that threw around the Separatist word to silence US, that has sold our community hook line and sinker to the FTM's, and MTF's.
Yes, they're incredibly 'male'. In all the ways you describe, especially the full transition ones, with the hormones, body hair, attitudes, testosterone and surgeries, but MOST don't have the bottom surgery, because it really doesn't work. So no, they aren't REAL men. They may not be sissies, but they're not intact 'men'. Any more than one can convince me that MTF's are really 'women'. They've had male experiences, male attitudes, and male privileges(especially the autogynophilic ones, who choose to transition later in life, and start with crossdressing, and incredible narcissism. It's all about him, wanting to imitate his wife/girlfriend, borrow her clothes, then want to be a her...in a sexual way) The young effeminate MTF ones from early childhood/teenage who transition, date men, they're different, just like the intersex, but the autogynophilic ones had REAL MALE POWER, from CEO's, to professional male sports athletes, to military men, to executives, men used to being in power, married to a woman, AS a man, initially, so with that male privilege and assumption of male privilege and ways of being, they run roughshod over the young transsexual MTF's, the intersex, the Dykes who hold up strong boundaries, and just about everyone else, much less their wives and girlfriends. It's crazy making. I've done alot of research, alot of talking, alot of networking around all this and the trans movement, with radical vanilla dykes, radical LeatherDykes, Female identified Butches who feel entirely under siege with so many Butches transitioning right and left, and pressure being put on them to transition too..making it less and less o.k to be a Butch Dyke....we should all be FTM's cuz in some folks book, just by being Butch we're trans...NO WE'RE WOMEN, and PROUD TO BE SO.
every Separatist Dyke I know has fought HARD to preserve women only space. I don't understand why your Canadian Lesbians have been so wimpy, or the current generation of so called Lesbians. Used to be that Lesbianism and Lesbian Centered space was 'no man's land'..that is: no past, present or future males. Many of us Separatist oriented Dykes still feel the same, and will fight to our dying day to preserve those mysteries and that space, us true Amazons....our Amazon space, our Amazon Sisterhood, our Amazon sexuality womon to womon.....and some are Leather Amazons.....always have been. I saw that energy just two weeks ago.
No, it's NOT Separatism that made Dykes weak, unlike the straight or bisexual women, we continue to assert OUR RIGHT to Dyke and women only and even wbw spaces, mysteries, places, it's those who would sell us out...allow their gay men to go wherever, while those same gay men have fences up to US when it comes to some of THEIR spaces....many wouldn't date an FTM, and they don't see FTM's as substitutes for a bio-male, some may see them as temporary substitutes for a moment. It's the ex bisexual and straight Femmes who aren't really Lesbian Femmes, fueled by Butch/Femme.com who are the problem. Who treat Butches as 'hes', who pressure their partners to transition so they can live basically a heterosexual lifestyle, or at least appear so, and I have felt that energy from certain types of femmes, those WITHOUT a Dyke Femme identity. And those WITH a strong DYKE Femme identity are really bemoaning not having Butches to date, that Butches and FTM's ARE NOT interchangeable parts, as they see more and more jump on the bandwagon to hormones and surgeries...and it terribly saddens them. They want a Butch Dyke, a Butch FEMALE.
You gotta go with your gut, and I gotta go with mine, and for me, it's NO MAN'S LAND, no past, present or future males will I date...and preferably only those Butch or Femme with a strong Dyke identity. I've been burned by bisexual women because ultimately their loyalty is to the man...ultimately.
But because of the trans and genderqueer movement, everything has gotten twisted on it's head..more and more women are thinking of themselves as 'queer', NOT Lesbian, NOT Dyke, and more and more Butch young women think of themselve as boys/bois/boyz, NOT as Butches, or if so, with a strong genderqueer/trans/male component, instead of the Butches I came out with and came up with, who still exist who were very PROUD to be a strong, defiant, take up their space Amazonian woman, Amazonian Dyke loving Dyke, or woman loving womon, whether they were into other Butches or other Femmes or both.....whether Leather or vanilla....which is why so many of us have dropped out of the mainstream communities, because things have gotten entirely too weird. And yet, for all their so called 'maleness' these genderqueers/transButches/ FTMS, they STILL want access to Dyke/womon only space and parties, instead of MOVING ON with their identities and living in the world as the men they claim to be.
No, it's all mixed up, and everybody thinks they can grab from column A and column B as suits them, and damn ANYBODY, especially a strong Feminist or Separatist oriented Dyke, Leather or Vanilla, who says "no, and no more. This is OUR space.....and you have chosen to leave it..." We are saying it, we are organizing, and we will be rising soon.....us Female Identified DykeAmazon Butches, and yet we've always been here.
-MasterAmazon
This is in response to a pal who stated that it's Dyke separatism that made us weak, unlike straight or bisexual women, who can stand up to an FTM and tell them they can't come into women's space, "No, sorry you're a guy" that its only the lesbians who can't say no to these guys because of separatism, that our ability to say no to men and their needs is weak because we quit dealing with men and our ability to say no to them had been weakened through lack of use...like there are TONS AND TONS of Dyke Separatist spaces to choose from these days, bookstores, Dyke bars, tons of Dyke Lands, events, conferences, women's music festivals, ect. ect. ect....NOT...most of these spaces have sadly disappeared BECAUSE they've been coopted by those women who weren't strong Dykes or Separatist oriented, with strong Female/DykeAmazon boundaries.....fuzzy logic if I've ever heard it. It's the Separatist and aware Dykes, who truly VALUE Dyke culture and women's space who have CONTINUALLY fought to keep those spaces intact!
Feisty Amazon August 25 at 12:42am I don't believe in transsexualism. I don't believe in it's premise, and it's a lie. You know I've already spoken about this. To me, it's a sham movement. Every Separatist or separatist oriented Dyke, whether Leather or Vanilla, has ALWAYS been the strongest in keeping women and dyke space, women and dyke space. To me, it's all the trans apologists in the queer women's communities and sold out dyke communities, that shouted down every Separatist oriented woman, or even Dyke that wanted Dyke and women's space to STAY Dyke and women space, that threw around the Separatist word to silence US, that has sold our community hook line and sinker to the FTM's, and MTF's.
Yes, they're incredibly 'male'. In all the ways you describe, especially the full transition ones, with the hormones, body hair, attitudes, testosterone and surgeries, but MOST don't have the bottom surgery, because it really doesn't work. So no, they aren't REAL men. They may not be sissies, but they're not intact 'men'. Any more than one can convince me that MTF's are really 'women'. They've had male experiences, male attitudes, and male privileges(especially the autogynophilic ones, who choose to transition later in life, and start with crossdressing, and incredible narcissism. It's all about him, wanting to imitate his wife/girlfriend, borrow her clothes, then want to be a her...in a sexual way) The young effeminate MTF ones from early childhood/teenage who transition, date men, they're different, just like the intersex, but the autogynophilic ones had REAL MALE POWER, from CEO's, to professional male sports athletes, to military men, to executives, men used to being in power, married to a woman, AS a man, initially, so with that male privilege and assumption of male privilege and ways of being, they run roughshod over the young transsexual MTF's, the intersex, the Dykes who hold up strong boundaries, and just about everyone else, much less their wives and girlfriends. It's crazy making. I've done alot of research, alot of talking, alot of networking around all this and the trans movement, with radical vanilla dykes, radical LeatherDykes, Female identified Butches who feel entirely under siege with so many Butches transitioning right and left, and pressure being put on them to transition too..making it less and less o.k to be a Butch Dyke....we should all be FTM's cuz in some folks book, just by being Butch we're trans...NO WE'RE WOMEN, and PROUD TO BE SO.
every Separatist Dyke I know has fought HARD to preserve women only space. I don't understand why your Canadian Lesbians have been so wimpy, or the current generation of so called Lesbians. Used to be that Lesbianism and Lesbian Centered space was 'no man's land'..that is: no past, present or future males. Many of us Separatist oriented Dykes still feel the same, and will fight to our dying day to preserve those mysteries and that space, us true Amazons....our Amazon space, our Amazon Sisterhood, our Amazon sexuality womon to womon.....and some are Leather Amazons.....always have been. I saw that energy just two weeks ago.
No, it's NOT Separatism that made Dykes weak, unlike the straight or bisexual women, we continue to assert OUR RIGHT to Dyke and women only and even wbw spaces, mysteries, places, it's those who would sell us out...allow their gay men to go wherever, while those same gay men have fences up to US when it comes to some of THEIR spaces....many wouldn't date an FTM, and they don't see FTM's as substitutes for a bio-male, some may see them as temporary substitutes for a moment. It's the ex bisexual and straight Femmes who aren't really Lesbian Femmes, fueled by Butch/Femme.com who are the problem. Who treat Butches as 'hes', who pressure their partners to transition so they can live basically a heterosexual lifestyle, or at least appear so, and I have felt that energy from certain types of femmes, those WITHOUT a Dyke Femme identity. And those WITH a strong DYKE Femme identity are really bemoaning not having Butches to date, that Butches and FTM's ARE NOT interchangeable parts, as they see more and more jump on the bandwagon to hormones and surgeries...and it terribly saddens them. They want a Butch Dyke, a Butch FEMALE.
You gotta go with your gut, and I gotta go with mine, and for me, it's NO MAN'S LAND, no past, present or future males will I date...and preferably only those Butch or Femme with a strong Dyke identity. I've been burned by bisexual women because ultimately their loyalty is to the man...ultimately.
But because of the trans and genderqueer movement, everything has gotten twisted on it's head..more and more women are thinking of themselves as 'queer', NOT Lesbian, NOT Dyke, and more and more Butch young women think of themselve as boys/bois/boyz, NOT as Butches, or if so, with a strong genderqueer/trans/male component, instead of the Butches I came out with and came up with, who still exist who were very PROUD to be a strong, defiant, take up their space Amazonian woman, Amazonian Dyke loving Dyke, or woman loving womon, whether they were into other Butches or other Femmes or both.....whether Leather or vanilla....which is why so many of us have dropped out of the mainstream communities, because things have gotten entirely too weird. And yet, for all their so called 'maleness' these genderqueers/transButches/ FTMS, they STILL want access to Dyke/womon only space and parties, instead of MOVING ON with their identities and living in the world as the men they claim to be.
No, it's all mixed up, and everybody thinks they can grab from column A and column B as suits them, and damn ANYBODY, especially a strong Feminist or Separatist oriented Dyke, Leather or Vanilla, who says "no, and no more. This is OUR space.....and you have chosen to leave it..." We are saying it, we are organizing, and we will be rising soon.....us Female Identified DykeAmazon Butches, and yet we've always been here.
-MasterAmazon
Sunday, August 22, 2010
HOME: Women's Land
I rejected femininity at a very young age, because I saw this inequality, and did everything to take up my space and to compete with boys/and/or men, and not be relegated to a 'less than' housewifey role.....classic hardcore Tomboy grow up to be Butch.
Of course I was not rewarded for such behavior by family, peers, or anybody else, until I came out as a Dyke, and found I had a place.
And that place is certainly on women's Land. I got my fill last week, shared my women's and Amazon mysteries, and felt so completely empowered and SAFE in those woods, just like I felt SAFE in the woods of Michfest, one year, when I got lost in them like 3am....in a long walk back to my tent....because I KNEW ONLY WOMEN were sleeping all around...NO MEN. If there was even one man in those woods, I would have felt that learned almost instinctual fear. My only fear was that I was lost...but I just kept going down hill..till I got to the Triangle, and there still were some women up at that late hour(about 5am by that time). At the Festival I went to last week, I did Security, to keep our space secure, and it was, walking in the woods around our campground till 1 am, feeling completely safe, with an Amazon Sister at my side....I NEVER would feel that if I was NOT on women's land!
There is NOTHING like women's land, to share our Sacred Mysteries, to open up to our deep psychic powers with one another, to shed that fear, even for a temporary period of time, and to bond very deeply with one another, in an unexplainable way, unless you've done it, away from the world of men...it is Sacred Amazon Land...our time with each other, surrounded by Mother Nature away from men..and so many of these youngsters, these 'queer girls' and 'genderqueers' and the gender confused bio females, many HAVE NEVER spent time in such intense women only space...they do not know the sacredness of that which we speak, and WHY we defend it so strongly.
I do agree: it is the ROLES and the boxes those roles put us in that are the problem...and I too feel if folks could just be themselves, without that shaming of not being in the proper "box" much of the percieved need for these surgeries would be eliminated. Get these young women to women's land, and watch them become EMPOWERED by it.....
-In Sisterhood,
-M.A.
Of course I was not rewarded for such behavior by family, peers, or anybody else, until I came out as a Dyke, and found I had a place.
And that place is certainly on women's Land. I got my fill last week, shared my women's and Amazon mysteries, and felt so completely empowered and SAFE in those woods, just like I felt SAFE in the woods of Michfest, one year, when I got lost in them like 3am....in a long walk back to my tent....because I KNEW ONLY WOMEN were sleeping all around...NO MEN. If there was even one man in those woods, I would have felt that learned almost instinctual fear. My only fear was that I was lost...but I just kept going down hill..till I got to the Triangle, and there still were some women up at that late hour(about 5am by that time). At the Festival I went to last week, I did Security, to keep our space secure, and it was, walking in the woods around our campground till 1 am, feeling completely safe, with an Amazon Sister at my side....I NEVER would feel that if I was NOT on women's land!
There is NOTHING like women's land, to share our Sacred Mysteries, to open up to our deep psychic powers with one another, to shed that fear, even for a temporary period of time, and to bond very deeply with one another, in an unexplainable way, unless you've done it, away from the world of men...it is Sacred Amazon Land...our time with each other, surrounded by Mother Nature away from men..and so many of these youngsters, these 'queer girls' and 'genderqueers' and the gender confused bio females, many HAVE NEVER spent time in such intense women only space...they do not know the sacredness of that which we speak, and WHY we defend it so strongly.
I do agree: it is the ROLES and the boxes those roles put us in that are the problem...and I too feel if folks could just be themselves, without that shaming of not being in the proper "box" much of the percieved need for these surgeries would be eliminated. Get these young women to women's land, and watch them become EMPOWERED by it.....
-In Sisterhood,
-M.A.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Repost: My Amazon Role
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My Amazon Role: From Amazons to Amazons, Dykes to Dykes
My role is to teach young(and other) Butch/androgynous women to have PRIDE in their female bodies, minds and spirits, tap into their Amazon potential, and their full sexual and spiritual freedom AS FEMALES, and share those very powerful Mysteries with them....
-In DykeAmazon Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
Labels: Amazon Mysteries, Amazon Spirit, Butch Pride, Female pride, Female Spiritual Power
My Amazon Role: From Amazons to Amazons, Dykes to Dykes
My role is to teach young(and other) Butch/androgynous women to have PRIDE in their female bodies, minds and spirits, tap into their Amazon potential, and their full sexual and spiritual freedom AS FEMALES, and share those very powerful Mysteries with them....
-In DykeAmazon Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
Labels: Amazon Mysteries, Amazon Spirit, Butch Pride, Female pride, Female Spiritual Power
Binding, Butch Posers, Self Hate around our Butch Breasts
In response to an old post of Dirt's, I am giving my reply. I also want to mention last week on women's land, during my Amazon ritual, I ALWAYS allow my breasts to fly free, and there is a connection between our Amazon rites, and being bare chested as the Wild Women that we are! This has taught me much self love to be in the presence of other strong and powerful and PROUD DYKEAMAZONS honoring their Female minds, bodies and spirits, and validating both ourselves and each other. THAT is the essence of true Sisterhood!
"For many years I hated my breasts, because I have unusually large breasts(probably inherited from my mother, and because I'm a big dyke too). Like Dirt said, it took me years to begin to accept them, one was getting rid of the binders(bras), even sports bras hurt to wear...so mostly, except when I'm new on a job, they fly free! As long as I don't have to missile tit them, then I'm fine with them...and on women's land, I like to pull my shirt off and wear them proudly! Women's land has been so healing for me!
So has a lover who LOVES my big breasts, and has taught me to love them because she does...and that even though I have big breasts, I'M STILL BUTCH!
That's what this is all about, teaching each other self-love about our bodies, NOT self-hatred, and it may be dependent on one Butch mentoring another in this, and certainly finding partners whether Butch, Femme or otherwise who ADD to your self-loving and NOT your self-hate!"
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
"For many years I hated my breasts, because I have unusually large breasts(probably inherited from my mother, and because I'm a big dyke too). Like Dirt said, it took me years to begin to accept them, one was getting rid of the binders(bras), even sports bras hurt to wear...so mostly, except when I'm new on a job, they fly free! As long as I don't have to missile tit them, then I'm fine with them...and on women's land, I like to pull my shirt off and wear them proudly! Women's land has been so healing for me!
So has a lover who LOVES my big breasts, and has taught me to love them because she does...and that even though I have big breasts, I'M STILL BUTCH!
That's what this is all about, teaching each other self-love about our bodies, NOT self-hatred, and it may be dependent on one Butch mentoring another in this, and certainly finding partners whether Butch, Femme or otherwise who ADD to your self-loving and NOT your self-hate!"
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
Death Knell of our Feminist Bookstores, ect.
Part Two
Part of the reason our Lesbian/Women's/Feminist/Dyke cultural spaces have disappeared is because of the economy, being starved out, because of Amazon.com(using our own name against us, what a cooptation!)and dykes buying thru commercial venues like Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles, instead of supporting our independents and lesbian/women's/feminist bookstores, AND the trans movement which has so effectively dismantled and destroyed women's and lesbian space after space....
Mama Bears, Old Wives Tales, WomonCrafts West, Boadecia's, SisterSpirit, the women's bookstore in Santa Cruz, Whiptail Lizard Lounge, Changemakers, A Room of Our Own, (gay/lesbian bookstore in Sacramento, not sure if that's the right name), community bookstore after bookstore and space has disappeared from us. Without spaces that we can call our own, there IS no community left for us....it is disjointed and jumbled, and we have nowhere's to learn and get new information or support our artists, musicians and authors. That spells the death knell of our communities......as they give in to cooptation to barely survive..just for a minute before the final blow....
-MasterAmazon
Part of the reason our Lesbian/Women's/Feminist/Dyke cultural spaces have disappeared is because of the economy, being starved out, because of Amazon.com(using our own name against us, what a cooptation!)and dykes buying thru commercial venues like Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles, instead of supporting our independents and lesbian/women's/feminist bookstores, AND the trans movement which has so effectively dismantled and destroyed women's and lesbian space after space....
Mama Bears, Old Wives Tales, WomonCrafts West, Boadecia's, SisterSpirit, the women's bookstore in Santa Cruz, Whiptail Lizard Lounge, Changemakers, A Room of Our Own, (gay/lesbian bookstore in Sacramento, not sure if that's the right name), community bookstore after bookstore and space has disappeared from us. Without spaces that we can call our own, there IS no community left for us....it is disjointed and jumbled, and we have nowhere's to learn and get new information or support our artists, musicians and authors. That spells the death knell of our communities......as they give in to cooptation to barely survive..just for a minute before the final blow....
-MasterAmazon
Transmen: Whose Transitioning response to Dirt's blog
It surprises me how absolutely GIRLY most of these individuals are. They could NEVER be Butch,none of them have an ounce of Butchness in them, so maybe they think they'd be more Butch than us if they were a 'real man'. But all it is another form of cosmetics and cosmetic surgery for the insecure. Maybe they were victimized in their female bodies, minds or spirits, or they had a smack of androgyny and were smacked down with even that....
I've met these 20, 30 somethings and most are androgynous at best...could just as easily wear a skirt or makeup or lipstick as Butch or male drag. And most of these cuz they ARE so girly would probably end up dating gay boys too. Faghags.
The old timey FTM's were close to or Stone Butches, the most hardcore of the hardcore Butches, in the distant past, like 15-20 years ago, and they just couldn't 'make it' as women, like you said, their internalized misogyny, or continual discrimination because of their very masculine appearance as Butches that led to them getting beat up, discriminated against or unable to get work. So they transitioned and then quietly disappeared from the lesbian/gay communities. Most were into Femmes...but these days, there's an EXPECTATION that these ones have a RIGHT to be in women's/lesbian/dyke space, WHILE wanting to maintain so called 'maleness'...just confused young girls....in my book, not proud to be women, or not having the strength to REALLY oppose both sexism and lesbophobia.
-MasterAmazon
I've met these 20, 30 somethings and most are androgynous at best...could just as easily wear a skirt or makeup or lipstick as Butch or male drag. And most of these cuz they ARE so girly would probably end up dating gay boys too. Faghags.
The old timey FTM's were close to or Stone Butches, the most hardcore of the hardcore Butches, in the distant past, like 15-20 years ago, and they just couldn't 'make it' as women, like you said, their internalized misogyny, or continual discrimination because of their very masculine appearance as Butches that led to them getting beat up, discriminated against or unable to get work. So they transitioned and then quietly disappeared from the lesbian/gay communities. Most were into Femmes...but these days, there's an EXPECTATION that these ones have a RIGHT to be in women's/lesbian/dyke space, WHILE wanting to maintain so called 'maleness'...just confused young girls....in my book, not proud to be women, or not having the strength to REALLY oppose both sexism and lesbophobia.
-MasterAmazon
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