OUR Herstory: The Van Dykes of The 70's

[bluedawg12]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_levy

Ariel Levy, American Chronicles, “Lesbian Nation,”
The New Yorker, March 2, 2009, p. 30

Read the full text of this article. (Registration required.)

ABSTRACT: AMERICAN CHRONICLES about Lamar Van Dyke and the lesbian separatist movement. In the late nineteen-seventies, several thousand women in North America decided not to concern themselves with equal pay for equal work, or getting their husbands to do the dishes. Why capitulate, why compromise when you could separate, live in a world of your own invention. The lesbian separatists of a generation ago created a shadow society devoted to living in an alternate, penisless reality. There were many factions from the Gutter Dykes in Berkeley to the Radicalesbians in New York City. The most colorful separatists, although they were not the most influential, nor the most ideologically stalwart, were the Van Dykes, a roving band of van-driving vegans who shaved their heads, avoided speaking to men, and lived on the highways of North America for several years. Tells how the founding Van Dykes, Heather Elizabeth and Ange Spaulding first came to hit the road in 1977. Ange took the name Brook Van Dyke because she was loquacious: a babbling Brook. Heather Elizabeth became Heather Van Dyke, and then, eventually, Lamar Van Dyke, after Hedy Lamarr. Perhaps, they thought, they could persuade every lesbian in America to cast off the slave name she’d been given at birth or taken at the altar in favor of this tough-sounding moniker that proclaimed: “Your eyes do not deceive you: I am a real live lesbian.” Mentions feminists who were drawn to lesbianism not as a matter of sexual preference, but rather one of political and ideological choice. Writer describes meeting Lamar Van Dyke for the first time. She is an unusually large woman with short, dark hair and tattoos winding up and down both arms. Tells about Van Dyke’s childhood in Buffalo. She left home at nineteen and conceived a child after a one-night-stand, a girl whom she gave up for adoption. She was married three times. Her third husband, Bruce Beyer, was an antiwar protester who fled to Sweden. There, Van Dyke attended an international women’s conference where she became exhilarated by the brand of radical feminism being espoused. Describes other members of the Van Dykes and tells about their travels around the United States and Mexico. Describes how one member of the group introduced the others to sadomasochism and how S & M became divisive among the Van Dykes and the larger women’s movement. Lamar Van Dyke moved to Seattle in 1980 and became a kingpin in the local S & M scene, opening a tattoo parlor. Tells about her reconnection with her daughter, Traci Lewis. Van Dyke works with men now, and even speaks to them. A woman in her sixties who has been resolutely doing as she pleases for as long as she can remember is not easy to come by, in movies or in books, or in life.

[tbyg52]

1. Thank you! That is very interesting, and I wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't posted it here.

I must admit, when I saw "after Hedy Lamarr," the first thing that popped to the top of my Magic 8-Ball mind was "that's *Hedley*".... ;)

[bluedawg12]

2. Yeah, who knew.

I had not heard of them before, either. But, if it was Hedley they wouldn't have talked to him! :rofl:

BTW- I did love Harvey Korman.

[Ellen Forradalom]

Between this article and the front-page NYT piece on womyn's lands

I wonder why all the newfound interest in lesbian separatism? We haven't heard about radical lesbian feminists in the MSM for decades, and then two prominent pieces in a row. Very interesting.

[bluedawg12]

4. I don't know about the MSM, I'm just interested in learning about this topic

and other bits of lesbian history.

One blog just led to another last night. But, now that you mention it, I do see something in the NYT.

Thanks for the heads up, this was from January 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/fashion/01womyn.html?scp=1&sq=womyn's%20lands&st=cse

"My Sister’s Keeper

By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: January 30, 2009

THEY called it a lesbian paradise, the pioneering women who made their way to St. Augustine, Fla., in the 1970s to live together in cottages on the beach. Finding one another in the fever of the gay rights and women’s liberation movements, they built a matriarchal community, where no men were allowed, where even a male infant brought by visitors was cause for debate.

Emily Greene was one of those pioneers, and at 62 she still chooses to live in a separate lesbian world. She and 19 other women have built homes on 300 rural acres in northeast Alabama, where the founders of the Florida community, the Pagoda, relocated in 1997.

Behind a locked gate whose security code is changed frequently, the women pursue quiet lives in a community they call Alapine, largely unnoticed by their Bible Belt neighbors — a lost tribe from the early ’70s era of communes and radical feminism. “I came here because I wanted to be in nature, and I wanted to have lesbian neighbors,” said Ms. Greene, a retired nurse. She hopes the women, ages 50 to 75, will be able to raise enough money to build assisted-living facilities on the land and set up hospice care.

She walks each day in the woods with her two dogs, Lily, a border collie mix, and Rita Mae, a Jack Russell terrier and beagle mix named for Rita Mae Brown, the feminist activist and author of the lesbian classic “Rubyfruit Jungle.” Ms. Greene trims branches of oak, hickory and sassafras trees and stops by the grave of a deer she buried in the woods after it was hit by a car. She named it Miracle. “I talk to Miracle every day,” Ms. Greene said. “That is one of my joys of living here.”

read more at the link..."

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. dupe, self-delete

whoops.