The Real, Spectacular Amazons/Lesbians Connection
The girl-gang warriors were not as mythical as you might think
To read, write, or think about lesbians is to be surrounded by Amazons. This morning I read a play by Carolyn Gage called The Amazon All-Stars. On my bookshelf, it sits alongside The Amazon Trail, by Lee Lynch; Karla Jay’s The Amazon and the Page; and Valley of the Amazons, by Noretta Koertge. Back in the day, there were feminist publications called Amazon: A Feminist Journal, Amazon News, Amazon Spirit, Amazon Times, and the Amazon Mime Grapevine. (That last one really was a newsletter by and for feminist mime artists.) I could’ve bought those publications at Amazon Bookstore, the first feminist bookstore in the United States, founded in 1970. I might have read them while listening to Phranc sing about being “strong, strong like an Amazon.”
But why do lesbians identify as Amazons? It’s easy to see why misogynists would apply the label. Big, strong, capable women? Those aren’t the sort of traits certain men like to encourage. Look at mainstream coverage of women’s sports before, say, 1985, and it’s hard to avoid the A word — and it wasn’t intended as a compliment. But all the examples I mentioned above were enthusiastically chosen by lesbians and for lesbians.
