Butterfly Effect - ressourcesfeministes

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10 language invented by women. Aside from the reasonable proposition that women
invented language, there are languages consciously invented by women which
contain words for concepts which are almost unthinkable in English. Suzette
Haden Elgin’s Láadan, which she invented for her speculative fiction Native
Tongue, is perhaps the most famous. The Dictionary includes the word rarilh: “to
deliberately refrain from recording; for example the failure throughout history to
record the accomplishments of women” [or lesbians]. Suzette Haden Elgin. 2000.
Native Tongue, p. 303. Or, “like amnesics / in a ward on fire, we must / find
words or burn.” Olga Broumas. 1977. Beginning with O, p. 24.
11 some of us write in it. Nüshi or Nüshu is a written language from Hunan Province
in China used only by women. For more information see Robin Morgan. 1992.
“The Word of a Woman” in The Word of a Woman: Selected Prose 1968-1992.
Interestingly, the Chinese character nú means slave, and is composed of nü
(woman) and yòu (hand). Barbara Niederer.1995. China for Women: Travel and
Culture, p. 9. The book was originally published as China der Frauen in German
by Frauenoffensive, 1989.
12 codes. A fine example of this is Anne Lister, whose mid-nineteenth century diaries
are slowly being decoded. They have been called the Rosetta stone of lesbian
culture, and consist of millions of words. See Jill Liddington. 1998. Female
Fortune.
13 reproduce. “To the question, ‘How will lesbians reproduce’ asked during a large
assembly, one of the Red Dykes, thus named in sheer modesty, let out quite by
chance the now famous reply, ‘By the ear.’ Thus the little companion lovers are
born today from ear to ear.” Monique Wittig and Sande Zeig. 1979. Lesbian
Peoples, p. 49. Storytelling, whispering, rumour, gossip, word of mouth have been
the primary mode of passing on lesbian culture.
14 ears. Sally Gearheart’s novel, The Wanderground, elaborates metaphorically on the
idea of the ear as central to lesbian existence. The underground habitations of the
women in this novel are called the Kochlias. Cochlea (Gr. ) is the spiral
cavity of the inner ear. It is also used to describe the spiral shape of a snail’s
shell. Sally Gearheart. 1979. The Wanderground.
15 listening. “In the beginning was not the word. In the beginning is the hearing.”
Mary Daly. 1978. Gyn/Ecology, p. 424.
16 galactic. In the whimsical “Night Cows”, Jovette Marchessault depicts lesbians
and female animals meeting nightly in the Milky Way. She writes: “They come
on two feet and on four, the terrestrial motors of their hearts are swelling the
white cantata of the milky way.” Jovette Marchessault. 1985. Lesbian Triptych. p.
76. The word galactic is derived from the Greek gala – , meaning milk.
17 tenth muse. See the chapter on Sappho as the tenth muse in Margaret Reynolds.
2001. The Sappho Companion, pp. 67-78.
18 solitude. Sister Solitude, aka Solly is a character in Suniti Namjoshi. 1996. Building
Babel.