International Women's Day Special
Are lesbians women? Conservatives of eras past said no – and today, proponents of mainstream anti-lesbian ideology are saying the same.
In a 1952 Ebony article entitled “I Am A Woman Again,” lesbian jazz singer Gladys Bentley wrote of her own experience with conversion therapy:
Today I am a woman again through the miracle which took place not only in my mind and heart – when I found a man I could love and who could love me – but also in my body – when the magic of modern medicine made it possible for me to have treatment which helped change my life completely.
The “treatment” Bentley refers to consisted of a series of “female hormone” injections, allegedly to correct the overabundance of testosterone that made her a lesbian in the first place.
Bentley’s simultaneous declaration of newfound womanhood and newfound heterosexuality is a clear sign of the prevailing attitude of her times: that womanhood is predicated on loving men, and that lesbians are not really women. In Bentley’s case, at least one licensed doctor concluded that she was literally not female enough – and diagnosed her with a deficiency of female hormones.
As a result of estrogen treatments, the Ebony piece tells us, Bentley became female enough to submit to male attention. Her public renunciation of homosexuality is inextricably linked to her public declaration of womanhood. All in all, the article smacks of Gilead, the villainous theocratic state of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, whose citizens refer to lesbians as “un-women.”
Today’s postmodern homophobes are pushing the same narrative, though they now at least attempt to shroud their homophobia in academic-speak. Andrea Long Chu, a prominent anti-lesbian activist, writes in his book Females that femaleness is “defined by self-negation … the self is sacrificed to make room for the desires of another.” And Grace Lavery, a professor who teaches homophobia at UC Berkeley, defines “woman” as:
Both statements boil down to the same simple idea. Women are passive; men are active.
By that logic, it’s impossible for one woman to desire another, even more so for one woman to ask another out. No woman could possibly initiate sex, propose marriage, or support her wife financially. And if a woman does those things, she is, by Lavery and Long Chu’s definitions, un-womanned.
This explains why people who have been indoctrinated into modern anti-lesbian ideology feel so comfortable putting lesbians outside the category of woman:
Just as homophobic doctors did to Gladys Bentley, today’s anti-lesbian ideologues are busy rebranding lesbians as un-women. “Trans men,” we’re now called, or “nonbinary,” or “queer folx.” And with our un-woman status comes, once again, the pressure to medicalize our bodies.
The difference is that this time, the medical establishment and its proponents are pushing lesbians to embrace un-womanhood as an identity. Doctors no longer prescribe estrogen to “cure” lesbians of our allegedly insufficient femaleness. Instead, they prescribe testosterone to affirm, promote, and enforce the social category of un-woman. And by implicitly excluding lesbians from their definitions of “woman,” today’s anti-lesbian activists are helping them do it.
The mental and physical health crisis sweeping the lesbian community is a direct result of the “un-woman” narrative.
This International Women’s Day, lesbians and our allies must resolve to insist on the only correct definition of “woman,” and the only definition that does not alienate or exclude lesbians: adult human female. “Woman” is not a feeling, a stereotype, or a sexual orientation. It is not an identity. There are no “trans women” or “transsexual women.” Men are not “she” (no, not even the men you like). Indoctrinated women are not “he,” or “they.” And it’s time to drop the phrase “women and lesbians,” as if the two categories were mutually exclusive.
Accepting and celebrating lesbians as women is an important step toward a world without stereotypes, where all women and girls are free to act how they want, dress how they like, and love who they love. For Gladys Bentley, and for all the other lesbians who have been conned into medicalizing their bodies and living a lie, it’s time to say it loud and proud: lesbians are women, we are normal, and we belong.
A Note on Volunteer Applications
Thanks to everyone who has applied to volunteer with Lesbians United! We’ve welcomed a wonderful new bunch of volunteers in the past weeks.
While Lesbians United is still accepting new volunteer applications (via info@lesbians-united.org), we’re taking a hiatus from onboarding new volunteers until our current team settles in. All current and new applications will be kept on file until we’re ready to grow the organization again.