Lesbian economics
by Lee Lynch
Late in the fall of 1985, a group of fifteen
w om en sat before a woodstove in Southern
O regon, rain incessant but comforting out
side, and talked. Noticeable was a lack of
controversy, criticism, and bitterness. Newly
present were evidence of foresight, a con
frontation with real problem s and a recogni
tion of the enem y as outsider, rather than
am ong us.
“Carol and me," said Dana in her slow,
seem ingly casual voice, "we’ve been working
our asses off building. We want to start our
bed and breakfast this spring.”
“Can you make a living from one of those?"
"No. But I want to be a farmer. It'll supple
m ent the farm.”
A professional counselor across the room
suggested, "Lesbians make money. We need
ways to spend it on other lesbians’ goods and
services.”
Sue, soft-spoken, with lively blue eyes, is
the new owner of a small grocery store in
Grants Pass. “It's a question of econom ic
survival these days.”
“Yeah,” agreed several women.
"After five years, we re still operating our
health food store out of love," said Daphne
from It’s a Natural on Second Ave. in Myrtle
Creek. “It's gotten to the point, though, where
Judith is considering taking a job."
“Still,” offered Judith with enthusiasm,
“once we were those people up there.’ Now
the com m unity welcomes our presence in
projects."
The artist of the group was offering her
work for sale that day. "I’m trying to support
myself partially with my a rt This is where you
co m e in," she said to us all, gesturing toward
a wide variety of possible Christmas gifts. “I
need to know what you w ant That will help to
shape what I do."
I, too, have dealt with this question of survi
val. My books earn back only my expenses —
for which I’m grateful. But I support myself
with a straight job. Last night I dream t a whole
beginning-to-end spy novel with a lesbian
heroine. I woke thinking, “This is how I’ll
m ake enough m oney to write full time!” Then
I thought, “Is this how I want to spend the next
two years of my life? Violence, fear — Super-
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Sappho saving the world?” I may have to
consider it after I fail to get any of the grants or
awards I’ve applied for from the straight world.
I may have to if I give up on getting concrete
support from our gay culture.
Why don’t I m ake money from my books?
The lesbian market is just beginning to be
visible, reachable. Lesbians don’t have or
won’t spend their money on books. I can ’t be
awarded (even if 1 deserved them ) a Gay Gug
genheim , a Perverts’ Pulitzer, when neither
exists y et And they won’t exist until we see
ourselves as a group which deserves mutual
su p p o rt
S u e’s living on the edge, along with
Daphne, Judith and the farmer-hoteliers,
partly because we re just beginning to m a
ture as a culture, just beginning to recognize
our responsibility for and to ourselves
economically. When we were kids it was okay
to live in student ghettos, eat fast food diets,
work m inim um wage jobs, squander our
safety, health and energies. But now?
I once sat in rag-tag circles of theorists,
complaining about the patriarchy. I once ap
plauded the spray-painting sloganeers, took
over a radio station, lived on unemployment,
alcohol and drugs. I’ve also worked full-time,
owned my hom e and established good credit
The wom en around the woodstove were
saying that they, too, had not found solutions
in separatism or in absorption into the main
stream . They wanted to be self-supporting
an d som e want to specialize in serving wo
m en. Perhaps only the professional haircut-
ter who was with us can do both right now.
The artist got a monetary show of support
that day. The others began with the seed of a
plan. Perhaps a brochure to be distributed in
the lesbian comm unity regionally, or even
nationally. Dare we think of a lesbian Chamber
of C om m erce? The brochure would sport a
m ap of this Amazon Trail of ours, with laven
der m arkers for our own businesses and a
listing of local highlights and services along
the way. Certainly ads in Just Out, Eugene
Women s Press, Rag Times. A counter
culture, is, after all, a culture, its media as real
and potentially as effective as any other.
A little thrill ran through me. As important
a s they are, too, this was not a group consid
ering m eans to symbolically take back the
n ig h t This was not a group considering
whether it should censor S&M material. This
was not a group considering whether women
should have children, own pets, eat only veg
etables, shave their legs.
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" We d o n ’t want to be changing bedsheets
for straights," one of the farmers said strongly.
"We re glad to work with a whole com
munity,” was the tone of the natural food
sellers.
The grocer is always open-arm ed to the
dykes who travel out of their way to play
Pacm an or buy lunch in her store. She loves
her work, they all love their work, and they’re
ready to balance profit and loss, know-how
and learning, caution and flagrant queem ess,
to be them selves in a world of their own
making.
In the next room was a tableful of hom e
m ade foods. The group re-formed around it,
seemingly unchanged. But were they a little
stronger for sharing their vision? This pro
cess of envisioning and building is so gradual.
Look at the centuries behind us, when such a
group would not have thought to meet, or
had they met, might have been arrested for
witchcraft Look at som e of the surges of
woman-power before: the ancient amazons,
the flagrant lesbians of the twenties, the self-
sufficient women of World War II. There are
those who say m en took the power in ancient
tim es to control ownership of land. The de
pression of 1929 seem ed to put an end to
that em erging lesbian culture. When the men
returned after World War II, the women pas
sively handed over the reins.
Econom ics is obviously a key to winning
back our place in the world — and to making
a world of our own. What we craft now before
our woodstoves, m ust be slow, considered,
sound. We’ve always worked our asses off for
som eone else. Will we finally do it for each
other?
, ■:ikd
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16
Just Out, February, 1986