Women Seeking Women, 1980s

#Lesbian #Queer #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #LGBT

@LilahTovMoon
Tiny butt, denim, curls…

You had me at Tiny butt honey.

@rnelson Yea, I feel like the 80s and 90s must have been so rough.

Things aren't perfect today, but there are so many queer people kids can look up to today. Chappell Roan is burning up the charts with very gay music; Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, and other trans actors have major roles. Things aren't perfect, but at least there's a sense that others are around.

@LilahTovMoon I was intrigued by Femme Professor until I hit the transphobic part, girl BYE, otherwise LOL at all the "tiny butt" brags, screams early 1980s

@LilahTovMoon (should clarify that I am reading it as HER "hate of transsexuals" which could be wrong, but a professor should strive for clarity)

@ClareTheAmazon Yea, it's possible that she meant it as "society's hate for transsexuals" given that she's probably not wanting to talk about her misogyny and her racism. But like you said, it'd be better if it were clear.

@ClareTheAmazon @LilahTovMoon Since “hatred of transsexuals” is listed right after misogyny and racism as discussion topics, I figured it was part of one of the evils of society she was talking about, otherwise it seems weird to suddenly talk about hating other queer people.

I could probably clear that up if I got her number.

@WhiteCatTamer @ClareTheAmazon Hopefully, but hating trans people wouldn't be that weird back then. "Womyn Born Womyn" was a thing back then.

Even in the 2000s and early 2010s, there could be a lot of anti-trans sentiment within lesbian spaces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womyn-born_womyn

@CodexNotFound I think that the "not a cult" was probably temporal. In 2024, most people have heard of Wiccan beliefs and don't think it sounds like a cult. Wiccans were portrayed very negatively in the UK press in the 1960s and it wasn't really until the 1970s that it came to the US. So in the 1980s, most people probably wouldn't have even heard of Wicca.

There was also a greater worry about cults in the 1980s. The Jonestown "drink the kool-aid" cult massacre was in 1978 and in the 80s cults could be a big news topic (whereas the news doesn't talk about cults today).

So it's probably in the listing as a reaction to the unknown status of Wicca and general societal fear of cults then. It was really a decade later when Wicca started entering the larger public consciousness.

I think it's clear she means society's hatred of transsexuals. This probably predates the word transphobia. She even finishes with 'no bigots'. Safe to assume this is NOT Kathleen Stock's ad.

@noam @ClareTheAmazon 1985 might pre-date the word "transphobia", but it definitely doesn't pre-date transphobia. Seven years earlier, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto explicitly banned trans women.

Six years earlier, the left-wing queer-affirming Beacon Press published a very popular anti-trans book saying, "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves…Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive."

Eight years earlier, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival objected to a trans woman having a job as a sound technician.

In 1985, hating trans women was often seen as a left-wing, anti-bigotry kind of thing. But I hope you're right and that this person wasn't transphobic.

@LilahTovMoon Interesting how most of the language still feels so current! Wonder about the NS and ND abbreviations though, I doubt they mean neurospicy or neurodivergent.

@LilahTovMoon "christian women only" lol

@LilahTovMoon "I N E E D A G I R L F R I E N D" Me too, lady.

This one (attached) makes me sad :(

@LilahTovMoon
I'm gonna cry, this rocks 😭
If I posted all my favorites I'd end up just reposting the image but this girl might be my absolute #1. Women *are* so freaking awesome.

RE: https://tech.lgbt/users/LilahTovMoon/statuses/113020199804253770

@LilahTovMoon So fascinating how ahead of their times these are! I would not have guessed 1980s. Can you share the newspaper date? I wonder if The Gazette has an online archive for more of these.

@LilahTovMoon I want the sci-fi maniac, and the "Like metal?"

@LilahTovMoon interesting how there's lipstick lesbians and chapstick lesbians