Art for Lesbian & Bisexual Women: In Our Own Little World, 2020 (PT 1 OF 2)

I Want Women-Only Spaces Free From the Male Supremacist Gaze

In Our Own Little World, 2020, digital drawing

Drawing Naked Women Under Male Supremacy¹

I drew this piece years ago during the pandemic, during an emotionally heavy time when I was dreaming of meeting a woman who could make me feel tender, desired, sensual, and safe (while mourning a breakup with a woman who was not). It was the first time I publicly shared a drawing of naked women. I'm very protective of the naked women I draw. I don't want male eyes to consume the lesbian women I portray. I don't want these depictions of women’s material reality and homosexuality to be fetishized. I know they exist in the 2-D world, and I can’t control what happens to the way my art is consumed, but I do have the choice of what I release. These male-caused fears prevent me from sharing the things I want to share with other women, particularly fellow lesbian women. We need depictions of our female experiences, but male culture ruins this for us constantly. Simply showing a photo of yourself as a woman or girl is rife with danger. It’s the sex-specific reason why some women and girls stay anonymous in online spaces, avoid sharing their beliefs, or barely leave the house. The infiltration of cameras and male-led artificial intelligence technologies makes women and girls even more terrified than ever to be free anywhere.

How A Lack of Female-Only Space Affects Female Culture

The desire for freedom and joy is why women wish for female-only spaces like Giggle, LCommunity, The Girls Spot Gym, or the dream of our own country. We need to be able to let our guard down, and that’s not possible for all women and girls when males are present. As soon as any male is present, female sovereignty disappears. Male supremacist men made it this way, and all males uphold and benefit from the systems of male terrorism and bullying, whether indirectly or directly. Males also disproportionately create hostile environments. Whether it's in school, the workplace, politics, social life, in-person, or online, statistics show that the harm-doer is typically male. The impact of this means women and girls have to limit their freedoms everywhere they go. We’ve inherited many generations of our foremothers’ trauma responses. Some of us have to practice vigilance almost 24 hours a day, even sometimes when we’re sleeping (read that again if you didn’t catch the sadistic expectations of male culture). And we're fucking tired of this shit. We can’t live like this anymore. We just want to be free of males and their torturous cultures, but it’s males who just won’t leave us be. And they spread their ideologies into female-only spaces until they colonize female culture. Everywhere we try to go and create our own space, our own analysis, our own truths, our own joy, our own sensuality, a male comes along and completely warps the dynamics. It doesn’t matter his age, race, sexual orientation, belief systems, abilities, males as a sex-class distort and destroy our access to female culture, sovereignty, and female-only spaces. Men destroy female thought and analysis; that is the impact, regardless of intent. Destroying culture is a tried and true method of oppressors. Male-only spaces are allowed to proliferate in the world, male culture is allowed to proliferate in the world, while female-only spaces were stamped out when male supremacy first started taking over globally. It’s only in the past century that women have made noticeable advancements in power and control over female sovereignty, and only within limited contexts. It’s just the tip of the iceberg, and that is the reason for the uptick of male violence, hostility, bullying, and torture, in-person and online. Men and boys are granted male sovereignty that is based on myths of “domination” and “submission,” the subjugation of women and girls, and the colonization of our female material realities and cultures. Males push us into a corner even within our own female-only spaces. Sometimes they push so hard, women end up out on the street with no place to call their own. Yet women persist, and we carve out a space right on the pavement below our feet.

Women Want to Love Their Skin and Bare Their Skin Without Male Retaliation

I want to share my lesbian art and erotica without abandon. You know how many notes I want to post, but I don’t because of the fear of some male using my words as a source for sexual arousal? There's always that voice in the back of my head, "how will a male use this against me and my sisters?” Because males view us as one "public image", a monolithic blob, we have to fight for ourselves as a united front (even when we’re struggling to learn how to become one). What could hurt one sister, does hurt us all. That's the way men built their male culture. But over time, that completely valid fear of male threats does accomplish its goal of silencing women and girls. My hesitation to share the naked female form or my lesbian erotic writings is because I fear male culture intimidation and harassment. I already deal with that on a regular basis. Statistically, my fear is absolutely logical, and it’s my body’s natural response of utilizing the safeguarding techniques that my mother’s mother’s mother+ genetically passed down to me. But how do we get from surviving to thriving if we never get to show the world, the way we see it? Not based on the way males perceive us. I just want to express my joy, desire, love, romance, and horniness for women in peace. When do we women get to do this?

Click Here for Part II: Art for Lesbian & Bisexual Women: In Our Own Little World, 2020 (PT 2 of 2)

1. When I reflect back on this drawing, I can now see aspects that might be influenced by the male supremacist gaze. I drew this from a photo I found online years ago. Now I question if that photo was connected to “pornography.” I can no longer find the source image, but when I look at the angle of the women’s bodies, I would now shift them because it does seem that the purple woman is positioned in a way meant to pander to male culture ideologies. Decolonizing myself of male supremacy is a daily practice. It’s so informative for me to look back at old artwork and writings to see my growth in dismantling male culture’s coercion and building my own female culture frameworks.