an eye for the ladies

alia levine

If you've gotten as far as this web site, chances are that you have had some experience with ‘Feminism 101: Images of Women,’ sexist binaries and double standards, homophobia fueled by oppressive stereotypes. "Stereotypes are damaging generalizations of women," my professor once explained, "a pathetic, patriarchal excuse for ignorance." In theory, this may be true, but in the circles of ladies who deviate from the straight norm, the time has come to reclaim, subvert, and rejoice in our stereotypes.

What tools do we use to navigate our way through the tangled roads of lesbian la-la land? What’s the difference in the way we’re viewed and the way we view ourselves - and each other? To be sure, we’re not all softball players, butch electricians, molly-coddling three-cat owners, femmes with frosted nails, hair, and eyelids (that match), highly neurotic, multiple-issue-laden womyn who live for their bi-weekly couch sessions, or devotees of the local dojo. Some of us however, do fit the above molds - not to mention the hybrids. Just where would we be without these instruments of identification?

Women of our ilk (no matter what we call ourselves) are as diverse as we are lucky in our gaiety. But something has to be said for stereotypes. Contrary to popular belief, the presence of stereotypes does not mean an absence of personal style. I love being a bossy Jewish femme with scruffy tendencies and a penchant for glitter. Assume what you will - I embody and embrace at least three different stereotypes – yet I’m beholden to none. Take an image and skew it, make it your own. A dear friend has custom-created her pigeonhole: "a queer girl who appropriates the fashion of the cool savvy-shopper straight girl and thus perplexes many" - I want to be that!

When half of the local basketball team is comprised of ex-girlfriends, when you walk into a bar and you realize that you’ve slept with everyone and their dog in it by virtue (and that’s a word I use loosely) of 2 degrees of separation, the close knit community of queer girls in the city can start to look a little sinister. But with a little irreverent stereotyping on your side, those ex-lovers, their ex-lovers, and their current lovers become comical and harmless, and you too can watch your life transform into your very own Dykes to Watch Out For.

There are only so many ways a girl is initiated into the exotic land of the Sapphic netherworld. After all, wasn’t it when you realized that the cheerleader/basketball star (you choose the binary) you had a crush on all through high school had been having an affair with the P.E. teacher? Or when the tie-dyed, titian-haired girl with the limpid green eyes at your local health-food store slipped her number in with your wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, salt-free sin-free tofu fudge brownies? And you moved in with her a week later? (You get 5 points for a cliché, ten if you spot the stereotypes).

Stereotypes are necessary; without preventing further exploration of what lies beneath, they give us clues - offering up nuggets of humor and truth. A knowledge of stereotypes can provide vital clues for a girl on the prowl, (gr)eases the way at your first ever women’s dance, and sharpens our gaydar at any given moment. Brawny forearms and a swagger, for example, might help you peg the waitress as a sordid Sister, and get you a date. It’s an essential part of survival. Sometimes we need to be typecast. Sometimes it’s hot.

I realized that "the people in your neighborhood" were a group that warranted some analysis only recently. Fabulous stereotypes abound in this city, and the time is ripe to celebrate our graven images, in all of our slovenly, typecast glory.

An Eye For The Ladies will be a regular close-up look at the ongoing madnesses of being a queer girl in New York City. How do we, a pack of smart, above-average looking lesbian ladies manage to get through the day with our humor and psyches intact? The daily gay life of (some) girls in the city - that elusive lesbian clan - warrants meticulous research. To this effect, I pledge to delve into the murky waters and disclose the secrets of gay-girl dating strategies, what happens when we celebrate/embrace our stereotypes, what it means to own every Naiad novel ever published, and other baffling matters specific to the Sapphic sisterhood. Oh, and the characters and events portrayed are only sometimes fictitious inventions of the author's imagination.

©Alia Levine, 2001
All Rights Reserved

 site map   |  volume 1 number 2, June 2001