Archive for February, 2009

Womyn’s Lands

February 4, 2009 | Around the World, News Reports

Lesbian separatists are getting new attention thanks to a New York Times article about communes that are still running today. Most of these womyn’s lands, as they are called, are inhabited by older lesbians who felt the need to pull away from society in the 1970s. You can read more about the history of such spaces here, and read a 1994 article about them here.

My own feeling is that we’ve moved past the need for such drastic measures. Gay culture is developed enough that if someone wants to live primarily with and around gay people, they can do so. It would be difficult to find an all-lesbian area in modern society, but most women would probably say they can get the fulfillment of time spent around other lesbians at spaces that already exist. I feel a little hypocritical saying that when I live in DC, a city whose lesbian spaces have been cut down to practically nothing, but I do feel that it’s no longer necessary to get completely away from everyone else in order to celebrate your lesbianism.

If the label “man-hating” applies to any lesbians, the women who live on womyn’s lands would definitely fit the bill. They specifically shun the presence of men on their property, to the point of sending out an alert e-mail when a six-month-old baby boy was there. Although the New York Times author would have us believe the e-mail was sent “perhaps only partly” in jest, it sounds to me like a very real concern for these women. I don’t think hating men is healthy, to be honest. I don’t think hating anyone is healthy. The retort for this is probably “we don’t hate men, we just prefer not to have them around.” Which is all well and good, but I don’t think it’s necessary to be so militant about the issue.

Older lesbians might suggest that I don’t know what it was like in the 1970s, that I don’t understand why these communes were created. I accept that they were necessary at the time, but I don’t think we still need them today. Society is a very different place. If these women enjoy living off the land – that is, they are ruralists – that’s their prerogative. It’s the shunning of all-things-non-lesbian that bothers me. Time marches on, life goes on, etc.

Is your body and health obscene?

February 3, 2009 | Health

Once upon a time I worked in a women’s store, staffed entirely by women except for one random higher level manager who occasionally stopped by to use a spare office. He would sit in his office and make phone calls on the speaker phone to his doctor about some sort of urinary tract issue. He did plenty of other things to harass us, but he thought it was ok to talk about male anatomy and his problems in earshot of all of the store manager and female employees. Clinical language about human anatomy isn’t a bad thing, but generally isn’t appropriate to share with unwilling women in lower positions. It generally isn’t appropriate to share with anyone who is unwilling, especially when you are in a position of power. It isn’t dirty or bad. Medical information is generally a personal private thing. It’s really absurd and childish to use that against someone. Medical information, including sexual health and function, should be freely available to everyone.

Clinical language about parts of our bodies that are used for reproductive and sexual functions is still just clinical language. Apparently Google is filtering “clitoris” as an unsafe word. Google automatically sets your search preferences as “safe search” unless you go in and manually change them. Clitoris is the clinical language for that part of female anatomy. It isn’t the sort of slang you usually see on adult sites. I usually use clit on Cyber-Dyke.net. Susie Bright wrote a fantastic blog about the topic HERE. It’s dated November, but I’m a bit behind on my blog reading list. Women’s bodies are officially inherently sexualized, as if that’s news to any women here. Women’s sexuality is much more “dirty” than men’s. Nude women, including classical art and breastfeeding mothers, are pornographic, but male nude bodies aren’t nearly so offensive. The words that describe female anatomy are also obscene. We can’t even talk to our health care providers without saying dirty words. Are we children? Are we not allowed to talk about reproductive or sexual health? Google does not need to be filtering searches for appropriateness. If parents want to filter their children there is plenty of nanny software. If grown adults don’t want to find porn they shouldn’t search for it! And tell me, how is it ok for a high level manager to talk about his urinary tract problems, but women can’t talk about their bodies?

If anyone knows if Google has updated their “dirty word” list please comment here!