Wimmin's Land

After the NYTimes published a piece on a group of older lesbians living together
in Alabama I heard from friends and family who wanted me to know about the article.
They were pleased to find lesbian lives examined in the New York Times.

I have to wonder about the article. There are lesbian communities all over this country, and beyond ... they exist in a variety of ways ... some much older and more well-established than the one in Alabama that made the Times. Most cities have a "gay" neighborhood and many have lesbian communities that seriously seek to locate in blocks owned and rented by only lesbians. Kansas City has a good thing going, Arkansas and Atlanta, NYC ... Minneapolis,Seattle, San Francisco .... oh the variables keep growing.

The point of the NYTimes article was that the practice of separatism is dying.
The wimmin in the group from Alabama were older and having difficulty encouraging younger wimmin to join their efforts, their family and their land. Without new women entering the group their efforts end with their lives.

It is a hard point. I worked with a group to create affordable and lovely housing for aging lesbians in midcoast Maine. You must incorporate some inclusion of younger women, or you are not sustainable. True. We had a number of ideas, including creating a scholarship for med school with internships served at the Old Dykes Home.
Design for inclusion.

One writer ranted over their "sexism" and hatred of men.
Arguing sexism over lesbian separatism doesn't work .... lesbians are marginalized and oppressed, old lesbians more so, and you must have power to reinforce your prejudice (and isn't this a key word .... prejudice instead of knowledge from which you make personal living decisions) but let's use the term "prejudice" and point out for the umteenth time, that you need power commit an "ism" .... these women have no power over men. Please.
And if you read the article and look at the accompanying video, you see they interact well with men in the community and in fact, they say they depend on these folks ... .... which really means that for all the separatism talk, these women are dependent on men to some extent. That may be the discussion here ... however their dependency is selected and self-defined, their boundaries respected and acknowledged. And if this was the conversation to have, the idea to examine in all of this .... in patriarchy can any woman's land be totally separatist.

And.
Why the NYTimes selected this group as an example, I don't know. They were reported to have formed after the demise of Pagoda ... which is never accurately explained. Pagoda was conclave of lesbian space almost on the water in St. Augustine, Florida. You crossed over a big bridge (my former partner and I walked this bridge to Pagoda after taking a short vacation there in 1984) .... the town moved this bridge so that it emptied and was accessed directly across from the entrance to Pagoda .... a hard way to live. There were a number of other reasons this long-time group disbanded, but let's not forget to include the absolute lack of community support with a major highway in their driveway. And they kept a journal. I wrote in it and I read it. They took notes in every meeting, so much to learn on the difficulty of keeping this special place going. So many decisions and disagreements. From the heart.

When I visited there in 1984 it cost us $15 a night for a room with kitchen privileges ... we were both working non-profits, I worked with battered women and C worked with people with HIV-AIDS .... we had no money, wanted to support women in whatever we did and so Pagoda was a good choice for us .... we took the bus down from Atlanta. It was in February, I remember still. It was warmish. I saw dolphins and I still have the black shell I found on the beach there. C made a shell mobile as a gift to the house before we headed back to the city. It was a good time for us.

Women's Space. I have found something to write about ... and will.
Part two to follow ... my interview with some of these women at the Michigan Women's Festival and a bigger discussion of Wimmin's Land.