Radical Lesbian Feminists Need Not Apply: One More Reason To Go Underground?

This is the first blog after my return from Michigan and I don’t know how to begin. As always, it was beyond words wonderful to be there. To be on the Land, and to be with community. That is  the most important thing about MWMF to me. There are womyn there who identify how I identify, who see the world as I do, and who want to work on the issues I want to work on, …there are Radial Lesbian Feminists at Michigan, from all over the world. I miss that so much.  I could  walk out of my tent and run into someone who not only was kind to me, but who would listen to me, who would   share her views, and who would then become my sister in the struggle, and I would become hers.

Sisterhood is still powerful, and still exists, but for me and for many,  this is only at  Michigan. And, I would add, online. Even though it is harder to get that feeling of ‘I am not alone, someone else has my back on this’ from the internet, esp. if there are people in the immediate ‘community’ who want to run me out of town!

And I think that is what this blog is going to be about. Going to Michigan, feeling that high, feeling community and    being able to live out my radical self – to talk, and laugh, and enjoy music and nature with other radical womyn,  – and then, coming back here, to this. Thank you to those radical womyn, catherine, it was so good to meet you and your partner. Thank you. Thank you to the OOB womyn, it is always good to see you and to soak in your  energy and support. Thank you.

The goal somehow, is to make Michigan happen outside of    the Festival itself. To find ways to create mini-Michigans, spaces where Radical  Feminists and Radical Lesbian Feminists can get together, support each other,  feel free to speak out minds, and have fun, de-stress from the treatment we collectively get from the “LGBQAI,etc” groups and the “Third Wave Feminist” groups …. I am going to make  one here, but that may mean letting go of other things.

Backstory: There is a group in my town that has been around since 1989. A Lesbian group. It’s the only one in the area, and it’s one of the last surviving ones around the region. It’s membership goes up and down, and there has always been internal strife and struggle. I’ve been volunteering with this group since 2002. I’ve  seen it succeed, and I’ve seen it fail. I’ve helped it to do a bit of both. But now, it is come to my mind that this group might be better off if it were to   just die out. Membership is down, and most of all,   the current leadership is a mess. The current chair is unsure of the purpose of having a “lesbian” group – and does not like the idea of ” women-only” anything. She is anti-Michigan, and so is her partner, a bisexual – who is also on the key group of planners, they are so into trans issues and their goal is to make all things trans somehow, esp. this little “lesbian” group, …and those two run it like their secret club, and then wonder why no one else knows what is going on or why only seven people show up for an event.

And now, I’ve found that while I was away, the current leader and her partner attempted to kick me out! They had a meeting and tried to convince the other   planners that I was not good for the group based on something that I wrote on the internet! Well.

And this is in the line of where things are at right now. We have lesbian women who are celebrating  the censorship of another Lesbian womon and her film. We have lesbian women who are  cheering at the banning of another Lesbian from an “all inclusive Dyke March” …and we have  bisexuals and lesbian women attempting to purge and silence those who they do not agree with from an organization that was established to provide voice and visibility to Lesbians in this area. Hmm.

And frankly, this is scary. If our communities think that what is needed is more censorship, banning, and a purge that would  get rid of all  those  “radicals” that don’t mouth the party line, well, we are we and where are we going? Censorship is being praised, and advocated.  And these are the same people who espouse the  rhetoric that those 70s Lesbian Feminists were narrow minded and ‘policed’ the behaviors and ideas of  other women and each other?!

The current state of this “LGBT”  whatever “movement” and the “Feminst” movement is one of post-modern chaos. It is depressing and it is working hand and hand with the status quo. It is not attacking any systems, lest of all gender. And it is not challenging any oppressions – it is creating new ones, and seeking new ways to silence and censor those that might not  agree with where it is going. The question is what can those of us who are silenced and censored, do? Do we  try to take back our organizations, or do we get out while we still can and attempt to start all over again? Do we go, as I have, underground? Or do we    see how long  we can take it up here in the mainstream of our movements until the pain of being persecuted and the even bigger heartbreak of seeing just where people want to take these movements and how they are taking them there becomes to much …?

Do I stay or do I go? Attempt to change/save this group, preserve it for Lesbians, or leave while I   still have some energy left, and try to create something new? Do I stage a coup and name myself chair?!

I am trying  to find ways to carry Michigan energy and Michigan spirit into  this world where we all have to live for most of the year. And right now, this group is draining me, harming me in more ways than helping, and I am trying to heal myself but with no community around, it is hard and takes much longer.

Also, to close this blog, I’d like to get back to the Gendercator. I’ve seen the film. And it’s great. I’ve met and spoken with Catherine Crouch, and she’s great.

And, here’s what’s going on now: I’ve asked to put something about this film and Catherine in the newsletter of my local Lesbian group, and the abovementioned chair said that she did not feel comfortable putting in any information on this because of the ‘controversy’ ….So, not only is this group, this person, hoping to silence me, she wants to dictate what the membership can and cannot know about. Hmm.

And, here’s something else I wrote re: this issue, from the MWMF boards:

The bitch episode still angers me so much that I have to go find a calm place and sit down whenever I think about it. and this kind of thing is happening all over, the gendercator and the treatment of catherine crouch are now a more visible example, but right here, in my local community, there are those lesbians who think that if they could only silence me, all would be right with their world ….while I was away at Fest a lesbian group that i volunteer for had a meeting, and the chair and her partner (backstory: partner is bi, they don’t see the point of having ‘lesbian only’ anything, they are against mwmf, and all for trans anything anywhere) – attempted to convince the other members that I was not good for this group and that I should be kicked out. So, after all of my Fest joy and the post-Fest feelings of wanting to seek and create community, I come home to this!

And, part of there issue is the gendercator – they don’t like that I am supporting it. Hmm,..a lesbian group member, supporting a lesbian artist …is this no longer allowed? who is making these rules?

and yes, why is it so so hard for those who are so gung ho on all things trans – i am talking esp. about those lesbians and feminist folk who are putting trans before anything and anyone else, esp. themselves,….why is it so hard for them to make the connections between plastic surgey, boob jobs, cosmetic surgery, …etc. …and the trans phenomenon. …

something is very, very wrong with the state of how we view bodies, esp. women’s bodies – and with how those who are all about trans, are able to ignore the very lines and dots that link all of these issues together … you can’t say that this culture harms women and that women should not be changing their bodies to conform to patriarhcal ideals on one hand and then say that it is ok and great if a male wants to carve up his body and present as ‘woman’ or a female wants to chop of her breasts and live as a ‘man’ …..and then, you cannot say that you are ‘anti-the medical establishment’ and all for natural and organic healing and etc. and then say, ‘hey, it is ok if one person wants to basically give their life to the medical establishment, letting science shape him/her into the body that he/she wants and feels he/she needs to have ….’ we are not talking about any of these issues,…. the mainstream lgbtq groups are so caught up in preventing ‘transphobia’ and silencing women and lesbians that they don’t really want to have these other, more important, vital, and fundamental conversations about who we are as humans, what we want as people, and what are the values we want to install in the next generations – do we want to say that it is more important to be who you want to be and damn the rest and bodies are not important, hate them, cut them, change them, …or do we want to say, ..be who you are, love the body you are in, celebrate it, …it is not your body that is wrong, it is not your body that needs to change…it is society, it is the social structures that are wrong, and need to change ….the current movement is taking everything and turning it into an individual/psychologial issue when in reality, it is a social and cultural issue that would require a greater level of action and work and change …….basically, we’ve lost our radicalism, and are no longer looking at the roots – we are focusing on symptoms and blaming bodies and minds when we should be looking at the forces that are creating and constructing how we view our bodies, our minds, our lives, …..I am very very sad that this is where things are at right now, and that this is now being celebrated, along with censorship, as ‘radical’ and ‘transgressive’ …when, it is just holding up the status quo, just making the fences around us all higher and stronger, and making more and more work for all of us who truly seek and are working for radical social change ….

Thank for reading, see you all in the Underground,

Sister Medusa