Butterfly Effect - ressourcesfeministes

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5 bay to the moon. “I want to howl at the moon / celebrate her offerings” Tomiye Ishida.
“Tsuki ga Deta”, in C. Allyson Lee and Makeda Silvera (Eds.). 1995. Pearls of Passion.
Betsy Crowell, also an alumna of Vassar, writes of another group of women in 1960:
“Rumor had it that they danced under the moon in bedsheets and that they were
lesbians.” See Wolf Girls at Vassar, p. 57.
6 infinite appetites. A reference to Baudelaire’s poem “Femmes Damnées: Delphine et
Hippolyte”: “Loin des peuples vivants, errantes condamnées, / A travers les deserts courez
commes les loups; / Faites votre destin, âmes désordonnées, / Et fuyez l’infini que vous portez
en vous!” Charles Baudelaire. 1857/1989. The Flowers of Evil, p. 370.
7 protect them. Novelist Christine Crow cites Baudelaire’s poem in her Miss X or the Wolf
Woman (1990). The novel explores at length lesbian passion, repression, and the
relationship between a headmistress and one of her star pupils.
8 teacher’s passion. It’s not unusual for girls to fall for their women teachers, those
strong-minded, independent women, nor for those women teachers to have passions
for one another. Dorothy Ross, Headmistress of Melbourne Girls Grammar from
1939-1955 had a long relationship with Mary Davis, Headmistress of the Junior
School, and later of St Catherine’s, another girls’ school nearby. Miss Ross was the
model for many of her students. My mother was a student at the school during her
tenure and her admiration for Dorothy Ross never dimmed. See Barbara Falk, with
Cecile Trioli. 2000. D.J. Dorothy Jean Ross 1891-1982.
9 an army of lovers. A reference to Sappho, a variation on this line appears in a collection
of poems written by Rita Mae Brown prior to 1971. The poem, “Sappho’s Reply”
reads: “My voice rings down through thousands of years / to coil around your body
and give you strength, / You who have wept in direct sunlight, / who have
hungered for invisible chains, / Tremble to the cadence of my legacy: / An army of
lovers shall not fail.” Rita Mae Brown. The Hand that Cradles the Rock, p. 77. I
remember chanting, “an army of lovers shall never be defeated” in demonstrations of
the 1970s and early 1980s.
10 the mauve peril the lesbian plague. These terms are used by Monique Wittig in Across the
Acheron (1987). Monique Wittig died in early 2004 leaving behind an extraordinary
legacy of lesbian-centred writing. As Carolyn Gage writes in an obituary finding
Wittig’s work was like unearthing “a lesbian-feminist equivalent to the Bible, or the
Koran, or the Bhagavad Gita.” off our backs (2004). For critical writings on Wittig see
Namascar Shaktiri (Ed.). 2005. On Monique Wittig.
11 broad daylight. Our behaviour in the 1970s was a precursor to the “kiss ins” which
were staged a decade later when “Queer” emerged.
12 badges. The badges we wore were many and various. Some in my collection read:
LESBIANS IGNITE. HOW DARE YOU PRESUME I’M HETEROSEXUAL. RADICALESBIANS. LESBIANS
ARE EVERYWHERE.
13 eggs. An interesting subliminal message is conveyed in the use of these missiles
against lesbians.