The White Earth runs until 21 March 2009 at Brisbane’s LaBoite.

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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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Guest blogger, Carolyn Ride, gets the vapors while watching some political thingy happening on the other side of the world…

Call me schmaltzy (because I am, plus it’s a great word), but it was hard not to be inspired by Wednesday’s inauguration of 44^th US President. 1.8 million people were there in Washington to watch President Barack Hussein Obama address the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Billions more worldwide watched it on TV.

Of course, you know this already. Like me, you might have watched the whole thing on TV, then all the news reports showing the highlights. I have to mention it again because I was amazed at how Obama’s speech, while not perfect, touched all the bases for where people are at (in America and the rest of the world). Yes, I know it was written by a speechwriter, not Obama himself. Yes, the frequent references to God, God bless us all, Scripture and God bless America were a little creepy. They were for me at least. I’d probably be the atheist in the foxhole. Thank someone (but not God) there was one little mention of unbelievers being part of the nation.

I still got chills though. I was reminded that day why, despite all the evil America commits at home and abroad, the country’s ideals ring out to billions of people around the world. Obama’s speech reaffirmed all those ideals while acknowledging the crises of economy, environment and war that threaten them. Even the all-American emotive patriotism was a welcome change from the endless realpolitik we’ve slogged through the past decade.

Luckily for me, I can always find something to whinge about in the midst of the best circumstances. My whinges are the following:

• The bloody awful boring celebrity guest appearances. On Wednesday, you could have looted all the swankiest neighbourhoods in LA and no-one would have noticed. Why? Because they were all in Washington doing bad covers. No, I don’t want to lean on Mary J Blige. When I hear political speechmaking, I don’t want it to be from Tom Hanks. And though I love U2, someone should have told Bono it wasn’t his inauguration.

• I’m glad Obama, not Clinton, is the new President. I’m no personal fan of either of the Clintons, but there’s no denying that the criticism of Hillary during the election was as much sexist as policy-based. Now Michelle Obama is the first lady. Though she’s an Ivy League graduate ex-lawyer who used to be Obama’s mentor, it seems her most important decision so far has been the outfits she wore to the inauguration and the inauguration balls. Now there’s all sorts of breathless commentary about how she’ll redecorate the White House. What kind of mother is she? Is she sufficiently devoted to Obama? How will she, like, stay so stylish? It all makes me nostalgic for Bill Clinton’s promise that you ‘get two for the price of one’. Finally, America has shown it’s ready for a black President. I don’t think it’s nearly ready for a female one. I doubt it’s even willing to let Michelle Obama use her formidable guts and intelligence for more than invigorating dinner parties. Maybe the US will one day follow the lead of more gender-blind countries. Like, um, Pakistan (one female President who, if not assassinated, might have been re-elected) or the Phillipines (two female Presidents). Hell, even Ireland has had two female Presidents, and they had the most repressive abortion laws in Europe.

• Oh yeah. Rick Warren, who compared being gay to pedophilia, leading the pre-inauguration prayer. Bridge-building is admirable, but that was a bridge too far.

Overall, though, almost nothing can ruin my warm inner glow from the inauguration of America’s 44^th President. Just give Michelle a real and important job, tell the Hollywood hangers-on they’re on salary cap from now on, and deliver America and the world from this recession in an environmentally responsible way. That’s all I ask of Obama really. I’ll keep Barack-ing for him.

Carolyn Ride is a writer, reviewer and editor who loves to vacuum.

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