Just out., June 02, 2000, Page 23, Image 23

/une 2. 2000 * J u s t m it ,2 3
the rest of me, I mean, I like to wear skirts and
pretty slips and perfume, too. I’ve just always
been like that.”
Her girlfriend, a more dykey kind of gal,
likes her that way. ‘‘I get a kick out of watching
guys who are attracted to her, knowing I’m the
one she goes home with,” she explains without
modesty.
“All I have to do to change my image is
walk down the street holding hands with my
honey,” Krista says, giving her a wide-open kiss.
The body politic
PHOTO BY BETH
ther choices we might make that con­
tribute to our image include piercings and
tattoos.
For Irene, a 29-year-old computer program­
mer from a family of three queer siblings,
adorning her body with hidden designs is a way
to feel gay underneath a fairly conservative
exterior.
“My younger brother and I chose to pierce
our nipples as a sort of bonding ritual before
coming out to our parents,” she confides. “The
nipple ring gave me a secret boost o f confi­
dence, in part because 1 felt people would
never guess from looking at me that I would
have an exotic body pierce. 1 took it out only
two years after getting it, because it never really
healed, but it was great while it lasted.”
As a masseuse whose
clients are predominantly
female, Mary Ann Stod­
dard looks at a lot of naked
women. She has seen an
increase in tattoos and
sports two beauties herself,
including a glyph of a hand
that she got when she
became a massage therapist.
“I see it as a way of
reclaiming a rite of pas­
sage,” she says, proudly bar­
ing her shoulder to show it
o ff.
Noting that her clients
are about half gay and half
straight, Stoddard theorizes
that “lesbians are more apt
to get tattooed in visible
places, to be confrontation­
al.” She adds that “straight
women tend to get them in
more sexually charged loca­
tions, to seem more allur­
ing. Dykes do it for more
political, social or spiritual
reasons and see no reason to
hide that.”
Along those same lines,
Stoddard sees more lesbians
getting piercings in visible
places, such as the face, and
notes that “straight women
tend to go for bellybutton
rings.”
She also offers a story
from her own life: “I was
totally wounded because
my partner didn’t think 1
looked gay,” she says, still in
disbelief. “My body and my image have always
been political. ...I was wearing combat boots at
14 to force people to confront my image!”
The long and
the short of it
Massage therapist Mary Ann Stoddard at
work
Her longtime girlfriend, Rosa, adds: “Pierc­
ing doesn’t tum me on, but I do think the nip­
ple pierce gave Irene a sense of empowerment
at the time. She had just come out to herself
and the pierce seemed to be a physical repre­
sentation of her feeling outside the main­
stream."
Julia, a 25-year-old tradeswoman, is a fan of
tongue piercing.
“It’s good for going down and fooling
around and stuff," she says. “But sometimes it s
obtrusive— sometimes you just want to kiss
naturally, without it being there. I got mine
caught one time when I was going down on
someone.”
nee the choice has been made about
makeup, the next great frontier is hair.
For the most part, if a woman wants to pass
for straight, she has to shave her legs and
armpits— unless she’s part of an alternative sub­
culture in which straight women also spurn the
time-consuming activity. And sure, there are
some hairy femmes out there who shave their
legs in the summer so they can feel comfortable
in a swimsuit, but I think most garden-variety
out dykes find better things to do with their
time.
Stacy, a 48 year-old house painter, likes her
women furry.
“ I love all body hair— it’s totally erotic, 1
love hot, hairy women with dark hair,” she
says enthusiastically, then adds, “ I would
never go out with a woman who shaves her
underarms.”
Another conspicuous badge of lesbian
courage is facial hair. While many women have
varying amounts of it, many also choose to
remove it.
Ironically, while Stacy loves body hair on
her partners, she draws the line at her own
facial hair.
“I’m very self-conscious about my beard,”
she says shyly. “I tend to it a lot.... I pluck
hairs every few days, and it grows in heavier
when I ovulate."
Angela, 56, has had a full beard all her
adult life, and while she’s comfortable having
her longtime partner see it in its early stages,
she says, “I have to shave it every other day....
I couldn’t keep my job if I didn’t."
Barbara, a 30-year-old government worker,
is wild about her girlfriend’s mustache.
“It kind of comes over her lip, and when we
kiss I can definitely feel it.... It’s really just
peach fuzz, hut I think it’s cute,” she says with a
wink.
“I don’t know many women who try to
grow facial hair, but I guess it goes along with
the whole hutch dyke thing. There are a lot of
punk dykes that draw on facial hair for shows,”
she adds, amused by the idea.
For certain dykes there’s just nothing so sat­
isfying as growing your own goatee.
“Once I cut my hair
short, it became apparent
to the world I w as a
lesbian. With short hair
I was referred to more
frequently as a man.
Even in bathrooms
women would look at me
like I w as in the wrong
place.”
—
Zoe, 46
Jan, 52, owns her own business and doesn’t
have to answer to anyone, and she’s proud of
her look.
“Even with this beard I’m still not taken for
a guy, not with these babies,” she laughs hearti­
ly as she takes her ample bust in her firm grasp
and thrusts it forward.
But the grandmother of all hair issues is
length. I’ve always felt that most out lesbians
feel pressured to wear their hair short— the
shorter the better.
Some dykes have it both
ways by wearing their hair
in a mullet— also known as
a “none-ton,” because
there’s almost no hair in
the front and a ton of it in
the back.
The hair issue also splits
along butch-femme lines
for those women who iden­
tify that way.
Zoe is an exception.
She is 46 and works for the
city of Portland on a mostly
male crew.
“Once I cut my hair
short, it became apparent
to the world I was a les­
bian,” she says, recalling
her younger years. “With
short hair I was referred to
more frequently as a man.
Even in bathrooms women
would look at me like 1 was
in the wrong place.”
So for the last 20 years
she has grown her hair
quite long. “Some of it has
to do with camouflaging my
dykeness. It’s easier for me
to pass out in the world as a
hippie than as a dyke.
Besides, when I let it down
it can be very sexual,” she
says with a twinkle in her
eyes.
“ It’s a veil, it’s seduc­
tive and mysterious, and
above all, it’s feminine,”
she coos, clearly an expert
at hair-tossing and other
womanly hair tricks.
Then there’s the subset of lesbians who see
themselves as fairly androgynous and wear their
hair in a kind of standard-issue dyke cut— short
enough to be practical and set off the gaydar,
yet not so extreme as to draw attention. Many
of them came of age during the ’70s, when the
feminist party line insisted lesbians should
reject the butch-femme dynamic as a vestige of
heterosexuality and instead adopt a homoge­
neous appearance.
Elaine, 46, is a classic case— a social worker
who hasn’t changed anything about her
appearance in 20 years.
“It’s a comfortable way to live,” she says.
“I’m not threatening to my straight co-workers,
yet I also fit in at any lesbian potluck. I’ve had
the same haircut forever— wash and wear—
and I don’t even think about it, except to
notice I get a little grayer each year.”
And then she laughs, because she’s OK with
that too.
Coded dress
laine also hasn’t changed anything about
her clothes in many years. Again, it’s
almost as if she wears a lesbian uniform: sensi­
ble shoes, pants (cords in the winter, tailored
cotton in the summer, jeans after work) and
men’s shirts. She lets out a hearty laugh when
asked if she owns a dress.
“It’s been 25 years since the last time I wore
a dress.... I was a bridesmaid. In fact, I’ve only
worn three dresses since college, all as a brides­
maid for my sisters,” she recalls with delight.
Turning more serious, Elaine adds: “I felt
like I was in drag when I wore a dress.. .even as
a little girl. I even wore shorts under my school
dresses to make myself feel better about it.”
E
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