LGB ErasureJulie Bindel: There's no gay gene – and I love the idea I chose to be a lesbian

submitted by yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" from newstatesman.com

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[–]PatsyStoneMaverique 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

No. If she's said that in other circumstances it could just as easily mean that she could closet herself and marry a man. She seems deliberately vague about it, and has not had relationships with men in her almost fifty years of adulthood.

I think this fight over what a lesbian is boils down to differing needs between women of different economic classes and how that interrelates with how they express their sexuality. Bindel benefits from recruiting as many women as possible into exclusively partnering with women, and the mostly white-collar professional women she's addressing this to don't.

Times changed, lesbians went mainstream.

[–]strictly 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It could just as easily mean that she could closet herself and marry a man.

A homosexual woman who forces herself to have sexual relationship with men would live in torture, it would be hard for that homosexual woman, not easy. Julie Bindel says it wouldn’t be hard for her (and she referred to sex/attraction in the article I read where she said that, not fake relationships).

has not had relationships with men in her almost fifty years of adulthood.

Haven't seen/heard her talk about her sexual history. Does she claim to never had sex with a man?

Bindel benefits from recruiting as many women as possible into exclusively partnering with women, and the mostly white-collar professional she's addressing this to don't.

You mean you think she is pretending to be bisexual in hopes to get as many bisexual women as possible to become febfems?

[–]PatsyStoneMaverique 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No, I do not mean that. Bindel has a very different idea of sexuality and sexual expression than you and I do. She is not bisexual by any metric I evaluate it on, and the argument lesbians are making essentially boils down to "she's so wrong about lesbianism she can't possibly be one."

How 'bout you paste the article address into an archive site and read it yourself.

[–]strictly 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

the argument lesbians are making essentially boils down to "she's so wrong about lesbianism she can't possibly be one."

Having an identity as political lesbian is not the same thing as having homosexual sexual orientation, political lesbian is just someone who identifies as a lesbian due to political reasons so that in itself doesn’t really say anything about her sexual orientation. The only information there is to go on is that she is portrays herself as bisexual by saying it wouldn’t be hard for her to be with men so I choose to take her word for it. She calls homosexuality a choice, had she been homosexual I assume she would have known it isn’t a choice as she would have herself as an example. EDIT: I read the linked archive of another article of her, she doesn't seem to be straight either as she doesn't seem to get that heterosexual women can't choose to be into women, she seems like someone who doesn't get what monosexuality is, probably because she is into both sexes and thus doesn't understand it not possible for a monosexual person to force themselves to be attracted the sex they are not into.

How 'bout you paste the article address into an archive site and read it yourself.

She already convinced me in the article I did read, be it this one or another. If this article is another one she is probably consistent enough that she isn't saying anything there making me think she would be exclusively attracted to women. As you say she was vague I am guessing she didn't say anything about being exclusively sexually into women or that it would be a horrible turn off for her to be with a man. But it’s true that there is some possibility that she could have an ulterior motive to portray herself as bisexual, but for now I will take her word for it.