National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program Page: 17
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increases (although I personally don't believe there is a backlash since I
don't believe I've ever seen a frontlash-that is, any true acceptance),
we will still have our songs to sing, our books to keep with us, our
herstory to treasure in our hearts, and the knowledge that there is a
common core uniting us as a people. We are a people who have
always survived and always will survive!
The flowering of culture in the past decade has been especially true
for lesbians. I think, in part, this has happened because while gay men
had more of a subculture because of "camp," its acceptance in the
mainstream culture (as by Susan Sontag and others), lesbians, since we
are women, have been more subsumed and at the same time isolated
in the straight culture. Therefore, theoretically, we started with a blank
slate. Even though that state would appear to be a disadvantage, it ac-
tually made is easier to build a new and different culture. However, it
remains to distinguish what is really "us" and what is the baggage of
our heterosexual upbringing and endless brainwashing. So for many
lesbians, separatism became the means for finding our true identities.
In isolation (this time, isolation meaning self-chosen separation from
straight women and all men instead of isolation within the man's
world) we can find what feels genuine and what is borrowed. We can
talk with each other, expending no energy on men or straight women,
and discover what we want, who we are, what our common values,
goals, desires are. Gay men, due to the fact that they have for the
most part held onto their male privilege (and straight institutions which
give them that privilege) haven't been able to disassociate themselves
as much or as often from straight culture.
Some Politics and Culture
This discovery of each other has led to a genuine flowering of
culture, one which has created lesbian music, publishing houses,
spirituality and religion, educational institutions, garages, restaurants,
karate schools, political and social groups. That may seem like a
strange mixture since men, especially leftist men, have always pitted
politics against culture, and posed them as two alternatives instead of
as part of one whole. And wholeness, a complete circle, is a form, I
believe, which is inherent to women as the phallus and phallic institu-
tions are the archetypes of male culture. Wholeness goes back to the
womb, to the mother and her mother before her, to the unbroken cy-
cle of life (being born to a woman and giving birth to other women
and to oneself). All this is, I am convinced, at the heart of women's
culture. The circular form means inclusion of everyone and everything
whereas phallic form and thinking with their hard, rigid structures, in-
stitutions, and rules mean divisions, exclusions. Phallic thinking also
17
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D.C. Media Committee. National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program, pamphlet, 1979; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc276226/m1/19/: accessed June 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.