Something that completely baffles me (it doesn’t take much), is the way in which LGBTQ+ people have historically been treated in society, particularly in the context of the criminal justice system.
As of 2023, only 34 countries out of 195 recognise same-sex marriage. In the UK, it only became legal 9 years ago (2014)- crazy! And, it isn’t just marriage, either. Using the UK as an example, as that is where I am writing from, just a little over 50 years ago, being gay (as in, two men engaging in sexual activity) wasn’t just frowned upon, it was a crime and punishable by significant jail time. It wasn’t decriminalised until as late as 1967, meaning that any Gay British man over the age of 56 would’ve grown up being fed the narrative that they were ‘wrong’, simply for being themselves…
Bizarrley though, this rule has never applied to women. Female homosexuality has never been explicitly targeted by any legislation. Homosexual women have never had the same sanctions imposed upon them as homosexual men
(i.e., to be a gay woman has never been a crime)…
Although there are no ‘official’ reasons out there as to why same sex relationships between women has never been a crime whereas same sex relationships between men very much has been [a crime], looking at it from a feminist perspective, I would question if the reason for this is because female sexuality has long been regarded as relatively ‘unimportant.’ Assumed to be sexually innocent and either passive or ‘desireless’, women have traditionally been thought to not really ‘enjoy’ sex, but to do it out of ‘duty’, almost.
Lots of men, being very self-assured verging on narcissistic, assume that women couldn’t possibly be intimate because they love each other, they assume that it’s solely for their benefit, to ‘turn them on’, with this being largely in thanks to the eroticisation of lesbianism…
Images of lesbianism (between two feminine, gender-conforming women) are targeted towards heterosexual men in advertising, film, and pornography, something which serves to uphold the narrative that same sex relationships between women are not ‘real’… Because, women ‘require’ men, they need a mans protection (eye roll, sick emoji, major ick, all of the above), so how can lesbianism possibly be real? A phase, perhaps, but not a long-term thing, surely?
Shock horror, and you might want to sit down for this revelation: women can be intimate with women even when there’s no camera to record it for men’s viewing/even when there’s no straight man to observe it. Who would’ve thought it? Women can (and do) have sex for their own pleasure! 😮 (note the sarcasm).
This is one side of the argument for why female homosexuality has, historically, not been subject to the same scrutiny as male homosexuality… Because, men were simply unable to find it within their tiny brain cells to fathom how lesbianism could possibly be ‘real’, despite the fact that evidence of it dates back to as early as the 3rd century (around 620BCE), when the poet Sappho was writing around the themes of love and infatuation between women. In fact, it is because of Sappho, who was born in Lesbos, that a homosexual woman came to be known as a ‘Lesbian’ (‘Lesbian’ literally translates to ‘resident of the Isle of Lesbos’)…
It is such a lack of belief that lesbianism is ‘real’ that saw an attempt to amend the criminal law amendment bill so that it would see ‘gross indecency’ between females being made an offence, something which has always been limited to males, being shelved. Why? Due to a perceived lack of evidence that such acts actually take place, thus revealing the general invisibility of female sexuality in the eyes of men…
The other side of the argument is that men (the lawmakers) did recognise the existence of female homosexuality, but they didn’t want to publicise it and, in order to criminalise lesbianism, they would have had to [publicise it] (i.e., they would’ve had to confirm its existence)… In terms of why men didn’t want women to realise that lesbainism was a ‘thing’, it’s likely to be because they thought that; to recognise its existence would be to threaten the patriarchal ideal- the ‘picture perfect’ society. In contrast, they thought that, by turning a blind eye to female homosexuality, ‘respectable women’, such as, God Forbid, their wives and their daughters, wouldn’t be encouraged/intrigued? to pursue same sex relationships/to ensure that they [women] were not made aware of a different way of life…
The fact of the matter is, though, that same sex relations between women quite obviously is real, and that, it doesn’t matter how much people try to tell us otherwise, whilst ever the world is still spinning, love will always win, it will always prevail, as the history books prove because…
#LOVEISLOVE
<3
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