I’ve recently joined Kiki Funch, an alternative lesbian, bi and queer blog for bad bitches like you and us as a blogger. You can check out the website here. Kiki Funch is also on Facebook, so like our page if you’re interested, and follow us on Twitter. We’re just stating out, so stay tuned for some alternative (and funny and sassy and sexy) musings, images and videos on lesbian and queer culture.
I have just started watching the first season of Outlander, a British-American drama series where an ex-Army nurse from the late 1940s travels through time and finds herself in the Scottish highlands in 1743 and in the middle of tensions between Scottish clans men and the British redcoats. So far I am enjoying it. But there are certain elements that don’t sit well with me. But none the less, the lovely costumes and landscapes have given me inspiration to work on my own story ideas – a story I have had for years set in colonial India in the 1790s (I’ve blogged about it before). And yes, like many historical novels, involves a romance, but mine is between two women. Of course I have to have it. I love historic lesbian romances and there is something delicatable about forbidden passions and ladies wearing men’s riding breaches and boots. So with this inspiration I will make sure (setting myself reminders, setting aside a certain evening to write, even jotting thoughts down) that I write something on my story.
Image courtesy of eonline.com
Following on from my Femme / Feminine Lesbian Invisibility and after a discussion with my partner’s aunt, I have wondered a few things –
– do I just give off a ‘I’m taken and happy vibe’ that both women (gay, bi and straight women) andstraight men pick up on
– and consequently I don’t give off a ‘I’m single and available’ vibe that some people would pick up on
– does my body language says the above
Maybe it is a combination of all of the above and being presumed as straight. Perhaps I should run a little experiment where next time I head to a women only event, I wear a pin-up girl t-shirt or something rainbow to say – ‘I like the ladies!’
A Saturday night a few weeks ago some of my boylesque/drag king classmates performed at our local lesbian night club. It was a Rocky Horror Picture Show themed night and a red and black outfit of corset, fishnets and high heels was obligatory to arrive in (costume change came later). I got the occasional glance and look up and down, but no one approached me for a chat or my phone number. My intent was not to be chatted up. I am happy in my relationship and I’m not seeking other partners. But it is a nice feeling when a fellow woman (i.e. fellow lesbian) finds you attractive and you don’t have to indicate that you too are a lady loving woman. It is something I have wanted since coming out ten years ago.
Do I give off a particular vibe? Unavailable? Unapproachable? Straight? Bi-curious? Do other lesbians see me as straight? Do I, though my feminine and glamorous style and long hair, pass as straight? Is this a case of femme/feminine lesbian invisibility?
Do we need to do more for femme visibility? I think in the lesbian press and online there is definitely representation of femme/feminine looking lesbians, but do we need to change our own internal perceptions and the lesbian community’s perceptions around ‘what lesbians look like?’ Is there a certain presumption that lesbian women should be inherently ‘dykey’ or alternative in appearance? Do we need to address our own ways of spotting other lesbians? And……. perhaps our own internal doubts and les-phobia around ‘I don’t look gay’ Food for thought….
Image courtesy of Curve Magazine
Image courtesy of Curve Magazine
I was reading an email last from the Australian Science Communcators, and I was excited to find out that the World Science Festival will be coming to Brisbane in 2016. The Queensland Museum will host the Festival for three years in Brisbane, and it will be the first time the Festival has been held outside of New York City. My brain has already wondered what the program for the Festival will hold – theatrical and comedic performances and academic talks on all things science. A science festival for adults! Yes! I have an avid interest in making science fun for adults. Science centres don’t don’t draw my interest that much as the exhibitions are aimed towards children). Celebrating science, making it fun, and using multiple communication channels to represent science, scientists and contributions to society, medicine and knowledge is one of the pinnacles of science communication practise for me. In…
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Over the weekend I reached the wonderfully inspiring (well for me anyway) milestone of 5,100 views of my blog!! Simply knowing that my blog with a minuscule following has reached that many views is encouraging. I have been very quiet on this blog for a while, but have been blogging a fair bit on my Sapphicscientist’s blog. In 2015 I am planning (cracking that imaginary whip) to blog more and do it regularly. And with more regular post I might get a fee more views?!
I have been extremely inactive on my blog since October last year. Writing for an online Feminist magazine, making my first forays into learning and performing burlesque, and finally studying science communication at university took my away from my blogs. I’m a bad blogger.
Having been set a blogging assignment as part of my sci com studies has inspired me to write a post after so many inactive months. We have to create a blog and post regularly on a controversial science topic or issue. I have my thinking cap on and have started reading blogs again (I have been rather slack in this department too). Perhaps I will share my newly minted blog here, if permitted. This assignment has got me excited and inspired again!
I just read a very interesting article by Tom Welton, a Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London, in the Guardian – Gay Prejudice? It’s not easy admitting you’re a scientist. Certainly raises a few points around LGBT scientists coming out to the LGBT community and seeming disinterest in science within that community. Out LGBT scientists are just as important role models as out LGBT sports people, musicians, artists and activists. LGBT youth interested in science need to see that there are people like them that have chosen careers in science.
For the last four months I have been very quiet on the blogging front. Life, work and other projects seemed to take up all my time. But I haven’t stopped writing (even if I have haven’t been blogging). In November I started writing a column – “Queer Perspectives” for the online version of Lip Magazine, an Australian feminist magazine based in Melbourne, Victoria. This has been a wonderful opportunity to hone my writing skills and style. And hopefully my perspective on the world and my experiences have contributed in some way to the body of feminist, female oriented, and queer discourse.
In my first article Talking Sexuality and Relationships with the Golden Oldies, I wrote the positive experiences I have had when discussing sexual orientation and same sex relationships with older people.
Perhaps you can check out Lip Magazine for yourself.
Lipstick On My Lab Coat 
