sophiaserpentia (
sophiaserpentia) wrote2008-04-30 12:11 pm
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hmm, now here's an interesting one.
The people of Lesbos want gay women to stop calling themselves Lesbians.
Yes, i can illustrate the problem by imagining a Big Gay Sketch in my mind's eye: a man on a flight from Athens tells a US Customs Agent that he's a Lesbian; hilarity ensues. Gee, how funny.
The use of the term to refer to homosexual women dates to the Victorian era. It was, like so many other Victorian terms, a euphemism designed to hide what could not be talked about. It was adopted alongside the now archaic term sapphist; both refer to Sappho, the ancient resident of Lesbos who wrote love poems to women.
It is not the only geographic name which has been appropriated to describe women who live as partners; see for example the term "Boston marriage," which dates to roughly the same time period. (Hmm, someone on my friend's list wrote about this term in the last week, but i don't remember who, sorry.)
Since the political lesbian movement of the 1970's, the term "lesbian" has been cemented in our cultural consciousness, so much so that the term "gay" has come in many contexts to be seen as exclusively referring to men. But, just as 'transwoman' is not a real word but a composite term made of a norm + a modifier, 'gay woman' is not a real word; but neither is 'lesbian,' being an appropriated geographical term (still being used by the people who live there today) and is more of a moralistic erasure. It is more like the heteronormative imposition of a big "CENSORED" bar than a word itself. It is another example of the dominant culture using language as a weapon to deny identity; and we queer folk have made do with the modifiers and erasures given us, but we have yet to have actual words for who it is that we are.
Yes, i can illustrate the problem by imagining a Big Gay Sketch in my mind's eye: a man on a flight from Athens tells a US Customs Agent that he's a Lesbian; hilarity ensues. Gee, how funny.
The use of the term to refer to homosexual women dates to the Victorian era. It was, like so many other Victorian terms, a euphemism designed to hide what could not be talked about. It was adopted alongside the now archaic term sapphist; both refer to Sappho, the ancient resident of Lesbos who wrote love poems to women.
It is not the only geographic name which has been appropriated to describe women who live as partners; see for example the term "Boston marriage," which dates to roughly the same time period. (Hmm, someone on my friend's list wrote about this term in the last week, but i don't remember who, sorry.)
Since the political lesbian movement of the 1970's, the term "lesbian" has been cemented in our cultural consciousness, so much so that the term "gay" has come in many contexts to be seen as exclusively referring to men. But, just as 'transwoman' is not a real word but a composite term made of a norm + a modifier, 'gay woman' is not a real word; but neither is 'lesbian,' being an appropriated geographical term (still being used by the people who live there today) and is more of a moralistic erasure. It is more like the heteronormative imposition of a big "CENSORED" bar than a word itself. It is another example of the dominant culture using language as a weapon to deny identity; and we queer folk have made do with the modifiers and erasures given us, but we have yet to have actual words for who it is that we are.
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Hmm...so if given the chance, what word(s) should we use? Or should it be changed at all?
And I don't know about anyone else, but I know I posted about the term "Boston Marriage" on the 18th.
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Do we have a "Boston Marriage" in all senses of the term then? :P I am amused, I must confess.
I think I told you this once but when I lived in DC and had that lesbian landlady she and her partner were telling me about this female couple one time who wouldn't call themselves "lesbians" but insisted they were "gay women". Apparently they were very proper and well to do and went to theatres a lot or something... it was a funny conversation.
But even the term "woman" itself isn't a "real term". It means "man with womb" or something. Since those in charge do the naming of things, when some feminists tried to come up with their own terms to name themselves, such as a deliberate change of spelling to undermine the etymology - i.e. "womyn" - they were treated with incredible mockery by the dominant culture. How dare they have the nerve to try to CHANGE LANGUAGE! Don't they understand they don't have the RIGHT to do that? Never mind that language changes constantly, unless it is dead.
I suppose the people from that island have a point, but I don't think they have a chance of getting "their word" back. After all, what would we call ourselves then? When we try to name ourselves we are laughed at. "Homosexual women"? The interesting thing about the word "homosexual" is that, like the word "gay" has come to be associated mainly with male homosexuality. There are then various slurs, and while some lesbians are interested in reclaiming them, I have trouble with the whole concept of "reclaiming" terms used for the sole purpose of insult.
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What's wrong with just using "homosexual" as a descriptor?
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