the earth laughs in flowers

small town dyke • 25 • radfem this is a side blog

[bojack-radfem]

I explained to my boyfriend (who is completely outside of all discourse and not very political apart from being anti-porn/sex work and basic things like that) about the whole cotton ceiling rhetoric and his immediate response was “what the fuck? being gay is not a choice, you can’t force lesbians to be attracted to trans women” and I am delighted to know that there are still rational people who haven’t been overtaken by this god forsaken discourse

[shinvermouthea]

so like are you treated as a second-class feminist because you’re attracted to men? do other people in your community give you shit for that? i’m genuinely curious, i’ve been looking through this tag and i’ve seen someone essentially claim that het and bi women aren’t as feminist as lesbians, which seems odd. the narrative that being a member of an oppressed class necessarily enlightens you is kinda dangerous. i mean, there are lesbian nazis out there, i don’t think they’re more feminist than not nazis you know?

anyway you should know a lot of people don’t like the “cotton ceiling” discourse within the trans community and that it hasn’t really been used for a few years now, but keep beating that dead horse

[orchidd]

just @ me next time

also I wasn't saying that being more oppressed makes lesbians better feminists, I was saying that our lack of interest in men makes us more likely to be feminists and see through male bullshit. we don't have attraction to males clouding our view.

[gender-critical-appspot]

[partialbirthabortion]

I get that this is like politically inconvenient but lesbians always have and will continue to desire and love trans men, passing women, male impersonators, drag kings, what have you, including women who bind, women who’ve had top surgery, women who’ve taken hormones. you can’t sanitize an entire rich history of lesbian gender defiance and resistance and love because it can’t be cleanly slotted into whatever flavor and framing of desire is hip and now.

[artemiswasamerf]

How trans activists and trans people gonna talk about shooting TERFs and killing TERFs and doing shit where they walk in streets with bats at women’s marches and make literal hitlists towards radical feminist women then turn around and pretend like they are the “oppressed” group of people and that misgendering them would literally cause them to kill themselves.

Y'all make no sense.

[gender-critical-appspot]

[afrodyketee]

Genuinely, what do lesbians have to gain by supposedly oppressing trans women. Oppressors get material wealth by oppressing others. They gain better and higher access to society (better schools, easy access to the culture, etc). They’re protected by the judicial system. The list goes on. What could us lesbians honest to God get from having same sex relationships and female only spaces????

We are NOT a threat. We are NOT oppressors. The patriarchy is the patriarchy even if it’s wearing heels and goes by she/her pronouns.

[laurierrose]

we gain access to women bc women are a resource to them, as we are to all men

[butchdevil-archive-deactivated2]

I am butch because I am female. I am butch because I am a lesbian. Butch does not exist without either of those factors. There is no such thing as a male butch, or a butch who is attracted to males. Find or create your own terms. We do not need to be inclusive of you to validate your identity. 

Here is the femme counterpart

[metamagics-deactivated20200527]

mood of the night

[bikebutch]

anyways.. if your love for butches doesn’t have room for trans butches then you need to rethink your views on butches and lesbianism as a whole

[orchidd]

uhhhh...thought about it. to be butch, one must be a lesbian. a lesbian is a female homosexual. males, transwoman-identifying or not, can never be butches.

I will keep my butch love and positivity for actual butch women, not gross, appropriative, lesbophobic males thanks.

[tervenlady-deactivated20180703]

i hate this whole “identifying” stuff… you either are something or you aren’t, end of story

[northw0man-deactivated20201019]

wouldn’t it be fuckin sweet if you could identify with someone’s experiences instead of actually identifying as them and co-opting their entire existence wow what a concept

[orchidd]

Lesbians, by unique virtue of our lack of interest in men, are particularly able to see and cut through patriarchal bullshit. That's why lesbians are at the forefront of every feminist movement. The feminism that bi and het women follow is always softer and more male-accommodating than lesbian feminism.

[ilovebutches]

[sangredesirena78463748-deactiva]

tumblr on tdov: it’s trans day trans trans trans transgendereds remember it’s transgender day d̸̨̹̥̰̼̰̤͕̝̲͓͗̄̐ͅö̵̢̭̲̳͚̱́̓̔̒̓̏̓̒͠͝ͅ ̸̳̞̪̪͓̘͕̔̓̄̏̎̕ͅņ̷̛͙̳̜̘͊͂͑̉͌̐̓̏̑̈͑͘͘o̶̤̪̯̜͚̗͓͇̦̜̮͛͆ţ̵̘̞͔̻͎̞̯͙͙̀̓́̽͑͆͜͝ͅͅ ̸̞͎̻̞̓͗͊̅̊́̌̎̇̚f̸̜̪̩̯͌̾o̶͓͂̇̉̉̔͂̋̈́̑͗̕̚͘ͅr̷̨̙̼͔͙̭̺̀̾͗̿̅͌͑̈́͑͐̓͝g̷̥̹̣̺̦̥̞̝̰̎̓́̾̈́̇́͌̃͂̅͗̈́ȩ̶̛̩͚̞̻̣̘͓̳̯̳̰͛͗͑̅ţ̴͎̝̮͍̭̣͚͔̽͗̀͛̽̓̈́̆͆̅͗͛̀͠͠ ̴̠̮̪̞͕̠͖̗͕̓͌͘t̶̡͙̹̬̰̟̩͓̫̻͔͖̽͒͌͛̾́̂̂̈̽̍́̕̕̚͜ͅh̵̛̯̻̜̟͚͂͗̈́͆̓̃͋͆͜͠e̷͖̻̞͈̙̬̺͛͋͑̆͛ ̷̗̼͓̗̪̹̱̱̜͚̙̝̋͐̊́̌̐̿̄͗́̍ͅt̸̡̟̼͍͇̰̬̫͚͓͈͓̿ͅŕ̸̢̡͉̫̼̟͖̮͖̺̰̘̀̍̽̀̃̑̀͌̅̒̚͜a̶̖̝͓̰̗͍̳̻̺͕̻̫͂̅̿̇͂͒ņ̶̤̣͉̦͎̭̤͉̹͈̰̥̬͗̐̆̈̊̾̈́͘ͅṥ̵̡͖͎̟̰͕̟͕̲̺̺͚͚g̵̡̼͚͈̠͓̻̘̩̻̠͇̭̈̅̀͒͌͛͑͝ȩ̴̨̖͔͚͙̳̬͈͔̟̣̤̤͗̆̈̄n̶̡͔̥̤̰̪̹̫̯͖̭̒̿͒̍́̓̈́̀̈͗͜͠ď̴̠̂ē̸̤̫̩̈̀̾́̍̇r̶̫̪̫͙̝͓̐͐͘s̸̢̗̜͖̥̹͍̜̹̼̮͈̲͇̿̑̍͒̓̀͆̓̔̏̈́̚

tumblr on lvd: it’s uhhhhh *looks at smudged writing on hand* chart day? yeah? that sounds about right

[spencer-shayy-archive]

Not just tumblr. All social media. Tumblr and Snapchat exploded for trans visibility day. Not a peep for lesbian visibility day. Not a goddamn thing.

[thunderboltsandlighting-archive]

It’s incredible to see that during Lesbian Visibility Day, @staff chose to highlight the bullshit that is #chartday

[orchidd]

WELCOME TO CHART DAY

[orchidd]

happy Lesbian Day of Visibility to all my fellow homosexual womyn out there!!! I'm so proud to be a lesbian and I hope you are too.

[gayasingay-deactivated20180607]

ANYWAY I hope every lesbian is having a lovely day I love you all! This goes double for terven lesbians uwu

[heringstuff]

Opinion | I’m a female chef. Here’s how my restaurant dealt with harassment from customers.

In the years since implementation, such harassment has ceased to be a problem.

The catalyst was a customer — ­ a father of four who had put his hand up the shirt of a busser clearing his family’s table. The busser was so stunned she didn’t report it, but the event sparked a flood of reactions from staff members who’d had similar experiences. At our meeting, women shared stories about harassment from customers and said that when they tried to report it to male managers, they were often ignored because the incidents seemed unthreatening through a male lens.

We decided on a color-coded system in which different types of customer behavior are categorized as yellow, orange or red. Yellow refers to a creepy vibe or unsavory look. Orange means comments with sexual undertones, such as certain compliments on a worker’s appearance. Red signals overtly sexual comments or touching, or repeated incidents in the orange category after being told the comments were unwelcome.

When a staff member has a harassment problem, they report the color — “I have an orange at table five” — and the manager is required to take a specific action. If red is reported, the customer is ejected from the restaurant. Orange means the manager takes over the table. With a yellow, the manager must take over the table if the staff member chooses. In all cases, the manager’s response is automatic, no questions asked. (At the time of our meeting, all our shift managers were men, though their supervisors were women; something else we’ve achieved since then is diversifying each layer of management.)

In the years since implementation, customer harassment has ceased to be a problem. Reds are nearly nonexistent, as most sketchy customers seem to be derailed at yellow or orange. We found that most customers test the waters before escalating and that women have a canny sixth sense for unwanted attention. When reds do occur, our employees are empowered to act decisively.

The color system is elegant because it prevents women from having to relive damaging stories and relieves managers of having to make difficult judgment calls about situations that might not seem threatening based on their own experiences. The system acknowledges the differences in the ways men and women experience the world, while creating a safe workplace.

[girlsmoonsandstars]

Brilliant. 

[shrewreadings]

And to support her brilliance, I’ll be buying her cookbook,  Mac and Cheese. 

(Goodreads link here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16169870-the-mac-cheese-cookbook)

[lesbihonesta]

Real question: if Donald Trump came out as a trans woman right now, would you fuckwads still try to claim that he never had male privilege or would you realize that that argument makes no fucking sense???

[peeurpant]

fuck terfs they should all go to hell but this is a good point

[auntiewanda]

“I agree but I’ve had this knee-jerk reaction drilled into me.” 

[mcdyke-deactivated20171112]

This is exactly what happened with Jenner. Kills someone, was a shitty father, benefited from male socialization and experiences for 60+ years and then becomes trans and everyone’s like Protect Her uwu I hope everyone really thinks about this and how fucking stupid it is. Male socialization and privilege is awarded to you because you were born with a penis, and misogyny is inflicted on us since birth since they saw our vagina and said “it’s a girl!” - not because we walked out of the womb wearing lipstick and loving pink. That’s misogynistic in itself. Bye.