 | Stuff Lesbians Like 38: Being Overly Sensitive Due to an Increased Sense of Political AwarenessBy Grace Fannie |
Perhaps because of our tendency to be over-educated, lesbians have an increased sense of political awareness. This lesbian seventh sense (gaydar is the 6th sense, you know) leads to hyper-sensitivity and being judgmental of less “enlightened” persons.
But first things first. When I use the term “lesbian,” I am using it to encompass all lesbian, queer, questioning, woman-loving-woman, and non-heterosexually-identified (LQQWLWNH) biological females not including men who may identify as lesbians, female-to-male transgender persons, male-to-female transgender persons, bisexual women, pansexuals, gender-queer individuals who do not identify as lesbian, sporty heterosexual women, and women who only make out with other women when they are drunk as part of a male-attention-seeking endeavor.
In addition, the implicit assumption that Stuff Lesbians Like is stuff that “all” LQQWLWNH women like is not accurate. While Stuff Lesbians Like does make lesbian sub-culture visible, it is not true that all LQQWLWNH women, in fact, like this “stuff.” Being written by a mere 4 lesbian-identified women, Stuff Lesbians Like is really a collection of trends noted within our own non-representative communities and exaggerated as though they were true of all LQQWLWNH women.
At the same time, such self-parody can easily be misinterpreted as a serious anthropological examination of lesbian sub-culture in which case the generalizations inherent to Stuff Lesbians Like would render the experience of non-Grace lesbians invisible. It’s quite unfortunate, I know. For, in addition to making her overly-sensitive, it’s a scientific fact that as one’s political awareness increases her sense of humor decreases. Therefore, God/G-d/goddess/SupremeBeing/InfiniteLight/Allah save the unlucky person who cracks a heteronormative, patriarchal, sexist, or racist joke around a lesbian.
Now, where was I? Somewhere in between trying to be funny and hurting my own feelings, I forgot where I was going with this post.
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June 5th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Brilliant — very funny.
janet
June 5th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hilarious. I mean…it was funny if you wanted it to be because I would NEVER want to offend your delicate sensibilities…not that you are delicate…I mean I know you would be strong because you are a lesbian…wait…I mean, I know that not all lesbians must be strong but…well…I hope you have a nice day
June 5th, 2008 at 10:38 am
“I hope you have a nice day”, huh?
What’s that supposed to mean?
June 5th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
There, there, dear *pats you on back*, have a beer. Oh wait, maybe you want a glass of wine? Ack, I wouldn’t dare slip into the stereotype of well… *throws hands in the air* I give up. Do you want an alcoholic beverage?
June 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
@ lula – lesbian teetolaters (all three of them) have been rendered invisible by your comment. please self-immolate. kthx.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
i agree with janet – brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:43 am
@Grace Chu: I love my wine
June 9th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Very well written. Good stuff!
Go over-educated LQQWLWNH women!
June 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
YOU ARE HILARIOUS! LOVE IT!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I had to fill in a pre-training questionnaire at work today. The training is called ‘Valuing Diversity’… I had to rate myself on a load of points, tot up my scores and then be put into a box… I am a ‘rebel’ – which is basically what you have defined in your piece. ‘Rebels’ were advised to speak to their colleagues and ask for honesty i.e. “Am I too OTT with the political correctness?” etc. I asked my manager immediately. He said ‘no’ but I think he was being pc. If I had circled 4 instead of 5 for most answers I would have been a ‘change maker’. Gutted.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
You forgot to capitalize the G in ‘Goddess.’ Or are you intentionally pointing out that a female deity is less worthy of capitalization in our hetero-patriarchy?
October 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
this is so me haha
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 am
[...] is like fighting the California wildfires with a single garden hose. Having been blessed with an increased sense of political awareness, lesbians are naturally hawkish and critical when it comes to media representation. When The L Word [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I am surprised that you are making a distinction between female-born women and transwomen. I know plenty of transwomen who identify as lesbians, and would probably be all over the stuff on this website.
unfortunately, your wording implies that they are excluded. in an age where the right is trying to divide us, i would think we could all fight for each other’s right to self-identity. liberation for all!