#IDAHOBIT2021

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. 🏳️‍🌈 Within this, we assume many other identities are included, for instance, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Agender, Pansexual, Pangender, Demisexual, Demigender, Genderfluid, Non-binary,  and the recently acknowledged in Western culture, 2 Spirit (2S). This supremacy of Western culture ideology is a problem because it doesn't wish to recognise that other cultures are just as valid as theirs, and in so doing, it erases diversity around the world. It becomes a tunnel vision approach in which there is only one way to live, one religion, one worldview and everyone who doesn't subscribe to this is labelled a deviant. But that's a lot of people who are falsely labelled deviant, causing huge, unnecessary conflicts and suffering in the world. 

Of course, subsumed into Homophobia is Lesbophobia which, as Linda Riley has pointed out, is a distinct form of phobia with some overlap with the kind of prejudices that gay men suffer but some differences too. A simple example would be the myth that a woman is only a lesbian because men don't find her attractive. (Not all women in heterosexual marriages are the most beautiful that you will ever come across, or the most feminine so that's nonsense!) This myth comes directly out of Patriarchy whereby all men feel entitled to have access to all women and feel put out if women don't fall about themselves in response to their advances. That then affects the world of work and study because men can't latch onto lesbians, become their boyfriends and get them pregnant, thus ruining their study and career opportunities and success. 

Another example of Lesbophobia is the music industry - there are some famous gay or bi male pop stars eg George Michael, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, David Bowie, Barry Manilow and women love them, even going so far as throwing their underwear at them while they are on-stage. It doesn't bother the female fans that they are gay. But because the pop industry wants to sexualise women to gain sales, in a way that they don't with men, we don't have the equivalent lesbian pop stars. Alex Parks was an excellent, very popular lesbian pop star who won Fame Academy in the UK but didn't last. KD Lang is a famous diva who is 'out' and is enormously popular but unfortunately she rarely does world tours. I've been lucky enough to see her twice in concert and I was blown away by her talent. Interestingly enough, it's often the heterosexual women who are screaming excitedly whereas the gay women take KD in their stride! However, where were the gay men going wild for KD? They seem to be busy screaming for Kylie Minogue, Cher, Barbara Streisand, who don't identify as LGBT+. Nevertheless, Dusty Springfield was an icon with gay men. She did eventually come out as lesbian but she had to try to hide her sexuality which was probably why she seemed shy and vulnerable even though she was a strong, talented woman. Dusty involved herself in all aspects of her musical career, including the producing side of her albums by creating the vibe and sound she wanted. So I think the music industry has it very wrong - lesbian women are very popular and don't need to be sexualised - KD has never sexualised her image to attract a male audience yet is an icon in the pop world across a broad audience. I have come across some wonderful lesbian pop singers but they remain independent artists and don't receive the promotion they deserve despite being amazing singers and performers.

And the fashion industry is another one which perplexes me. There are many gay male fashion designers but I'm not aware of there being any 'out' lesbian fashion designers. But even if I've overlooked some, they are certainly not as famous and numerous as the gay male designers. Are they even working in fashion houses? If they are, they are not visible enough so can't act as role models to inspire other lesbians. I enjoy fashion and follow it to a certain extent, but don't feel there are lesbian fashion designers to simply find easily and follow on social media. I'm a lesbian but enjoy fashion so it's not that it cannot hold some appeal for lesbians or that it is a field that could only attract feminine women. I'm not a feminine lesbian but I enjoy a range of designs, including some labels which produce seemingly feminine floral designs eg Oscar de la Renta, Ted Baker  to name but two. Being a non-binary lesbian, I have more eclectic taste in fashion so I adore many designers whose styles vary greatly from one another. I can't mention them all because the list is so long and not in order of preference, but here are just a few I love and follow on social media: Versace, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Alexander McQueen, Hilfiger, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Karen Millen, Anne Fontaine, and of course, Oscar de la Renta and Ted Baker that I have already mentioned. I probably missed some out but don't be offended, I don't love you less! 💖  

Again, at the lesser-known end of fashion design, outside of the big fashion houses, is a fashion company called The Butch Clothing Company, which designs suits for butch women, especially popular for lesbian weddings. I've met the founder of the company and Shaz is a wonderful, warm woman who is easy to chat to so I'm giving her a shout out on this post because she fills an important gap in the market and is very down-to-earth. 

And this is before we go into the additional types of Lesbophobia that the more so-called masculine types of lesbians receive. There can be a misconception that masculine lesbians cannot be lesbians, which is the most preposterous thing I've ever heard. There have always been women who have dressed as men, used male names, male pronouns, throughout history. They didn't all necessarily want to become men, they just identify on the masculine end of being a woman. This is still the case today and is also true of heterosexual women, who can also be very masculine in their attire, manner, and speech. It's all very normal, it's only right-wing ideology which imposes abnormality on anything which doesn't fit their narrow, blinkered view of, and man-made categories of, who people are or should be. Their ideology is incapable of understanding anything outside of itself or acknowledging any spectrum. For instance, there are differences between transmen and masculine women. So-called masculine women are perfectly happy being women, they simply express themselves as they see themselves. They don't wish to wear high heels, tight clothes and make-up because that is not how they feel as women. It's a myth to jump to the conclusion that just because they appear less feminine, they might somehow become confused and erroneously think they are trans. This illogical leap is sheer ignorance. A transman is someone who feels that their body and how they see themselves do not concur and they consistently identity as men. They are binary in a sense because they wish to change their assigned sex at birth to the opposite sex. Whereas masculine women, so-called, are one type of non-binary because they are happy to stay women but wish to do so by living on the more masculine side of the spectrum of being a woman, because that best expresses who they are. 

This is why we need a day like this one because there is shocking ignorance of the full spectrum of the LGBT+ community and there are serious prejudices and bigotry that stem from it, creating widespread, unnecessary suffering. Rather like domestic violence, this ignorance generates psychological, emotional, physical, financial abuse and harm. 

This post only skims the surface of Lesbophobia and creating an understanding of lesbians along the spectrum of lesbianism. I've chosen to focus on Lesbophobia today because of the current campaign by Linda Riley to make lesbians visible by including Lesbophobia explicitly in the IDAHOBIT acronym. Lesbians not only have to deal with all the sexist problems other women experience, but on top of that, lesbians have Lesbophobia to overcome.