 Lesbian
anger is a way of life, writes Rachel Cook.
The other day a friend was telling me how
hard it is for gay males today.
He told me that many gay men suffer from a
base self loathing, and that’s what drives them to spend their lives at the gym
and earn lots of money. Maybe a little insensitively, I responded with, “Oh my
god, that is so tragic. You know something? The next time I hear about some gay
guy from Pakistan who is fighting deportation orders because he will be killed if
he has to return to his home country, I’ll say, ‘hey, if you think that’s bad,
maybe you might want to spare a thought for all those Australian gay men who
are forced to keep fit and be overly materialistic.”
My friend turned around and asked me, “Why are
lesbians so angry?”
Lesbians are angry.
We were angry when we were suffragettes; we
were angry when we burnt our bras; and we keep that anger on a constant simmer
so we’re always on the ready for conflict.
Just as sure as the ‘camp’ is fast
diminishing from gay male culture, the force that drives the lesbian is as
strong as ever.
Anger, you could say, is the lesbian muse.
Yes, the angry lesbian is alive and well
and still shopping at army surplus stores. She’s like the angry young man but
with a social conscience. If there is a wrong she wants to right it. She is on
the frontline for refugees, indigenous culture, workers and whales. She was at
the core of the feminist movement when she looked the man in the eye and said,
‘we are burning our bras and taking your women and we won’t be giving them back
until you learn the meaning of equality’.
Wherever there is a cause, there is a
lesbian.
A friend of mine who died from an AIDS-related
illness over a decade ago now, once told me he thanked god for the lesbians,
because, at the beginning, they were the only people who would come near him.
I lived with one of those lesbians who
would visit gay men at The Alfred, and when she came home of an evening she
would routinely burst into tears; and then the anger would ensue. She was angry
about AIDS and angry about the fact that for some of these men the only
physical contact they got was from her.
It’s true that that anger has served us and
some others well at times. But what is it that makes us so angry?
Everything!
Politicians, hunters, developers, whole
corporations, the witch burnings that happened 500 years ago but may as well
have happened yesterday; these are some of the things that keep us awake at
night. While the world sleeps, the angry lesbian glares into the darkness
plotting revenge.
She’s the person you want on your side in
any fight.
The angry lesbian may piss you off at times,
but she’s a power to be reckoned with and a beneficial one at that: when that
power is used for good, and not evil, of course.
 |
Opinion 
Subscribe to this comment's feed