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Farewell to lesbian feminism

Guest blogger, Carolyn Ride, is wondering whatever happened to old skool lesbian feminism.

Of course all you sisters went to the International Women’s Day Rally on the 7^th with the theme “women demand justice” didn’t you? Don’t lie, you didn’t. Let’s face it, the lesbian feminist wombyn stereotype wearing a labrys necklace and waving a placard is dying if not dead. 

Lesbian feminists had their glory days in the 80s and 90s. They ran communes and women’s dances. They showed women could do anything. (If they were sound engineers or graphic designers, they showed women could charge other women anything too). They ran the women’s refuges and crisis centres when no-one else cared, wrote weirdly wafty alliterative books – thanks Mary Daly – and even out-argued socialist women in meetings.

As a major force in non-mainstream politics, lesbian feminism had to end. Most took the personal is political thing way too far; even debating whether lesbians should give up their boy children to avoid “putting energy into men”. Having spent so much time at the coalface of gender relations, they overgeneralised women as victims. Lastly, I think they just got co-opted as they got older. It’s hard to argue your lesbian feminist purity from a six-figure government adviser job or a tenured professorship.

If you are one of the few lesbian feminists left flying the lavender flag, thanks for paving the way for the next lesbian generations. But now it’s time to accept change. Young dykes and queer women want explore polyamory and porn or gay marriage and gaybies for the same reason you wanted to escape it: to have the choice. Get to know some of them. (You might meet them at the IWD breakfasts women do now instead of rallies). Just remember: bisexuality is not a disease, sex trade doesn’t automatically equal slave trade, and intellectual rigidity is not intellectual rigour.

Of course, this play nice rule applies to the opposition too. If you’re one of those so-called radical queers who whinge that sex-negative lesbian feminist types are oppressing you, toughen up! It was probably your mother who made you feel ashamed of your desires. Sheila Jeffreys is not your mother. And yes, you may feel a negative vibe at some queer event from some disapproving 60-something women in fisherman’s pants from Lismore who don’t “get” the queer, femme, switch, boi, burlesque thing you’re performing as genderfuck. That’s not discrimination. Getting beaten up on the train home by angry yobs; being blackballed by future employers because that’s your identity on your facebook page: that’s discrimination.

Again, get to know some of them. They might not all be so conservative after all! Try to be indulgent about the disapproval thing. After all, the generation after you will at best find you quaint and at worst rebel against everything you stood for. 

Carolyn Ride is a writer and editor … who still has a copy of Lesbian Nation on her bookshelf. 

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