Lesbian Culture
See also: Labrys, Black triangle (badge), and Black triangle (badge)As with gay men, lesbian culture includes elements both from the larger LGBT culture and elements that are specific to the lesbian community. Often thought of in this regard are elements of counterculture that have been primarily associated with lesbians in Europe, Australia/New Zealand and North America and includes large, predominantly lesbian events such as Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend.
Contemporary lesbian culture also has its own icons such as Melissa Etheridge. Others include k.d. lang (butch), Ellen DeGeneres (androgynous), and Portia de Rossi (femme).
The history of lesbian culture over the last half-century has also been tightly entwined with the evolution of feminism. Lesbian separatism is an example of a lesbian theory and practice which identifies specifically lesbian interests and ideas and promotes a specific sort of lesbian culture.
Older stereotypes of lesbian women stressed a dichotomy between women who adhered to stereotypical male gender stereotypes ("butch") and stereotypical female gender stereotypes ("femme"), and that typical lesbian couples consisted of a butch/femme pairing. Today, some lesbian women adhere to being either "butch" or "femme," but these categories are much less rigid and are now uncommon as lesbianism becomes more mainstream. Also notable are diesel dykes, extremely butch women who use male forms of dress and behavior. Lipstick lesbian refers to feminine women who are attracted to other women.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Culture
Famous quotes containing the words lesbian and/or culture:
“It is the lesbian in us who is creative, for the dutiful daughter of the fathers in us is only a hack.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)