Response ON UNEMPLOYMENT..Human BEING not Human Doing

In response to self pitying male during heart of Recession:

I would like to say this having spent at least half my working career unemployed. Especially in construction one never works steady except the few....the rest of us go back to the Hall between jobs and projects. Construction was particularly hit hard in the Recession in California. Whereas Californians had a 12% unemployment rate in the heart of Recession, us Construction workers had a 25% or higher rate of unemployment. 

With so many houses being repossessed and foreclosed on, there was no new housing construction or new projects bid on. Even the school upgrades, my summer bread and butter, the State could not afford to maintain because less tax base with so many Californians out of work. Add to the fact I am a Female is a whole other layer of discrimination.

It was too late for me in 2013, it damaged my self esteem applying for job after job and not getting any steady work. We had to leave California for the rural Midwest where the pay was lousy but at least there WAS work. In fact they are DESPERATE for good workers.

I have ALOT of PTSD issues around work and work situations as a result but guess what?
Being Lesbian I support MYSELF, and work is just as important to me as any man, so stop your male self pity, you would get a shot at a job before me. But I AM MORE THAN A JOB. I have hobbies, interests, a spirituality, friends, sports I engage in. I define myself by MYSELF, not by what I do. There is so much MORE to EACH OF US than what we do for a living. Do you play music? Are you creatively talented on the computer?  Do you like to write, create art, travel, belong to alternative communities, have dreams and visions you can realize without alot of money? Can you build with your hands?

Perhaps an avocation can become a vocation. I want to realize my Calling, that is not paid work necessarily.

While unemployment is devastating think of those on disability, either physical or mental. They may not be able to be in the workforce or only parttine, or they may use their time to volunteer. They are fine people but are unable to keep up with the fast paced stressfull business world others can...so they have found ways to enrich themselves and DEFINE THEMSELVES other than paid work. Perhaps they like to carve creatures in wood, or decorate things, others wallow in depression, or they have a good ear for their friends. The same could be said for time unemployed. Just remember we are human beings, not human doings....-FeistyAmazon

My Idea of Sisterhood....

My idea of Sisterhood and Amazonism, real gut level womon bonding is in the woods under the Full Moon in a ritual circle bare breasted raising energy with wonderful Dyke drummers, ritualists, Wild Womyn, Amazons and dancers HOWWWLLLINGGGG. PRIMAL POWERFUL AMAZON FEMALE ENERGY!!!Thats Sisterhood bonding  on a soul deep level FOR ME!!!

And YES I HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS AND LIVE FOR IT!!

Lesbian Pride, We NEED to be Recognized!!!!

Since when have they EVER been celebrating Lesbians and OUR ground breaking successes, in the Trades, in sports, in outer space, in initially breaking into.fields where other women feared to go, into our rich Feminist herstory?

No our stories and communities gets ever more invisible. Its one thing to question and break out of oppressive sex roles, where boys can be dancers, girls can do martial arts and ice hockey or get into science, boys can cook and sew, all practical skills, and leaving kids alone who dont fit into stereotyped boxes, that is not picking on them and tormenting and teasing them;  and expanding life skills for ALL. 

I did wood and metal shop, computer science, ice hockey and Tae Kwon Do all starting in the early 1970s where we were breaking out of these roles and diversifying our skills to go beyond gender stereotypes.  My brother took cooking classes.

But its a completely other thing to talk about getting doctors and putting kids on puberty blockers or hormones, scheduling them for surgeries and locking them into a permanent life path that EVEN when they decide to get out of it whether a few years later or a decade or more they  had done to them  REAL irreversible damage to their young bodies, much less minds and spirits.

I WANT kids to be able to express themselves freely without shame or pressured into one stereotyped gender/sex ROLE or another, as they tried to do to me (unsuccessfully).  

But talk of doctors, hormones, psyches and surgeries?  THIS IS NOT LIBERATION.

Butch Poverty and Work Struggles

Natal Lesbians, lifelong Butch Lesbians, YES. The issue of Butch poverty is something I struggled with all my adult life once leaving home at 23...even then circumstances changed once my father divorced and left my mother. My hetro brother on the other hand had up to 3 houses, a very lucrative career, and still living in my mother's house(he bought me out over a decade ago). That house is probably now worth $750,000 because of its location. My parents bought it for only $50,000 in 1973.

Meanwhile my partner and I are barely making it here in Nebraska in a trailer we bought with my union retirement money for $21,000. And living on salaries just a few dollars more than minimum wage. Most of the jobs around here pay $9-12/hr., unless you get hired on direct to the factories then you can get up to $20/hr...and they are HORRIBLE dangerous environments to work in!!!

Poverty and getting and staying hired much less advancing IS A REALLY BIG ISSUE for Butches. Its one reason I DID go into the Trades, NOT because it suited my temperament, but solely whats a Butch to do to make DECENT MONEY? MANY of my Butch friends in the 1980s were in the Tradeswomen Movement, and they were making really good money, and they helped mentor me in.

Course I thought Id see tons of Butches on the job(I follow my Yoni), and was sorely disappointed once I got in just how isolated I ended up becoming surrounded by a sea of often hostile men....

Butch poverty due to discrimination is a REAL issue. At least in the trades, even with all the redneck male bullshit I could wear clothes I was comfortable in, Ben Davis pants or jeans, flannels, thermals, t shirts and tools and LEARN a lifelong skill.  And make good money while working.

No makeup, hose, dresses, skirts, or femming it up needed. Not that I did but I know I was told by one supervisor to dress that way on a poor paying lower management job for a recycling company. I said "I dont wear dresses or skirts!!!" But SOMEONE is ALWAYS trying to get us to "femme up" to be more socially acceptable. For a true Butch THAT is NOT in our nature....

Het feminism doesn't  REALLY address lifelong Dyke issues!!!      -M.A.

Butches Rock-Aiya and MasterAmazon

Us Butches ARE NOT wanna be men. Thats an FTM. A TRUE Butch is a modern day Amazon, PROUD to be Female, and LOVE and lust after Females. -M.A.

" A bit off topic:
A butch woman is total woman. I love the woman in you, fiercely. Without her we are incomplete.
Just saying. Butch women are raked thru the coals bc they don't conform to a patriarchal definition of woman.  IMO butch women are ostracized from all directions. It isn't an easy path. Yet thru the years these women have stayed true to themselves. They are dynamic, capable, strong, and dumped on again and again.
All wbw are total and complete. Butch women take womanhood to a whole new level.
IMO, young dykes need to know that being butch is a hell of a lot stronger than any man alive.  Manhood vs Butch = no contest. " -Aiya

THank you Aiya, since we ARE under the crosshairs of the trans movement AS BUTCHES, so ready to recruit and TRANSform EVERY Butch female(like so many young ones now transitioning in their teens/early 20s), most of whom never even got to go through a Butch phase for ANY length of time. This is a thread BY AND ABOUT BUTCHES..and I appreciate you valuing our TOTAL WOMONHOOD, since so many forces want to toss us out of Womonhood altogether: het society, MTFS, the Trans Movement and even the queer community by calling us by male pronouns and ASSuming we are MEN.          -M.A.

Butch Knowledge/Butch Oppression and mistaken for Trans

My partner who is quite Butch also with a flattop went to work one day at the WOMENS homeless shelter in a progressive city, and a visiting psychologist or professional asked her if she was trans. She said no. Then she asked her WHEN would she be transitioning? She said I am a BUTCH WOMAN. A masculine WOMAN. 

She was VERY UPSET BY THIS, when this woman refused to "get it", and she came home and cried in my arms. Its hard enough BEING BUTCH in this world and not fitting into sex stereotypes and getting discriminated agiunst and all, but this shit on top of all that?  The trans movement  hasn't made a single Butch freer!!                            -M.A.

"I keep thinking of this since I read it. Your words are so very true. This regressive, patriarchal genderist movement has done nothing to make even one single Butch more free and in fact has done everything to make the world even more hostile to any woman who dares live as herself in a world of men who hate her for existing.

This is what really gets me about how it works , it is precisely and exactly those women who are most potentially dangerous to patriarchy and most threatening to men who are being drawn into this blatant medical abuse of healthy female bodies.

This is no coincidence. This is a coordinated part of the never-ending effort of men to annihilate us."-
                        -SJC

Butch Knowledge/Butch Oppression and mistaken for Trans

My partner who is quite Butch also with a flattop went to work one day at the WOMENS homeless shelter in a progressive city, and a visiting psychologist or professional asked her if she was trans. She said no. Then she asked her WHEN would she be transitioning? She said I am a BUTCH WOMAN. A masculine WOMAN. 

She was VERY UPSET BY THIS, when this woman refused to "get it", and she came home and cried in my arms. Its hard enough BEING BUTCH in this world and not fitting into sex stereotypes and getting discriminated agiunst and all, but this shit on top of all that?  The trans movement  hasn't made a single Butch freer!!                            -M.A.

"I keep thinking of this since I read it. Your words are so very true. This regressive, patriarchal genderist movement has done nothing to make even one single Butch more free and in fact has done everything to make the world even more hostile to any woman who dares live as herself in a world of men who hate her for existing.

This is what really gets me about how it works , it is precisely and exactly those women who are most potentially dangerous to patriarchy and most threatening to men who are being drawn into this blatant medical abuse of healthy female bodies.

This is no coincidence. This is a coordinated part of the never-ending effort of men to annihilate us."-
                        -SJC

Never Normalize Fascism or Oppression

My response on a group resisting Donald Trump:

 Hitler had a megolomaniac ego like Trump and the ladies liked him. Heck I knew an elderly friend of mine who was Republican who was attracted to Hitler, she passed years ago. Some women are attracted to dangerous men. So what? This guy has already shown he's not normal, but still surrounds himself with beautiful women, the only kind he values, yet HE is ugly as sin. Not just physically, but emotionally and intellectually. Obama is the exact opposite.

I am not going to normalize him or Hitler. 

People "accepting" that a mere 1/4 of the eligible voters, and not even the majority of voters voted him in, with all the votes and absentee ballots thrown out, and voter suppression of minorities, makes it already questionable, the guys he's surrounding himself with are anti intellectual and frightening. Pence talked about "Religious Freedom" laws where folks are deliberately allowed to discriminate against who they serve. This could be pharmacists that dont want to fill medications, or paramedics who dont want to save folks they dont approve of, and not just florists or bakers that dont want to cater to Lesbian/Gay marriages. Besides there are plenty of gay florists.
But I can see ordering dinner and a waiter/waitress refusing to serve us because we are a Lesbian.couple. this is not much different than the way Jews were treated in Nazi Germany, or Blacks refused service in the Jim Crow years.

They can claim their god given right to denying someone something, then they should open up a PRIVATE CLUB, not a regular PUBLIC BUSINESS. NONE of this should be tolerated. Its 1000 cuts, cutting away one little thing at a time, denying one persons right here or there.

Already I am seeing documentation of hate crimes in small and large ways against ALL minority groups, each one being told this is NOW Trump's White America. People yelled at in coffee shops for communicating with hearing impaired, Lesbian hating words on vehicles, people being shouted at for being black, gay, Muslim, different in ANY WAY. 

People coming home in tears and fear. IT HAS ALREADY STARTED. EVERY SUCH ACT MUST BE OPPOSED. Looking the other way allows it to be "normalized". Already Trump is insulating himself from mainstream press giving Alt Right press Presidential access...pure Goebbels like propaganda.

NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL. NONE SHOULD BE TOLERATED or ACCEPTED. THE MOMENT WE DO, the next horror will be ratcheted up...

And here is a quote that sums things up regarding Obama and that we WON'T put up with Trump's b.s.

"I listened as they called my President a Muslim.
I listened as they called him and his family a pack of monkeys.
I listened as they said he wasn't born here.
I watched as they blocked every single path to progress that they could.
I saw the pictures of him as Hitler.
I watched them shut down the government and hurt the entire nation twice.
I watched them turn their backs on every opportunity to open worthwhile dialog.
I watched them say that they would not even listen to any choice for Supreme Court no matter who the nominee was.
I listened as they openly said that they will oppose him at every turn.
I watched as they did just that.
I listened.
I watched.
I paid attention.
Now, I'm being called on to be tolerant.
To move forward.
To denounce protesters.
To "Get over it."
To accept this...
I will not.
I will do my part to make sure this great American mistake becomes the embarrassing footnote of our history that it deserves to be.
I will do this as quickly as possible every chance I get.
I will do my part to limit the damage that this man can do to my country.
I will watch his every move and point out every single mistake and misdeed in a loud and proud voice.
I will let you know in a loud voice every time this man backs away from a promise he made to them.
Them. The people who voted for him.
The ones who sold their souls and prayed for him to win.
I will do this so that they never forget.
And they will hear me.
They will see it in my eyes when I look at them.
They will hear it in my voice when I talk to them.
They will know that I know who they are.
They will know that I know what they are.
Do not call for my tolerance. I've tolerated all I can.
Now it's their turn to tolerate ridicule.
Be aware, make no mistake about it, every single thing that goes wrong in our country from this day
forward is now Trump's fault just as much as they thought it was Obama's.
I find it unreasonable for them to expect from me what they were entirely unwilling to give."
               -Author unknown.

M.A.- So far we are in a supposed democracy(NSA spying notwithstanding, and voter suppression), so long as we can protest WE SHOULD. I personally feel that IF we are gonna protest it all needs to be done BEFORE Dec 19th, otherwise its a "done deal".

If we lose that fight with the Electors, then we KEEP PROTESTING to eliminate the Electoral College system and as needed. But it should be strategic.

Writing in, boycotting businesses and punishing in any way we can those stealing away our Democracy, our rights and freedoms, whether pro choice, womens and lesbian/gay rights, Black Lives Matter, or the Dakota Pipeline, and create a STRONG VIABLE COALITION of ALL THESE GROUPS to RESIST. Unions too, and CONFRONT COLLABORATORS, like some of these mealy mouthed Democrats that we should "get over" the SECOND STOLEN ELECTION in the 2000s for the People, by the People. Hopefully Al Gore and Hillary Clinton will also support this fight..
                       -M.A.

Butch Oppression these days

We had enough:  "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me" - Martin Niemoller

 My partner who is quite Butch also with a flattop went to work one day at the WOMENS homeless shelter in a liberal city,all the staff know who she is; but a visiting psychologist or professional asked her if she was trans. She said no. Then she asked her WHEN would she be transitioning? She said I am a BUTCH WOMAN. A masculine WOMAN.

She was VERY UPSET BY THIS, when this woman refused to "get it", and she cried in my arms wgen she came home. Its hard enough BEING BUTCH in this world and not fitting into sex stereotypes and getting discrimiated agiunst and all, but this shit on top of all that? I hate the trans movement!!!It hasnt made a single Butch freer!!

The ORIGINAL Lesbian/Gay Message and Negation of Feminism by Trans Movement GUEST POST BY N.C.

"Transgender political advocacy is in no way liberal. You go back a few years, the trans agenda was the exact opposite of what liberals have been saying on these issues.

The lesbian and gay policy message, for decades, has been that people should be able to choose who they love and that their orientations should be respected. The trans agenda is that people have to accept a trans person's declaration of gender as overriding their biological sex for the purposes of intimate relations, or they get called a bigot. This is enforced heterosexuality, which liberals would rightly condemn as homophobic if conservatives proposed it.

The feminist message is that women should be able to say no to men who want to expose themselves to them, creep on them, or tell them how to think and talk. The feminist message is that sex doesn't determine personality or ability.

 Transgender politics tells women that they must defer in all things to male transsexuals, and that we must believe that personality defines sex according to stereotypes. It demands further that we must pretend that their penises are vulvas, no matter what, even if they’ve used their penis to rape a woman. This is a complete negation of feminism."
           -By N.T.

The ORIGINAL Lesbian/Gay Message and Negation of Feminism by Trans Movement GUEST POST BY N.C.

"Transgender political advocacy is in no way liberal. You go back a few years, the trans agenda was the exact opposite of what liberals have been saying on these issues.

The lesbian and gay policy message, for decades, has been that people should be able to choose who they love and that their orientations should be respected. The trans agenda is that people have to accept a trans person's declaration of gender as overriding their biological sex for the purposes of intimate relations, or they get called a bigot. This is enforced heterosexuality, which liberals would rightly condemn as homophobic if conservatives proposed it.

The feminist message is that women should be able to say no to men who want to expose themselves to them, creep on them, or tell them how to think and talk. The feminist message is that sex doesn't determine personality or ability.

 Transgender politics tells women that they must defer in all things to male transsexuals, and that we must believe that personality defines sex according to stereotypes. It demands further that we must pretend that their penises are vulvas, no matter what, even if they’ve used their penis to rape a woman. This is a complete negation of feminism."
           -By N.T.

Butch Grief

Here is a post I made about my experience in the SF BAY Area after a young Lesbian went through enormous grief of her former partner transitioning and two friends of herd to FTM:

 Yes this what those on the tranny train and their supporters INCLUDING other Lesbians NEVER GOT. EVERYTIME my partner and I saw YET ANOTHER BUTCH in San Francisco or Oakland we knew had transitioned it cut and hurt to the DEPTH of our Butch Dyke souls.

 No longer could we count on that Sister to be on the frontlines WITH US. They had joined The Man who keeps his boot on womyn's and Dykes'necks everyday. It also gives the message that being anything other than feminine is not enough and not ok. There also is the machismo ranking system that Butch is not enough, take some T and breast bind, change your name to something decidely male, INSIST on male pronouns even in Lesbian/womyn only spaces..but thats not enough, cut off the breasts and appear full on FTM.

I SAW and WATCHED this peer pressure till I realized the latter incarnations were NOT ALL THAT BUTCH. If they had been they may not have needed to transition. First they took the Stones and THEY transitioned first. But later basically androgynous if not even feminine women drank the Testosterone(through shots)to macho up WHEREAS US LIFELONG BUTCHES NEVER NEEDED TO.

And many of these more feminine types then began goin with bi/"gay" men....

But IF it was a lifelong Butch I KNEW who made the switch, that cut to the depths of our Butch souls. Its a community loss, a dating pool loss, a loss at the deepest spiritual levels of what it means to our Butch Dyke Amazon Sisterhood to have another convert over, almost like cool friends I knew who became "born again", and tiresome to be around, should they attempt to convert me to their ideology which they inevitably did, and I dropped those friendships cold. Exact same feeling..except on a much much deeper gut level saying that Butch Dyke is not ok, and really only men have Power, and that we are an endangered/dying species(Butch Lesbians).

 I cannot tell you how many times we were told that in the SF BAY AREA...till I found Sisters ONLINE pushing back, and groups supporting detransitioners and would be detransitioners to go to this last Michfest, BE AROUND THE FEMALE GYNERGY, and reclaim their Female Selves and Power once again!!!

For Lesbian Eyes Only

Lesbian only Mysteries:  I dont allow straight women in my conversations about Lesbian sex. THATS the problem, and WHY so many lesbos clam up. I do NOT want to hear about het sex or even be compared to it. WE LESBIANS have OUR OWN SEXUAL MYSTERIES. It has nothing to do with dudes or straight women.

Us DykeAmazons Already Withdrew Our Intimate Energy From Men to Give To Womyn

 Us DykeAmazons have been "Lysistratas" by our very Being. I have nothing to teach men, because long ago in Feminism we were taught MEN GOTTA FEND FOR THEMSELVES. They make conscious  choices everyday hold the majority of social, economic, religious and political power Worldwide. Everything they do enforces the Worldwide Patriarchy.

My place as an Amazon Warrior, Amazon Priestess, Amazon Witch is to GIVE my energies to waking up and empowering all bio female WOMYN. 

Michfest was ALL ABOUT EMPOWERING THE FEMALE. And a place so many DykeAmazons and other Amazon and Priestess and all kinds of other womyn came to be renewed and gather away from the Patriarchy. The sheer POWER raised with that sustained level of Gynergy over several days was simply amazing. And the residual of 40 years of Female Energy raised is beyond anything one can put into words. It indeed was a modern day Amazon Matriarchy. 

Everywhere there were Goddess images displayed:  in art, on signs, at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and a 30 foot Goddess statue erected by the workers weeks before the beginning of the Festival, and in each other. This domain was for ALL of us.

My work is to uplift every womon I can who is ready. I been in the male dominated trades  for 2.5 decades and had ENOUGH of "proving" my worthiness to men. They simply do NOT honor Big Butch DykeAmazons, nor am I chasing after their approval.

Womyn.who STRONGLY bond together and make change, establish strong boundaries and limits and EXPAND what every Female can do by teaching both girls and womyn they can be strong, they can lead they can honor the Goddess of 10,000 Names and that as Goddess Incarnate She/we come in every size, color, age and temperament and that we say NO and will not take it anymore, we will withdraw our energies from all abusive men AND THEIR SYSTEMS and  find ways of creating our own!!!

This is why the culture of Michfest was my home and I was so happy to attend this last one the 40th in 2015. I was also immensely in grief. It indeed was Amazon Nation where ALL ASPECTS of the Sacred Female reigned supreme. 

We did a Spiral Dance of 400 womyn, and I cried to the depths of my soul KNOWING this would be the LAST large Gathering of my Tribe of DykeAmazons, Witches, Drummers, Priestesses, Lovers and Warriors.