Angry Lesbians

May 1st 2008 – Inhabitants of the Greek isle ‘Lesbos’ are going to court to petition for the outlawing of the term ‘Lesbian’ used by gay activists and communities. If successful, the Greek ‘Lesbians’ (as in inhabitants of Lesbos) will pursue the enactment of an international ban. They claim that the use of the term by gay communities is disgraceful, creates social problems and ‘violates their human rights’ (BBC News Service). Needless to say, whereas the inhabitants of Lesbos take this dead seriously, the gay community has responded with much levity and triviality.

On the one side, up to 350,000 people call home the legendary island of Lesbos. Their ancestral roots reach back past the modern era, survived the Hellenistic civil wars (323-30 BC), the classical and archaic Greek periods dominated by Sparta, Athens and Thebes (600-323 BC) and could even originate from autochthonous inhabitants from the 7-8th millennium BC. It has an illustrious history connecting ancient Greek wars to Turkish invasions, to a current frontier land between the Greeks and their timeless nemesis, Turkey (Asia Minor/Anatolia/Persia/Ottoman Empire/Byzantine Empire depending on the era). Thus, we may well understand and even empathize with the cause of these Lesbians who have a timeless claim to their civic/national designation that even predates the liberal homosexuality of ancient Athens. Furthermore, today, homosexuality has definitely lost its once accepted aspect in the eastern Mediterranean and carries a heavy social stigma. To conclude, the embarrassment of the inhabitants of Lesbos as well as the Greek government and people may soon lead to the renaming of the island after its capital city, Mytilene.

On the opposing side, gay rights movements, the international gay community and the rest of contemporary civilization have used the term ‘Lesbian’ since it was defined as feminine homosexual relations in the 1870 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. I might add that there is a direct connection between the term and the island in ancient Greek mythology/lore. The Poetess Sappho was, it is generally believed, from Mytilene on Lesbos in the 7th-6th century BC. She wrote of love and infatuation between women (also between women and men) although very rarely wrote of intercourse (if at all). Having very little written records of women before the Renaissance, never mind women writing about homosexuality, she was chosen to represent the gay female community and thus ‘Lesbian’ (as well as ‘Sapphic’) has since passed into the gay ethos. From where I stand, this seems to be a legitimate and respectful appropriation of ancient history/mythology to represent a certain concept/identity. Today, the gay community probably does not have in mind the tarnishing of the national identity of the Lesbian people; I doubt most of them knows it exists. It can easily be interpreted as a subtle tribute rather than a direct affront.

I know what you are thinking: the people of Lesbos have a legitimate right not to be humiliated and have a traditional claim to the term meanwhile Lesbians now use the word proudly to represent themselves and their sexual identity, PICK ONE! All right, here goes. I find it highly doubtful the inhabitants of Lesbos will be able to patent their regional nationalism and sue every gay woman on earth; Albania could then sue everyone who uses the term Pyrrhic victory, Belgium, whomever uses Waterloo and Israel, could simply sue everyone. Furthermore, the root of the problem seems to be that they are disgraced, ashamed and socially penalized because of their association to homosexuality. Maybe their energies should be refocused on the real source of this problem: the Greek mentality that associates homosexuality with disgrace, shame and social deviance. We have to be honest here, most people in California can’t point to their own country on a map; they certainly don’t harbour nefarious designs for the people of Lesbos. In that same vein, ignorance is not a valid excuse for the lightness with which the gay communities are treating the preoccupations of the Lesbian people. They are displaying their belief that gay rights are extremely important in all facets of society yet people that want to preserve national dignity are seemingly a big joke.

All in all, Lesbos is in an impossible situation because mental structures in the near-East will not change soon and gay females will be termed ‘Lesbians’ for at least a few more centuries. Also, gay communities need to seriously revamp their Public Relations office and stop staring exclusively at their penultimately important, gay belly-buttons.

.

(Pictured: Sappho, as painted by Gustav Klimt - Lesbos, this is where you would point on a map)

End.