Very interesting. Thank you. I spent a couple years in therapy in the 1970s claiming the title “dyke.” I still use both lesbian and dyke to describe myself. I have difficulty calling myself queer--too much hatred when I was coming out--but will use it to refer to the community. It’s much better than the ever-growing alphabet. WLW always seems to me that it doesn’t necessarily include sexuality. I’ve known a lot of WLW who didn’t have sex with each other. Great article.
As always, your study of language and culture is enlightening. Fantastic work. What stands out for me is the reveal (not only to ourselves, but others) that we’re a community of diverse opinions and not everyone has the same relationship to the words we use or agrees on what they mean. There’s also generational components so that some terms may never reach some individuals positively.
This is great!! Interesting too to think about terms that have fallen out of use. I’m thinking especially of “woman-oriented woman,” which was so commonly used in the 70s and 80s and sorta lives on in WLW but without the political dimension. It actually shares with past usages “queer” a sort of charge that people have to live up to the term through the way they live their politics. Maybe there’s a trend with terms with that kind of political element that they have a limited lifespan? So much to think about!
yeah it does seem like that's the case in a lot of ways. when things get sort of folded into the mainstream the more political/radical aspects tend to fall away.
*wrote this last night while v tired and awoke this morning to the realization that the terms I was thinking of was woman-identified woman, not oriented!
Very interesting. Thank you. I spent a couple years in therapy in the 1970s claiming the title “dyke.” I still use both lesbian and dyke to describe myself. I have difficulty calling myself queer--too much hatred when I was coming out--but will use it to refer to the community. It’s much better than the ever-growing alphabet. WLW always seems to me that it doesn’t necessarily include sexuality. I’ve known a lot of WLW who didn’t have sex with each other. Great article.
thanks for reading!
Can I like this twice??
As always, your study of language and culture is enlightening. Fantastic work. What stands out for me is the reveal (not only to ourselves, but others) that we’re a community of diverse opinions and not everyone has the same relationship to the words we use or agrees on what they mean. There’s also generational components so that some terms may never reach some individuals positively.
Totally! Thanks for reading.
Thank you for this excellent analysis!
glad you enjoyed!
Wonderful piece, Kira!! Love it
thanks shar!
This is great!! Interesting too to think about terms that have fallen out of use. I’m thinking especially of “woman-oriented woman,” which was so commonly used in the 70s and 80s and sorta lives on in WLW but without the political dimension. It actually shares with past usages “queer” a sort of charge that people have to live up to the term through the way they live their politics. Maybe there’s a trend with terms with that kind of political element that they have a limited lifespan? So much to think about!
yeah it does seem like that's the case in a lot of ways. when things get sort of folded into the mainstream the more political/radical aspects tend to fall away.
*wrote this last night while v tired and awoke this morning to the realization that the terms I was thinking of was woman-identified woman, not oriented!