12/5/19
Bi Lesbians?
You know, coming from somebody who is a bi ace, I've always hated the split attraction model. It was created by ace & aro people FOR ace and aro people.
I know it's helped a lot of people in the Asexual community, but it's only ever caused trouble for me.
People have only used it to invalidate the second half of my identity as an Asexual person, when I've had experiences exclusive to being someone lacking sexual attraction.
Also, there's the fact that I knew eventually people would abuse the SAM, which is what is happening now.
The SAM was only ever meant for the aromantic and asexual communities. You have no reason to use a split attraction model if you don't lack attraction of any sort.
To do so would be insulting to your community. You can not be homosexual and be heteromantic or anything of the like. That would be internalized homophobia.
The same thing is happening with the bisexual community right now.
Bisexual women are identifying as bi lesbians, lesbian being a term exclusive to women who are only attracted to women. This also includes Asexual women who are only romantically attracted to women,
and therefore are also ace Lesbians.
Lesbians is a term exclusive to lesbians because it's the only word they have to label their identity, and now the bisexual community is not only taking it from them, but they are also taking the SAM from the asexual and aromantic community.
Here's why I think this is inappropriate to do.
Bisexuality has always included people with preferences. Prefering a certain gender doesn't make you any less Bi, therefore Bi people who use "Bi Lesbian" is an unecessary contradiction.
Second, the bigger problem here: Should lesbians change the label of their identity to accomodate nonbinary people when they date them? This is a touchy subject, but typically in these scenarios, we already have a term for it,
and we refer to the relationships as "wlnb" a.k.a. women loving nonbinary. I personally don't believe being lesbian has ever been exclusive of nonbinary people. There's also a similar debate going on, as to whether nonbinary people can call themselves lesbian or gay.
If nonbinary people can call themselves a lesbian or gay depending on their type of relationship, that solves their problem right there. They can not harm their partner's identity, while being fluid with their own and detaching the topic from their own gender, because they don't abide by the gender binary in the first place.
Third of all, this is directly harming lesbians by claiming their identity is transphobic towards nonbinary people, and lesbian is also the only term for their sexuality that they have, and people are taking it from them. Lesbian only applies to people who are attracted to women and are not attracted to men. There is already a term for women who are attracted to women who are not lesbian. There is Sapphic, and Women Loving Women.
You can not take the only thing they have.
Fourth of all, they are not only stealing a term only applicable to lesbians, they are stealing a system that was invented by the aro/ace community specifically for us. It was never meant to apply outside of this community.
I don't know why they don't see how this is harmful to multiple people. It's harmful to other bi people and the ace/aro community, of which I am a part of both, it is harmful to the lesbian community, and it is harmful to other members of the nonbinary community.
I hope that this all blows over, because it's very insulting to all of us.