Butterfly Effect - ressourcesfeministes

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14 pool billiards snooker. It is a badge of honour for lesbians to be able to play these games
with flair. They have long been, and still are, an important element of lesbian culture.
15 self-defence classes. Many lesbians have learnt self-defence, in part, to have the ability
to protect themselves (not having a man about to help them!). Lesbians of my
acquaintance have excelled in aikido, tae kwondo, judo, karate and ju jitsu.
16 hunters. Monique Wittig and Suniti Namjoshi have both depicted men as hunters
in their writings. Across the Acheron, tells of the ritual hunt in which men pursue
women in the chapter entitled “Count Zaroff’s Hunt”, pp. 36-39. A metaphor for
aggressive sexuality, one can see the hunt in any red light district in the world.
Namjoshi depicts her hunters pursuing the wolf and the virgin. Suniti Namjoshi.
1993. St Suniti and the Dragon, p. 86-87.
17 streets. Barbara Hammer in her film Tender Fictions (1995) says she has been
attacked in the street, thrown out of a restaurant because, as she says “I am a
visible lesbian”.
18 bars. There are lots of lesbian books which look at this aspect of lesbian culture.
Perhaps the most evocative story of the bar scene in the US is Lesley Feinberg’s
Stone Butch Blues (1993).
19 underworld. See Judy Grahn. 1984. Another Mother Tongue, pp. 28-33. Monique
Wittig’s, Across the Acheron is a retelling of a descent to hell, à la Virgil’s descent,
set in contemporary San Francisco and led by a woman named Manastabal.
20 Ereshkigal. See Judy Grahn. 1987. The Queen of Swords. An outstanding recreation
of the mythic tale of a descent to the underworld. In this instance the ancient
Sumerian myth of Inanna and Ereshkigal is told in the contemporary setting of
the underground lesbian bar.
21 pack. “Ironically groups of nuns or Lesbians are often mistaken for one another
today, since we often travel in female packs oblivious to male attention or
needs.” Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan (Eds.). Lesbian Nuns: Breaking
Silence, p. xx.
22 Hondas their Kawasakis their Harley Davidsons and their Ducatis. The group, Dykes
on Bikes, is an informal lesbian institution. In Melbourne and Sydney each year
they parade as part of Midsumma or Mardi Gras, roaring their engines in
mockery of masculinity, but also as a way of saying, these toys are not just for the
boys. With social skills such as having a good eye for pool, or excelling at martial
arts, lesbians thumb their noses at prescriptive femininity. Monique Wittig in her
allegorical Across the Acheron describes this aspect of lesbian culture: “As I began
to shout ... a string of dikes appeared, naked on their motor cycles, their skin
gleaming black or golden, and one after the other they rode over the hill.” p. 18.
23 sing at the top of their lungs. They are of course singing, “Leader of the Pack”. As a
young lesbian this song was one of the few pop tunes to speak to me directly in a
way that captured my experience.
24 diesel-driven road-trains. Diesel dykes can be found behind the wheel of many
means of locomotion. Road-trains ply Australia’s outback, sometimes with as
many as three articulated sections.
25 relationships. “Yeah cars are easier to deal with than people. You buy a car and
you have it. You don’t need to seduce it or talk to it or admit anything.” Donna
Jackson. 1997. “Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love”, p. 68.