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well the funny thing is that the separation between women who were only attracted to other women and women who were attracted to women and other genders wasn’t really a point of focus until the rise of lesbian separatism and identity politics.
lesbian and sapphic were terms that mainly referred to women who slept with women and that was it. before lesbian and sapphic, “tribade” was the word of choice during the 1600s to the 1800s, and it came from the word “tribadism” which literally means scissoring, i.e. the sexual act. so tribade, lesbian, and sapphic weren’t really identities so much as they described women who had sex with and had relationships with other women. there was no distinction besides that.
the first time bisexual was used was in Charles Gilbert Chaddock’s translation of Psychopathia Sexualis which was one of the first books written on sexual pathology in the 1800s. before this, bisexual was usually used to mean hermaphroditic, usually in reference to plants. this was the first time the word was used in reference to people who were attracted to multiple genders. this wasn’t an identity yet. bi/lesbian women were always in a shared community and they organized and convened under “lesbian.” before the 60s, when studies were talking about lesbians, they usually meant all sapphic women. and of course when butch/femme started cropping up in gay bars circa the 50s and 60s, bi women were at those bars, in those spaces, using those words.
it wasn’t until monsters like sheila jeffreys and all the other cis white female lesbian separatists popped up in the 70s and coined the term “political lesbian,” i.e. women who don’t fuck or fuck with men. it was seen as necessary for women to only engage with women who have cut all their ties to male privilege. this included cutting out bi women (bc they fucked men), trans women (bc they were thought to still be men), queer women of color (bc of their activist work with men of color and their inability to exclude men from their politics), and a whole other slew of marginalized identities.
((and for a quick bit of irony: lesbian separatists often critiqued the use of femme/butch by lesbians as well because they felt it was a symbol of oppressive patriarchal standards and a way of replicating heterosexuality)).
so of course right around when the stonewall riots were going on, bi groups started appearing because they were effectively shut out of both gay and straight communities. LGB created the distinction between lesbians and bi people. and if you skip to now, whenever people do research on the history of lesbian identities, they read “lesbian” as “women who are only attracted to women” and assume that bi women are excluded from that history when in actual fact they were right smack in the middle of it the entire time. that’s where people on tumblr get mad at bi women for “co-opting lesbian terms” and “stealing from lesbian history.”
doe/stag were coined as a way to mirror femme/butch because bi women erroneously think that femme/butch are not part of their history. the fact that bi women feel the need to come up with/use doe/stag and steer away from butch/femme is the exact kind of thing TERFs and lesbian separatists wanted to accomplish in the first place. they wanted to treat bi women like traitors who would not relinquish their heterosexual privilege and thus posed a threat to lesbians everywhere (which, needless to say, is horse shit).
so all that to say, it’s not better for bi people to come up with their own terms because butch/femme were terms used by bi women since their inception. you don’t have to feel like you can’t use those words as if they’re not yours because they are yours and they are a part of your history. anyone who attempts to make bi women feel guilty or wrong for identifying as butch/femme are likely regurgitating TERFy rhetoric they’ve found floating around the internet without realizing it.
sources: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
EDIT: lol i totally forgot to source sheila jeffreys’ fabulous terf bs: [x]
EDIT (2): MORE sources on bisexual movements since people seem to be dead set on pegging me as a lesbophobic bi: [x] [x] [x]
well the funny thing is that the separation between women who were only attracted to other women and women who were attracted to women and other genders wasn’t really a point of focus until the rise of lesbian separatism and identity politics.
lesbian and sapphic were terms that mainly referred to women who slept with women and that was it. before lesbian and sapphic, “tribade” was the word of choice during the 1600s to the 1800s, and it came from the word “tribadism” which literally means scissoring, i.e. the sexual act. so tribade, lesbian, and sapphic weren’t really identities so much as they described women who had sex with and had relationships with other women. there was no distinction besides that.
the first time bisexual was used was in Charles Gilbert Chaddock’s translation of Psychopathia Sexualis which was one of the first books written on sexual pathology in the 1800s. before this, bisexual was usually used to mean hermaphroditic, usually in reference to plants. this was the first time the word was used in reference to people who were attracted to multiple genders. this wasn’t an identity yet. bi/lesbian women were always in a shared community and they organized and convened under “lesbian.” before the 60s, when studies were talking about lesbians, they usually meant all sapphic women. and of course when butch/femme started cropping up in gay bars circa the 50s and 60s, bi women were at those bars, in those spaces, using those words.
it wasn’t until monsters like sheila jeffreys and all the other cis white female lesbian separatists popped up in the 70s and coined the term “political lesbian,” i.e. women who don’t fuck or fuck with men. it was seen as necessary for women to only engage with women who have cut all their ties to male privilege. this included cutting out bi women (bc they fucked men), trans women (bc they were thought to still be men), queer women of color (bc of their activist work with men of color and their inability to exclude men from their politics), and a whole other slew of marginalized identities.
((and for a quick bit of irony: lesbian separatists often critiqued the use of femme/butch by lesbians as well because they felt it was a symbol of oppressive patriarchal standards and a way of replicating heterosexuality)).
so of course right around when the stonewall riots were going on, bi groups started appearing because they were effectively shut out of both gay and straight communities. LGB created the distinction between lesbians and bi people. and if you skip to now, whenever people do research on the history of lesbian identities, they read “lesbian” as “women who are only attracted to women” and assume that bi women are excluded from that history when in actual fact they were right smack in the middle of it the entire time. that’s where people on tumblr get mad at bi women for “co-opting lesbian terms” and “stealing from lesbian history.”
doe/stag were coined as a way to mirror femme/butch because bi women erroneously think that femme/butch are not part of their history. the fact that bi women feel the need to come up with/use doe/stag and steer away from butch/femme is the exact kind of thing TERFs and lesbian separatists wanted to accomplish in the first place. they wanted to treat bi women like traitors who would not relinquish their heterosexual privilege and thus posed a threat to lesbians everywhere (which, needless to say, is horse shit).
so all that to say, it’s not better for bi people to come up with their own terms because butch/femme were terms used by bi women since their inception. you don’t have to feel like you can’t use those words as if they’re not yours because they are yours and they are a part of your history. anyone who attempts to make bi women feel guilty or wrong for identifying as butch/femme are likely regurgitating TERFy rhetoric they’ve found floating around the internet without realizing it.
sources: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
EDIT: lol i totally forgot to source sheila jeffreys’ fabulous terf bs: [x]
EDIT (2): MORE sources on bisexual movements since people seem to be dead set on pegging me as a lesbophobic bi: [x] [x] [x]