As I was reading Suzanne Pharr’s article, she mentions the subject of lesbian baiting, which is an attempt to control women by labeling them as lesbians due to their behaviors such as being independent, fighting for their rights in society, making changes by demanding equal pay, being self-assertive, assuming the right to their bodies, saying no to violence, and bottom line being able to live their lives without having to relying on men to do all the hard work. When women aren’t acting as they “should” by resisting male dominance and control, it has nothing at all to do with their sexual orientation. As Suzanne mentions in her article, being named as a lesbian threatens all women with great loss and any woman who steps away from their claimed “role” in society is at risk of being labeled as lesbian.
I believe every woman, including myself, has been labeled as a lesbian somehow, either directly or indirectly, whether it’d be true or not. I’ve spent so much of my life proving that women can do just as much as men can if not better. I am independent, self-assertive, I voice my own opinions, and I challenge men in nearly everything that they claim women just cannot do. At some part of my life I will admit I have feared being called a lesbian, simply because I knew I favored men 100% as my sexual preference, but as I later came to realize, sexual preference has really nothing to do with a woman standing up for what she believes in and what she knows she can do. Believing such a thing as that can surpass any label someone is willing to place on another.
I completely agree when you say all women have been called lesbian in one way or another. It's crazy to think that people use lesbian baiting to scare women into fiting mythical norms.
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