Lesbian separatism class (1 of 2): Acting.

My last class at the art school was on lesbian separatism, which the kids just didn’t get.

“They’re like stereotypes of what people think feminists are,” one of my (white) (female) students said.

One of my (white) (gay) (male) students brought up this section from the reading, where Sonia Johnson posits that once men’s violence disappears from the world, animals will stop killing each other, some evidence of which we have from the Bible, which, although a record of the systematic genocide of goddess peoples, has vestigial memories of lions lying down with lambs.

“I just don’t find that plausible,” he was like, after he read out those several paragraphs to the class, at my request.

“Why?”, I was like.

“Science,” he said.

At that point, I decided I had to defend Sonia Johnson, so I asked my class how Sonia Johnson might respond to that remark.

No one really knew, so I stepped up, and began talking in a  painfully immediate stage voice.

“But nature is a web, we are interconnected, violence ripples out and effects *everything*,” I was like.

“But in nature animals kill each other,” he was like.

“Why are you separating manunkind out from nature?”, I was like.  “That’s mensgame, we’re here, and animals are here, and we’re separate from everything, and we can dominate and destroy them at our desire.”

“But that’s just not plausible,” he was like.

“In my heart, I know it’s true,” I was like, “And I know you’ve seen it too.  We’ve all seen glimpses of a womyn’s world, we’ve all felt it, we all know it can be true again – at least those of us who aren’t afraid.  Why are you so attached to your science?  It’s keeping you from so much, that’s a classic part of mensgame.  Let it go, let it go so you can dance, let it go so you can live, let it go so you can *dream*.”

 Then, after a very short pause, I was like, "Dream."

Then, after a third very short pause, I was like, "DREAM."
 

Then, after a longer pause, I broke character and asked students if that was a plausible response, as if Sonia Johnson was here.

They nodded, and one was admiringly like, “It’s all so earnest.”

Later, after we discussed how a lesbian separatist commune gained knowledge of chainsaws, my one (white) (gay) (male) student spoke up again, and was like, “If it’s okay for them to get traditionally male knowledge and incorporate that into part of their community, why is it wrong for me to take on feminine behavior?  That upsets social order, that makes me be an ally.”

“Class,” I was like, “Did the readings address anything like that?”

It hadn’t, and the class said so.

“So then, class,” I was like, “How might a lesbian separatist respond to that objection?”

No one really knew, so I gave them a minute to think over the answer.

“Anyone want to step up and rebut?”, I was like.

No one did, so I was like, “Let me try,” and I began by thanking my student for voicing serious, substantive objections, and having the good will to be an opposition opponent in public debate.

Then, I got intense, and was like, “Okay, you want to be woman, you really want to be a woman?  Well, you know what?  You’re welcome to it.  You try being raped, you try being murdered, you try being sexually abused at the hands of men, and then *you* tell *me* how *you* enjoyed your vacation.”

After I let that sink in, I broke character and was like, “Okay, so how was that, was that a plausible response from a lesbian separatist?”

People nodded, and my one fashion student commented after a pause, “I liked how you did that little movement with your head at the end.”

Then, someone else was like, “You really got into that.”

I didn’t directly respond, but again thanked my one (white) (gay) (male) student for his participation and goodwill.