dyke - (n. informal, offensive) a lesbian.
when someone asks why bi/pan wlw can’t say dyke, this is usually the screenshot they’re sent in response. but what if we took a look further down the rabbit hole?
what exactly is a lesbian, according to google?
lesbian - (n.) a homosexual woman. (adj.) relating to homosexual women or homosexuality in women [”a lesbian relationship”].
okay, this checks out. “homosexual” is a highly medicalized term, but it’s not inaccurate here. and yeah, the sapphic community is trying to make a shift from saying “lesbian relationship” to “f/f” relationship, but before ‘sapphic’ and ‘wlw’ become popular terms, ‘lesbian’ was an umbrella term for all wlw. it still makes sense.
so then, what’s a homosexual (according to google)?
homosexual - (adj.) (of a person) sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex. (n.) a person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex.
okay, that checks out. sure, it’s a bit narrow for a definition of gayness, excluding asexuals and transgender people with outdated language like “sexually attracted to … sex”.
do you see the words “not attracted to men” or “not attracted to women” anywhere in any of the 3 google definitions above?
do you see the words “exclusively attracted to women (and no other genders)” or “exclusively attracted to men” anywhere in any of the 3 google definitions above?
if you answered “no” to both of those questions, you are correct! google does NOT define lesbians as “women who are not attracted to men” OR “women exclusively attracted to other women”.
which means, if you’re using a screenshot of the google definition of ‘dyke’ to prove that bi/pan wlw shouldn’t be allowed to reclaim it, you’re making a fool out of yourself, because you didn’t even bother to look up what google defines ‘lesbian’ as. if you think lesbian only ever means “woman attracted exclusively to women and not men”, using a google definition that literally contradicts your beliefs is just ignorant.
thanks for listening to my TED talk on why ‘dyke’ is not a lesbian-only slur, I’ll be here all week
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