‘Lesbians Are Dying Out’

‘Lesbians Are Dying Out’ is a self-published comic, currently on display at Glasgow Women’s Library as part of their ‘Trans Zines’ display which showcases ‘the ways the trans community have used zines to… express their creativity and joy’. We posted some pictures of the comic on Twitter, with our opinion of the content- we’re not fans- and it all went a bit…interesting.

We’ve been told several times, mainly by men, that we have missed the point of the comic, that we’re stupid, self-centred and middle class, that we don’t understand satire, that we don’t speak for all lesbians, and, of course, that we’re transphobic.

These men are entitled to their opinions, but to say we have missed the point of the comic strongly implies that they haven’t read it. However, just in case, I decided to do a bit of a deeper dive.

The cover, with its subtitle about TRANSPHOBIA, sets the reader up to understand that this comic contains something BAD.

The trigger warning on the next page reinforces to readers that the comic contains depictions of BAD THINGS. The author is anxious to make it clear that, while she is reporting these BAD THINGS, she does not herself think BAD THINGS. She’s so anxious to be seen as a non-transphobe that she invites readers to police her opinions for her, and gives her email address so they can let her know if she has got something wrong.

The next couple of pages set the scene, depicting the ‘war’ over the reform of the Gender Recognition Act and the protests by lesbians opposed to this. The author portrays these lesbians (and other women) as ranty and hysterical, opposing a change which would simply make it ‘easy’ and ‘cheap’ for people to identify as trans.

This page shows the same older, white, grey-haired, lesbian who was previously expressing BAD THINGS about gender recognition reform. She cowers as she is showered in bananas and aubergines. She’s expressing fear at men self-IDing as women and lesbians, because she is afraid that those lesbians will have…P-P-PENISES! She doesn’t want to have sex with a P-P-PENIS because she’s afraid of P-P-PENISES, and she’s being mocked for that fear.

The writing of ‘penis’ as p-p-penis indicates that this lesbian is intended to be a comic character- which is probably why the comic’s supporters choose to frame it as satire- who is also weak, nervous, or just not very bright. The ‘TERF is a slur’ slogan on her t-shirt hints that she lacks a sense of humour. The use of bananas and aubergines as penis proxies just serve to confirm that this lesbian, previously shown trying to defend the sexual boundaries of lesbianism, is to be regarded as a figure of fun. 

The author here is framing lesbianism not as a sexual orientation, an attraction to and love of women, but as a fear of penises. She is playing on at least two homophobic tropes: that homosexuals have a ‘genital fetish’ because they refuse to consider as potential partners those people who have the wrong things in their pants, and that homosexual people are uniquely obsessed with sex. For good measure she hints at the trope that gender critical women in general are obsessed with genitals. She holds lesbians who hold those opinions in contempt.

Having framed lesbians with gender critical beliefs in such a thoroughly negative way, the author goes on to question why she does not feel motivated to join them in defending ‘woman’ and ‘lesbian’ as ‘identities’. She spends the rest of the comic explaining her thoughts- her sincerely held beliefs- which, in contrast to those of terfy lesbians, are not intended to be taken as humour or satire.

Her views on men being welcomed into lesbianism are hinted at on page 10, where she berates lesbians for wanting ‘more lesbians’ yet policing lesbianism so rigidly that ‘only a few women could qualify’. Having clear and universally recognised boundaries to our sexual orientation is clearly a BAD THING.

She goes further on the following page, explaining that women already come in all different shapes and sizes and we should be happy to expand that a bit to include women with man-shaped bodies. Women already have a million different experiences, so there’s plenty of room to add some male experiences. Men who want to identify into womanhood are invited to ‘come on in!’ Having boundaries to our sex class is also a BAD THING.

But the really egregious lesbophobia appears on the next page, illustrated with the author holding a giant aubergine. That p-p-penis? It’s just another body part, like a little floppy arm or a vestigial tail. It’s no different to a leg, or an ear. It’s got ‘cultural meanings’, but they can be changed. How do we change them? By telling women who have the wrong idea about penises to shut up.

Women don’t have penises? Transphobe! Other people’s parts are none of your business! 

Previous penis-related trauma? Don’t you dare weaponise that to tell men they can’t be women!

I don’t think any lesbians see penises as ‘abstract’ or ‘not attached to people’; on the contrary, the vast majority of us are well aware that penises are very firmly attached to men. However, the author is absolutely determined to get penises into lesbianism. She wants us to focus on the whole person, not the penis. To see the woman, not the dick. To become homogenderal, not homosexual. 

Following this, the humour is back. The author offers a suggestion of how she sees the future if TERFs ‘win’: internment camps. Apparently the only alternative to full, enthusiastic, flag waving acceptance of men into lesbianism is the imprisonment of trans-identifying people on, er, the Isle of Man, which I really hope is an intentional joke. 

At this point, the lesbian TERF is looking quite jolly, having got rid of all those pesky p-p-penises. However, trans people have always existed, the author tells her, and those people who think the BAD THINGS need to learn that talking about their concerns is ‘giving voice to hatred’. Debate is bad. The only thing the sensible, non-transphobic lesbian can do is stand with her trans sisters, and shut up. 

Any young lesbian picking this comic up will learn that to follow her sexual orientation and exclude men is to be a BAD PERSON. Any trans-identifying man reading it will learn that he is welcome in lesbianism, and that those lesbians who say no to him are bigots deserving only of contempt and ridicule. They’re frightened of penis, because they haven’t changed the ‘cultural meanings’ they hold for it. Once they do that, as the author apparently has, they can enjoy a vastly expanded pool of be-penised lesbians- and the erasure of our sexual orientation will be complete.