From the Michfest List: WBW Building Space for WBW

Re: WBW building safe space for WBW

Sister A., thank you for this: "And in defense of lesbian separatism, we have no other venue available to us any more. We can't even keep bio men out of our dyke marches, and I mean men, not MTF's. Why? Because some lesbians dont see a need to exclude men from a dyke march and we dont have lesbian solidarity anymore. Some lesbians dont choose womyn first."

That is so true A. The SF Dyke March is always crashed by every version of queer and men, including bisexual women including their boyfriends, to gay guys from the Castro feeling they HAVE A RIGHT to be in the March(after all Dolores Park is their cruising zone, and right down from the Castro). I wonder what would happen if we enforced those boundaries? And FTM's feel they too have 'a right' to be in the March. So it really dilutes the energy, and especially when the march organizers make statements that "past, present and future women" can march.....and takes away from the focus on us Dykes and Dyke rights! But then many Lesbians/Dykes don't put Dykes and women first and foremost! I ALWAYS have! Some surround them by a sea of gay men and become almost unapproachable, others by other versions of queer, and now there are so many microidentities as to be downright confusing..but then when you look at the pics, one thinks: "That's a bunch of dykes, under another name!" So many Butches/boi dykes/genderqueer don't even want the term 'female' or 'woman' applied to them, like it is some great shame(and I'm NOT talking FTM's here), that events and spaces are now being referred to as 'Queer', not even 'Queer Women' anymore, like the word 'woman' only refers to high femme, and that they are outside of even Female, which is barely tolerated, and yet insistent on saying 'female bodied'. It has all become so strange, divisive. And almost NONE have a concept of just how empowering it is to be in a week or close to a week in women only Dyke centered space, and see the amazing diversity of womonhood/femaleness Michfest represents!

Thank you also Grace for your statement above! The same goes with my Amazon and Dianic rituals. I WANT to ritual with those who are born, live and love as Female, and the connection we have beyond words because of it, whether it be the menstrual blood mysteries or the gynenergy we raise, goes beyond words, or the glue between Dykes and our Amazon herstories going back to ancient times carving out our space for OUR TRUTH, our born Female bodies, minds and spirits...and for those of us who are Butch and have been on that 'gender line' for ages, we are STILL PROUD TO BE FEMALE, and ARE FULLY FEMALE. We NEED our wbw space for our healing, for our Lesbian connections, for our blood connections, and for the mutual sacred energies we can raise together, hearing each other's voices.

To my dying day, I will protect our spaces and places, because ONLY in WBW space amongst likeminded womyn and Dykes, can I really and truly FEEL MY POWER, not just personally, but energetically and psychically in a way I can't in any other space because of the heaviness of the patriarchal imperative and heavy male energies. Whether they be from the formerly, present or future male. I don't care if this is 'politically correct' or not, but denying born females access to OUR OWN spaces is the height of misogyny, in a very real way. It does not need to be just 'one week out of the year', that would NOT be enough for me, but when and where we need it, without others' needs crowding out our voices or destroying what overall women's spaces(much less Lesbian spaces, which there are almost none)we have left!
-MasterAmazon

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I am committed to the Michigan community, as well as committed to maintaining this space with its original intention. - LV 8/2011

Responding to Jeanne Cordova on her blog around her identifying as 'TransButch', and all the ways we are told that Butches are some version of trans

MasterAmazon said...
Sexism is sexism, and now that Chaz identifies as 'male'(not all of us don't have to buy that surgeries and hormones do anything more than induce secondary sexual characteristics, but the hormones DO change personality), he has completely identified with the WORST of male sexist behavior, and YES sexism comes from men and is foisted on ALL women. Don't smoke screen the issue 'owning'. It all is a matter of degree, even the most so called 'feminist oriented' man or soft gay man, has sexism within him to one extent or another, and certainly more privilege. It is Chaz's attempt to use his new found privilege as well as his well off background against his girlfriend that is exceedingly sexist.

And you haven't addressed, like so many others, unto the next generation of the trans cult insanity foisted upon children who don't yet know who they are and herded into categories with hormones, surgeries and psychiatrists because they dont' fit into heterosexist gender roles appropiate for males or females. NOT the liberation from those roles as Feminism has promised for ALL Females originally, and even for effeminate boys/men.

Jeanne, I challenge you personally as a Butch Dyke Feminist, and still have great respect for you, that I don't buy Judith Halberstam's queer theories, and almost ALL Butches I know, myself included have been women in men's or boys' clothing, and absolutely censured for it, and put outside womonhood as a result, or shamed horribly if we don't consent to feminization, especially forced upon us to either get a job or in childhood. I can't tell you how many arguements I had with my family when they tried to put me in dresses and skirts, this is VERY MUCH part of the Butch Dyke, and Female Proud Butch Dyke experience as well as others, to resist just that type of feminization. But, we're still All womon, and all Female despite others trying to take away our womonhood and/or Femaleness and state 'you just want to be a man'. I hope you reconsider this stance, because you would have so many Female Proud/Female Identified Butches behind you. And as you know, Butchness goes far beyond clothes...it's all about who we are inside and the way we walk in the world, and our OWN unique brand of Femaleness, which is often denied by others.
-In Female PRoud Butch Dyke Sisterhood,
-FeistyAmazon

September 14, 2011 1:56 AM

MasterAmazon said...
I just get so tired of those who constantly state that if you're butch, you're automatically 'trans' of some variety. I DON'T BUY IT, and neither do MANY Female Proud/Female Identified Butches, rather we are another aspect of Femaleness/womonhood. And there is less and less space for us to just be ourselves without that pressure to identify as more male, transbutch, transmasculine, genderqueer, male, FTM ect. in other words MALE, rather than FEMALE, and outside of womonhood rather than within it. AND that, is in many of our opinions decidely anti-feminist. There are those too who are detransitioning as well, and wanting to once again claim their dyke and/or female identities again, and terribly shamed by the trans movement for doing so.