01/04/2023
Poet Joelle Taylor has written in the “Independent” paper ahead of a new exhibition of working class butch lesbian culture. In it she says “Thanks to punk feminism and magazines like Spare Rib and Shocking Pink I began to understand what a contentious space the female body is, what a no man’s land. …I am a butch lesbian, an identity which has a hard-won lineage of survival and cunning, of community and compassion. It’s a community of hard women with soft hearts.” Taylor links the butch lesbian experience to the world of gender outlaws, and in other essays for the paper has noted that butch lesbians have historically been attacked by the same gender critical extremists who today undermine trans people’s identity. She says “I rebelled, and joined a long line of gender outlaws and sexual dissidents.“ The Guardian last year interviewed Taylor and how her work can revive the LGBTQIA and feminist communities. Instead of fighting each other online, the LGBTQ+ community “needs to focus,” she said.
