Further Information

TRANSCRIPT

SEXISM IN GAY LIB

The following is a brief summary of the issues which were discussed at the women's meeting - 14/2/73.

(1) A major problem is that of women speaking out at the general meetings. Many felt that the guys were not interested in what they had to say and that much of what they did say was treated in a patronizing manner. Many were put off by having to raise their voices and to vie with constant interruptions. We feel that if women say nothing they are regarded as submissive and passive whereas if the men say nothing they are regarded as silent quiet types - certainly not as submissive and passive. We also feel that if the women become heated they are seen as bitchy, aggressive and over emotional whereas the men are viewed as strong, assertive and rational.

(2) We wondered to what extent the men feel threatened by female sexuality and vice versa. (Studies in this area indicate that many homosexual men reveal a fear of and aversion to female genitalia.) Significantly fewer heterosexual men reveal similar fears. No-one had read any studies on the attitude of lesbians to male genitalia). If Gay Lib is concerned with the breaking down of sexual roles then our possible non-relating in the sexual area must affect the total relating situation. We felt there was a real need to at least talk about this problem.

We wondered to what extent camp men resent camp women because they deny the former's sexuality and vice versa. If camp men do not respond to camp women sexually then how do they respond since 'normal' social conditioning brings men up to treat women as sexual objects? Do camp men respond better to 'femme' of 'butch' lesbians?

Do the men and women in gay lib 'feat' that cuddling etc between the men and women will lead to sexual involvement?

(3) Who is more concerned with sexism in gay lib - men or women? We felt probably the women because they feel oppressed both as lesbians and as women.

Are we being sexist in having women's meetings, parties etc? No. We felt the need to call these meetings was more a reaction to sexism than a sexist act per se. Our aim is not to separate from Gay Lib but to consolidate in order to unite better with the movement.

(4) The men who say they are not aware of being chauvinistic are either (a) genuinely unaware and need their consciousness raised or (b) super-chauvinistic in that they have so totally identified with the oppressor-oppressed situation they are completely ignorant of it's existence. No one, male or female can hope to have escaped the effects of conditioning. Men who claim they are not chauvinistic and never have been are virtually saying they are some kind of super-men who exist in a vacuum outside society.

(5) To what extent do camp women 'pride' themselves on the relative chastity of the lesbian group? It was generally agreed that the female group is less 'promiscuous' and that this is a result of female conditioning i.e. women are brought up to be more passive in their search for partners and to believe that they should wait for 'the right person'. Men also reflect the impact of their socialization by the straight world. Should women be less inhibited in relating sexually to each other? Are they only supporting a myth which suppresses them? If they do pride themselves on the relative chastity of their group are they then being sexist in their attitude to the men? (It was suggested that perhaps the women are jealous and that we should announce a women's beat immediately!)

Further Information

TRANSCRIPT

THE RADICALESBIAN MANIFESTO

Lesbian. We do not accept the word in the sense that it is traditionally used - to describe, explain and limit us. Through our experience we have come to see its political significance. "Lesbian is the label which holds every woman in line". It's the fear word that says a woman has stepped outside her sex role - when that's not what we want to do, the label loses it's bite.

Conditioning as a woman begins early. Women are deluded into thinking that they are getting as good a deal as a man, just different. Lesbians are not conned into accepting their situation but are taught that lesbianism is a product of p---- envy, arrested development, personality inadequacies, hormones. Society expects concealment of us. To the oppression of being a women is added the oppression of concealment. This is why coming out is important. While we continue to hide from society we are accepting our own oppression. To become visible is the indication that we no longer accept their terms. We widen the range of our honesty with each other and all we meet. We break down our isolation. We recognise our oppression and refuse to internalise it. To say that Gay is Good is divisive but is necessary in reaction to our sexist conditioning. We will no let society rest. Anyone who wishes to disapprove will be obliged to do this to our faces.

We want to overcome the division between women - to touch, relate, to give strength and validity to each other. We want women to be able to relate to women on all levels. We want to relate as individuals, not as elements in a correct ideology. F---ing with another women just removes one more barrier in our minds, enables us to learn to love our women-slaves in another woman. It is another eradication of oppression. But every woman who likes and works with other women is "gay" but by society's standards. For us, gay consciousness is feminist consciousness.

We want a genderless society, that is a society that doesn't differentiate on the basis of sex, where people relate to each other irrespective of gender. But we recognise that at the time and in this place women are just more likely to be able to form relationships with other women than with men, if our criterion is warmth and honesty. We know our relationships are natural. "The only sexual perversion is a relationship based on exploitation and dishonesty".

We understand that our oppression stems from a sexist society. We recognise our oppression as women. We understand the specific threat that our living without men poses to the institutions of monogamy and the nuclear family, institutions which are the basis and the training schools of the patriarchy. This is why we organise as gay women apart from our gay brothers. Gay men, though oppressed, do still receive the automatic benefits of being male in a patriarchal society. There are professions traditionally allotted to gay men, but there's not even a paternalistic hand to women. Gay men have their heroes - Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde - while ours are suppressed - who knows that Florence Nightingale and Joan of Arc related to women? Homosexual men have always had the option of compromising, of receiving approval by being worthwhile citizens. Women aren't supposed to act for themselves, they are the power behind the man. So a lesbian, logically, has no place at all in the patriarchal society. At the same time this makes us freer to act against us.

We see all oppression - capitalist/worker, white/black, imperialist/third world as sexist, that is, as based on male power. We identify with the struggles of all oppressed groups, not as different isolated causes, but as symptoms of a sexist world view.

We are going to fight our oppression on all levels. We refuse to regard ourselves as free while women are oppressed. We recognise the institutions which oppress us, and will not set up copies of marriage, of role playing of power dominance. We are fighting our oppression with honesty, in ourselves and others. We will destroy the nuclear family in ourselves. We do not want equality, but liberation. We do not believe individual solutions.