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Lesbian erasure

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Lesbian erasure is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbianism in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbians may also be ignored within the LGBT community and their identity may not be acknowledged.

In history

Journalist and author Victoria A. Brownworth wrote that the erasure of lesbian sexuality from historical records "is similar to the erasure of all autonomous female sexuality: women's sexual desire has always been viewed, discussed and portrayed within the construct and purview of the male gaze". Oftentimes, erasure of lesbians is enabled when LGBT organizations fail to recognize the contributions of lesbians; such as when, in 2018, a statement by the National Center for Lesbian Rights about the Stonewall riots did not acknowledge Stormé DeLarverie's involvement in the uprising.

In language

Author and women's history scholar Bonnie J. Morris, as well as many other lesbian activists, such as same-sex marriage groundbreaker Robin Tyler, Ashley Obinwanne, screenwriter and co-founder of platform Lesbians Over Everything, and AfterEllen owner and Editor in Chief Memoree Joelle, say the increased use of the amorphous term "queer" to describe lesbians is a "disidentification" term that contributes to lesbian invisibility.

In an interview about her 2016 novel Beyond the Screen Door, author Julia Diana Robertson discovered that her self-identification as a lesbian and her description of the novel's genre was changed to "queer" and "queerness" in the published quotes.

In scholarship

Political theory researcher Anna Marie Smith stated that lesbianism has been erased from the "official discourse" in Britain because lesbians are viewed as "responsible homosexuals" in a dichotomy between "responsible homosexuals" and "dangerous gayness." As a result, lesbian sexual practices were not criminalized in Britain in ways similar to the criminalization of gay male sexual activities. Smith also points to the exclusion of women from AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smith believes that these erasures result from sexism and suggests that these issues should be addressed directly by lesbian activism.

In advertising

Marcie Bianco, of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, observed that lesbian erasure occurs in advertising: advertisers do not target lesbians when they are publicizing products to LGBT audiences. As an example, she points to the collapse of AfterEllen, which she says resulted from a lack of advertisers. The former Editor in Chief of AfterEllen, Karman Kregloe, stated that advertisers do not think of lesbians as women, and Trish Bendix observed that lesbians are assumed to like anything gay, even if it is male-focused.

In the LGBT community

Several feminist lesbian activists have lamented the rapidly increasing disappearance of many physical spaces, such as lesbian bars, women's bookstores, and music festivals, that were alternative lesbian spaces in which lesbian subculture thrived.

Media sources have reported on lesbian activists being excluded from LGBT events; for example, New Zealand group Lesbian Rights Alliance Aotearoa was banned from Wellington Pride because it was "'not being inclusive enough' of trans people". Difficulties have also been experienced at Dyke Marches; for example, Vancouver group The Lesbians Collective was told to exclude lesbian pride placards and symbols from the march. Feminist activists gatecrashed Auckland Pride parade in 2018 with a banner urging the protection of lesbian youth from sex hormones. At the 2018 Brighton Pride parade, the only instance where the word "lesbian" appeared was on a banner celebrating Stormé DeLarverie. In 2019, women wearing T-shirts printed with a definition for lesbian ("lesbian | lezbiən | noun | a woman who loves other women") were refused service at the National Theatre bar in London.

In relation to transgender women

The term lesbian erasure has been used by some trans exclusionary radical feminists, such as members of the United Kingdom organization Get the L Out. The group, which proposes the creation of an autonomous lesbian community, argues that lesbians are "constantly vilified and excluded from the GBT community for stating their exclusive sexual preference", that the expansion of transgender rights erases lesbians, that transgender activism encourages lesbians to transition to straight men, and that the GBT community is becoming increasingly anti-lesbian and misogynistic. The group staged its first protest at the 2018 London Pride Parade and was condemned as transphobic or "anti-trans" by the organizers of Pride in London. PinkNews and The Guardian denounced the protesters. Sarah Ditum of the New Statesman quoted the protesters and their material: "The group...carried banners proclaiming 'lesbian not queer', 'lesbian = female homosexual' and 'transactivism erases lesbians'."

Terry MacDonald of the New Statesman stated, "In some circles it is considered transphobic for lesbian women to refuse to recognise as potential sexual partners (a resistance sometimes referred to as 'the cotton ceiling', a phrase which smacks of misogyny and male entitlement). It isn't just radical feminists who find this problematic: some trans women do too. Is that really just irrational bigotry?" Feminist theorist Claire Heuchan said, "even acknowledging lesbian visibility is described as 'dogwhistle transphobia'. Something within the LGBT community has gone seriously wrong when being for lesbians is interpreted as being against people identifying as transgender...lesbophobia isn't coming from social conservatism as it has in the past, but within the LGBT+ community."

Some LGBT activists have opposed the term lesbian erasure as being anti-transgender. In a 2018 open letter opposing the term, twelve editors and publishers of eight lesbian publications stated, "We do not think supporting trans women erases our lesbian identities." Carrie Lyell, editor of DIVA magazine and creator of the letter, stated that "while there's no denying women are marginalised within the LGBT+ movement, this having anything to do with trans people, or trans issues, is news to me." She referred to the argument that trans women are pressuring lesbians to "accept them as sexual partners" as "scaremongering".

See also

Notes

  1. TotallyHer Media, a subsidiary of Evolve Media and owner of AfterEllen, denied the hearsay about the website shutting down and fired Trish Bendix ahead of her scheduled departure from the publication.

References

  1. Brownworth, Victoria A. (October 19, 2018). "Lesbian Erasure". Echo Magazine. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  2. Heuchan, Claire (July 9, 2018). "We Need to Talk About Misogyny and the LGBT Community's Erasure of Black Lesbian History". AfterEllen. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  3. Faderman, Lillian (June 8, 2016). "Pioneer: Robin Tyler". The Pride LA. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  4. Faraone, Juliette (April 4, 2016). "Talk to the Internet: Ashley Obinwanne (Lavender Collective/Lesbians Over Everything)". Screen Queens. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  5. ^ Morris, Bonnie J. (December 22, 2016). "Dyke Culture and the Disappearing L". Outward. Slate. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  6. "Queer":
  7. Robertson, Julia Diana (2016). Beyond the Screen Door. Maryville, Tennessee: Mystic Books. ISBN 978-1619292888.
  8. Robertson, Julia Diana (October 17, 2017). "Why didn't you say something sooner?—You're Asking The Wrong Question". HuffPost. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  9. Julia Diana Ghassan Robertson جوليا ديانا (23 September 2017). "I always appreciate interviews, but it was unethical to change what was said w/out my approval or knowledge. Glad they have a new editor" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 October 2019 – via Twitter.
  10. Plummer, Ken, ed. (1992). "Resisting the Erasure of Lesbian Sexuality: A challenge for queer activism, by Anna Marie Smith". Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experiences. London: Routledge. pp. 200–215. ISBN 978-0415064200.
  11. ^ Bianco, Marcie (October 6, 2016). "Lesbian culture is being erased because investors think only gay men (and straight people) have money". Quartz. Archived from the original on 22 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  12. Kovacogluon, Emrah (September 21, 2016). "False Rumor: We Are Not Shutting Down!". AfterEllen. Archived from the original on 22 June 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  13. Edwards, Stassa (September 21, 2016). "AfterEllen EIC Says Site Will Shut Down on Friday While Corporate Owner Calls It a 'False Rumor'". Jezebel. Archived from the original on 11 April 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  14. Horgan, Richard (September 23, 2016). "A Messy Exit for the EIC of AfterEllen". Adweek. Archived from the original on December 10, 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  15. Clements, Alexis (June 8, 2014). "The Vanishing". Curve. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  16. Smith, Harrison (June 26, 2015). "What Happened to DC's Lesbian Spaces?". Washingtonian. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  17. Rosenthal, Ellena (November 30, 2016). "Who Crushed the Lesbian Bars? A New Minefield of Identity Politics". Willamette Week. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  18. "Trans Debate Rages Around World, Pitting LGBT+ Community Against Itself". Voice of America. March 15, 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  19. Cormier, Danielle (August 13, 2018). "Lesbians are being excluded from the Vancouver Dyke March in the name of 'inclusivity'". Feminist Current. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  20. Montague, Charlie (19 February 2018). "Feminists Interrupt at Auckland Pride Parade". Scoop. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  21. "Dykes Take Pride". Women's Liberation Radio News. June 26, 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  22. Jolly, Bradley (7 July 2019). "National Theatre accused of 'gender or sexuality' discrimination after lesbians told to leave". The Mirror. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  23. Thorpe, Vanessa (6 July 2019). "Row as lesbian group asked to leave National Theatre bar". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  24. "About us". Get The L Out. 2018. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  25. ^ Wild, Angela (12 April 2019). "OPINION: Lesbians need to get the L out of the LGBT+ community". Thomson Reuters News. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  26. ^ Compton, Julie (January 14, 2019). "'Pro-lesbian' or 'trans-exclusionary'? Old animosities boil into public view". NBCNews.com. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  27. ^ Greenhalgh, Hugo (March 15, 2019). "Trans debate rages around the world, pitting LGBT+ community against itself". Reuters. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  28. "Statement from Pride in London regarding the 2018 protest group". Pride in London. 7 July 2018. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  29. Greenfield, Patrick (8 July 2018). "Pride organisers say sorry after anti-trans group leads march". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  30. "Pride in London sorry after anti-trans protest". BBC News. 8 July 2018. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  31. London Pride Parade:
  32. Ditum, Sarah (11 July 2018). "Why were lesbians protesting at Pride? Because the LGBT coalition leaves women behind". New Statesman. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  33. MacDonald, Terry (16 February 2015). "Are you now or have you ever been a TERF?". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  34. "Claire L. Heuchan". Goodreads. 2019. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  35. Davidson, Gina (14 July 2019). "Insight: How splits are emerging in LGBT movement over gender issues". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  36. Staff (19 December 2018). "Not in our name". DIVA. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  37. Lyell, Carrie (15 July 2019). "Trans people aren't 'erasing' lesbians like me – I'll fight for equality standing side-by-side with them". The Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2019.

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