#i am taking this as being in good faith

[nonegenderleftpain]

I have never found any compelling historical bisexual lesbians. I have been genuinely trying to research and understand because I want to be accepting and open minded but my lesbianism is because I'm NOT attracted to men, and the experience of not being attracted to men is isolating! And I want a word to communicate that and I don't see any reason why bisexual can't be a whole and complete identity on its own! So please god share some research that I am NOT finding and change my mind because I am willing to listen! But the arguments are always just "you're exclusionary scum kys" and the source is always "bro trust me" and I'm sick of it!!

So I never like linking carrds or shit when people ask this question, but this page has a nice neat list of sources that have been compiled that are gonna save me some spoons I just don't have at the moment. I'll also try to find and re-pin my own post explaining why I personally identify the way I do, so check for that. Sources aside, your best source is always, always going to be talking to genderqueer lesbians in real life. Our voices are constantly silenced as sapphics - you know that, you are one. So listening to the stories of other people is a primary source. When bisexual lesbians tell you that this is what we are, that's a primary source that won't MAKE IT into the academic sources you're asking for. My sources are the 70yo transsexual crossdresser at the local club, telling me about his relationship with womanhood and his lesbian relationship with his fellow transsexuals that didn't know what the phrase "cis man" meant and didn't care to know. And butches like Bear Bergman, who have been educating on lesbian identities for decades and went on to happily marry cis men (please GD read hir book Butch Is A Noun and break down this mentality that isolation is what defines us rather than connection). There are other sources below.

https://bi-lesbian.carrd.co/#sources

I know what you mean about the experience being isolating! I do. My experience is also isolating. Being a transmasc lesbian, a subset of a subset, in an area where lesbianism of any sort is treated with violence is scary. We are not at odds here. We're siblings in this. As my old explanation shares (and I will pin it again), my gender identity is fucking complicated, as is my manhood, and my cis male partner I've been with for nine years, through transition from a pansexual little girl to a lesbian man, is not going to leave me. You wanna talk about isolating! But that isolation isn't what defines me. Someone else using lesbian as a term isn't taking it from you. Identity labels are descriptive, not prescriptive. I am a lesbian. I am also panromantic. I'm bisexual, and my fellow male butches deserve to be acknowledged and respected when I take them into my arms and into my bed. People are messy! People are confusing! People are not just pieces of compelling evidence used to approve or disprove our lived experiences. With all due respect, you do not get to decide if a lesbian is really a lesbian based on how compelling you find hir life story. Just as I don't get to decide you're not one.

Lesbian is a word that works just fine. Most everyone is going to know what you mean. If someone assumes that you love men, correct them. And if they assume it because someone else is living their authentic life, correct them viciously. Put the blame on the people trying to force you to be someone you're not, not on the people entitled men and cis lesbians tm are using as a scapegoat. I am sorry your experience has been isolating. You are not alone. Reach across that gap instead of withdrawing from other lesbians living their lives differently from yours, and clasp hands. That's how we build a less isolating community, that allows for more room to breathe and less people trying to decide if your isolation is *compelling* enough to belong.

[starlightomatic]

"these jewish bloggers keep saying it's possible to talk about gaza without being antisemitic but keep saying everything i say is antisemitic so clearly they just don't want us talking about gaza"

it's actually really easy to talk about gaza without being antisemitic if you're not antisemitic, and really hard if you are antisemitic. hope this helps

[genericpuff]

vent post

[icouldhyperfixatehim]

happy to have an offgun sunday show back on the docket but i can already tell this series is going to put a bee in my bonnet every week about late stage capitalism foisting its cancer upon all workplace cultures and turning things like internships from learning and exploratory opportunities to build skills and discover interests in a field, to an expectation of free/low paid but inexplicably pre-skilled labour. do you think ye olde blacksmith's apprentice showed up to the first day of the apprenticeship and the blacksmith is like "what do you mean you don't know how to shoe a horse?? that's so basic" no. the expectation of apprenticeship is that a newborn emptyheaded youngin with a vague notion that metal is cool shows up, and is taught how to blacksmith. the expectation is not that the young savant of metalwork turns up with a list of horses already shoed, including One Very Special One in the Royal Stable, and god would you please please please allow me to debase myself for you, o blacksmith? my resumé is just like the journeyman's!! this workplace culture is a modern invention!! they used to teach you things at work!!

[breathing audibly] i just think entry level should mean entry level, and that as much effort goes into gathering experience that makes people competitively hire-able, ability, opportunity, and luck also play a role. it is lucky to know your passion early enough to be able to groom yourself to competitiveness in a sharky field of work, but a person should be able to turn up for entry level positions/interning with an unabashed "i know nothing" as long as it's followed with an "and i'm ready to learn" and it is in neoliberalism's favour to allow work environments to cut their costs by eschewing the responsibility to teach. to train the trainee.

[widowshill]

— And do you or do you not have difficulty remembering such simple instructions? — Only during thunderstorms, sir.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) / DARK SHADOWS (1966)

[butwhatifidothis]

(regarding the Fort Merceus scene)

"Claude doesn't know as much about the Seiros faith because he's an outsider" thanks for ignoring the entire point of Claude's route just to insist he doesn't grow as a character

Ohhh wait, no, it's not that he's not knowledgeable, it's just him definitely lying! Because disagreements? Regarding tenets of a religion? Impossible! Claude must be feigning ignorance and lying because that's all he does as a character! He's tricking the diligent Lorenz into thinking things that aren't true, because Church Bad and Claude would never tell the truth!

[aibouart]

is it puritan brain of me to be too afraid to share links/acc names for my NSFW content despite this being a SFW acc and me saying "no minors allowed" or is there a genuine problem w me sharing it on my SFW platform(s) (where I know minors can be around) cuz my art is SFW and stuff?? is it irresponsible of me to share knowing that they could see it, even if i preface saying i don't want them going there at all?? do i just let the accs find their own audience and people might find it's my stuff ?? cuz i don't know a way to let my adult audience know who might be interested without risking that

this is /gen btw idk if these thoughts are exaggerated and from purity culture or legit concerns, i struggle a lot w this even if it might seem obvious to people so please don't tell me i should just know ;__;b i want other's opinions on it so i can better inform my own.

is there another way to share w/o asking users to DM me cuz i think that's too involved and i'd rather just not mention it at all if i have to vet every person and make people DM me.......... too much work for something i update maybe once every 4 months at best.........

i have never shared the accs outside just DMing my friends abt it so i genuinely don't know what the general consensus is on sharing. please let me know..!! ;o;;b

i am not planning to share any of that content on here ofc, i won't be changing my SFW accounts to mixed content out of nowhere.

[sisterdivinium]

You know, for a show with so many female characters that so many of us love given how they all get time in the spotlight one way or another and they fill that time up rather wonderfully since they are deeper and more developed than what we're used to seeing in general media, it is peculiar (to say the least) to see so few "alternative" ships to the main one.

I'm not saying the canon ship doesn't deserve its attention -- I'm wondering instead why the canon ship and it alone seem to guide the WN fans who just so happen to enjoy writing/reading fic or fanart or whatever.

You'd think all these cool women would inspire more ships or combinations thereof, but those of us who aren't invested in avatrice just... Float along, around one another, ignored (and, yes, mostly undisturbed too; being unpopular does have its advantages and that includes a lot less weirdos leaving you strange or awkward messages -- it does not, however, shield us from people flooding our goddamn tags on AO3 with fic that has nothing to do with our little ships and I do wish such negligence of the pairing itself meant we didn't have to deal with this spam...)

I am also not saying that fandom activity should be based solely on shipping (and recently someone on Reddit was rather confused by the fact that a lot of it is, which is quite an interesting topic to discuss in itself -- after all, there is more to fan creativity than shippy fic... Or there used to be), merely that, here, it appears that a canon relationship can outshine interest in the other, non-canon ones. It's already there and it was doubtless well-done by the show, so it's natural that it should claim people's attention, sure. It's just that being canon was never the parameter for whether people were interested in these or those two (or more) characters maybe being involved and trying to explore what that could mean through fanwork.

There has always been a complaint haunting fandom spaces concerning the minuscule amounts of f/f fic, art, discussion, w/e based on how few (interesting or sympathetic or relatable) female characters there are in media at large. So what I'm curious about is why fan creations made around WN -- a show that finally gives us a whole cast of female characters that are what we have been craving for decades -- don't also reflect its diversity.

There are alternative ships (I'm here, all happy in my tiny Doctor Superion bubble, and I know there are Camila/Lilith, Ava/Lilith, Mary/Shannon, Mary/Lilith shippers out there, so a warm hello to you if you're reading this), but go on AO3 and compare the numbers of things tagged with these proper pairings to the grand total of WN stories. Better (or worse) still, do so with the "otp: true" trick or simply by excluding avatrice from the search to see how many are left.

It's... A considerable difference. And a mystery, at least to me.

[puppyeared]

who up seeing their disorder in a fictional character but feel like its not their place to put a name on it

[bunnyboy-juice]

im ngl i think my favorite headspace to be in is "want to be annoying"

[isfjmel-phleg]

🫥

*it cut off my last tags which were: I don't know what I can do about this but in the meantime it's a struggle

[revvethasmythh]

I know I bring this up a lot, but it truly is never not astounding to me that Chetney and Fearne, a pairing who have canonically banged, continue to only have a total of 24 fics on AO3 and just 15 when you filter out the Big Ship of the campaign that usually takes main precedence in those stories. I don't know that I have any thought-provoking takeaways from bringing this up every 6 months except to say that it is continually confusing to me that it has been this way so persistently for the entire campaign

[lavellane]

do i make ashara more devoted to mythal post trespasser or do i alienate her from the evanuris entirely. is she immune to propaganda by virtue of how badly solas damaged her ability to believe in anything or is she especially vulnerable to it now bc she still WANTS to believe in anything. is she sporting subtle mythal details in her costume design or is she not

[effervescent-fool]

despite my past trauma associated with the church and general disinterested in christianity i actually really enjoy going to my grandparents church. theyre all kind and respectful and its quite honestly made me reconsider my religion a couple times

[bauliya]

of the opinion that queerbaiting is a legitimate artform that can be wielded purposefully to great evocative effect (driving gay kids insane)

[bonefall]

I don't understand he/him lesbians, I'm friends with a few lesbians and they all say it's harmful to lesbians for someone who identifies as male to call themselves a lesbian, is this right? If you're not comfortable explaining that's ok! I just saw you answered an ask with it and I wanted someone else's opinion? I'm not too keyed in on sexuality and genders and stuff (I'm a bi cis woman) but I'm trying to learn more to be more considerate to the people around me and stuff

Hey, if you're reaching out and seeking advice on the topic, that is good for me!

I will not do this very often though just because I want this blog to be a place for funny battle cats and general celebrations of queerness, but for you, I will give you a brief rundown and some good links to further reading if you'd like to learn more.

So this sentence is aimed at everyone who is not this anon; my stance is not negotiable and the block button is my best friend. Do not use this post to argue. Thank you.

It is not correct that people who identify with masculinity cannot use the term lesbian.

Queerness isn't about rigid boxes and fitting ourselves into them, that's what we're supposed to be against!

Lesbians are people who identify in some way with femininity and have sapphic affections for other feminine people. I've met agender (no gender) lesbians, genderfluid (gender isn't rigid and shifts like liquid) lesbians, demigender (sort-of feels gender but not much) lesbians, multigender (identifies with multiple genders possibly including masculinity) lesbians, so on.

I have even known a transgender man who found the label better described his relationship to women than the term 'heterosexual.' When asked why, he described it as, "I don't love women the way other men do." Even though he was no longer a woman, he still felt a connection to femininity that he felt was best described as sapphic.

A person's relationship to gender can be a very complex and multifaceted thing. In fact this complexity is why I personally use the term genderqueer.

When a homophobic chucklefuck says, "Uhuhuh im a lesbian like u because i also like women what now" What they're doing is being disrespectful. That is what is harmful about that. They do not care that you say, "Ah, well, a lesbian is only women who like other women!" because now you've given them a foot in the door to shave women down into rigid boxes of femininity to fit stupid binary rules.

TERFs have used this in the past to divide our community. Our enemies do not care that our terms "make sense." They just want us gone.

Pronouns don't always equal gender.

Just like how I mentioned that there are masculine people who can identify in some part with femininity without being women, the same thing can happen with people who are women and feel a connection to masculinity, or something else entirely.

Lesbians using he/him pronouns goes back for decades, even centuries. Some would use these pronouns to pass as men (and may have been what we'd call transgender men with modern terms), while others feel a strange relationship to their assigned gender through their sexuality, and some simply prefer he/him.

He/him lesbians, they/them lesbians, xe/xir lesbians...

Discomfort is not the only reason to change your pronouns. Disconnect is not the only way we explore ourselves. Sometimes it's pleasure!

PLEASE GO READ

(CW: The following literature is intended for adults and discusses sexuality and queer history, including oppression, violence, racism, etc.)

Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam Talks about the history of masculinity in the lesbian community. Important book. Please read.

Butch, Femme, Dyke, Or Lipstick, Aren't All Lesbians The Same?: An Exploration Of Labels And "Looks" Among Lesbians In The U.S. South, a thesis by Denielle Kerr While this one isn't about history, it's a really good introduction to the discussion in general since you specifically mentioned not knowing much about these issues. It touches on a bunch of popular queer theories in a way applicable to lesbians specifically, like performance theory, bodywork, intersectionality... Just follow the citations when you see something you'd like to know more about.