O Alison Bechdel, published by Firebrand Books, Ann Arbor, M/. Reprinted with permission. CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Does A Lesbian Need a Vagina Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle? Or, Wou d the "Rea Lesbian P ease Stand Up! AMBER DEAN La question de lhpparence de La also points out how trans-identified thor of the On Our Backs personal lesbienne a dpjh btb chaudement people have the subversive potential ad, but what about to others?What contestbe et par moment a btb utilisbe to put identity categories into a tail- about Stuart, the "butch lesbian in pour qualiJer la (( vraie n lesbienne. spin, but (still, and perhaps stub- a straight man's bodyn-would he L 'auteureassure que la visibilitbd'une bornly) identifying as a dyke myself, qualify as a lesbian in anyone? eyes lesbienne est en relation directe avec ce I am more intrigued by the questions but his own? And who gets to de- qui deynit une (( vraie )) lesbienne et the strip raises about who "qualifies" cide whether one "qualifies" as a qui Aide de deynir qui l'est et qui ne as a lesbian these days and for what lesbian or not, anyway? In this pa- l'est pas. reasons (hence it is these questions, per, I attempt t; think throJgh rather than the equally important some of these questions. About five years ago I stumbled upon and challenging questions about the a comic strip from Alison Bechdel's subversive potential of trans-identi- To Be Visible brilliant Dykes to Watch Out For ties, that became the focus of this series that (like so many of her com- paper). When I first started to explore ics) made me laugh out loud and Around the same time, I came my lesbianism in the mid-1990s, I then shake my head in wonderment across a personal ad in the notori- had long spiraling hair and liked to at her ability to so compellingly bring ously gender-bending lesbian sex wear full-length skirts or flowing forward the very debates I'd found magazine, On Our Backs, in which dress pants with V-neck blouses or myselfhavingwith friends only weeks the writer insisted that only "real sweaters and, often, long dangly or days or maybe even hours before. lesbians" need reply: according to earrings. I applied perfume, make- This particular strip, "I.D. fixi?" the author of this ad, a "real" les- up, and hair products daily as part (Bechdel 58-59), starts out as a de- bian is apparently a "professional of my beauty regimen. As I tried to bate about who "qualifies" as a dyke, woman who's childless, financially break into the lesbian scene, I some- and by the end of the strip leaves the secure, spiritual, intelligent, and times wondered if my appearance reader pondering the ongoing rel- likes working out and reading" and was a barrier. Did my looks some- evance of identity categories period is definitely not a "Bi." Hmm, I how disqualify me as a lesbian? in the present "post-"(insert favour- wondered, am I missing something Similarly, a subject in Julie Melia's ite now-under-fire-brand-of-theoriz- here? When I came out, did some- essay on the lesbian "continuum of ing-or-category-of-identity here) body. forget- to send me some im- resistance" describes a long-haired world. I was particularly struck by portant guidelines that spell out friend of hers who worried she main character Sparrow's insistence exactly what qualifies one as a "real" "wasn't a real dyke because of her that sleeping with a man need not lesbian? Or, if I am a real lesbian, hair" (551). This connection be- entail renouncement of her "dyke" would I just know the guidelines tween looking like a lesbian and status (she self-identifies as a "bi- without needing to be told? Does being a lesbian-between appear- dyke" in the strip), while her boy- Bechdel's Sparrow-complete with ance and identity-seems to be a friend Stuart asserts that he consid- long hair, make-up, flowing dresses, common theme. A subject from ers himself to be "a butch lesbian in and boyfriend-qualify as a "real" Anthony Freitas, Susan Kaiser and a straight man's body." The comic lesbian? Not according to the au- Tania Hammidi's study on visibil- VOLUME 24, NUMBERS 2,3 93 ity issues in queer communities tells had a running joke about who women. My appearance is also a way us that "if you feel you are a part of looked "dykey-er." Not long after for me to communicate to the rest the greater lesbian community, it is that relationship ended, I decided of the world that I am different and important to look like you identify it was time to (once again) go back proud ofmy difference. When I first with that community" (99). In their to short hair in an effort to look came out I was eager to signal my short film WhatDoesaLesbian Look more "like a lesbian." Of course, resistance to heteron~rmativit~and Like? Winnipeg performance art- my idea of what a lesbian "looks my willingness to take on whatever ists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri like" is largely shaped by my own challenges I might have to face as a Millan poke fun at the controversy race and class backgrounds: being result of my difference, even if this and uneasiness surrounding what white, from a middle-class back- meant harassment or personal at- it means to "look like a lesbian": "Is ground, and coming to my lesbi- tacks. anism largely through my engage- Although some postmodernist ment with feminism in an academic theorizing has encouraged a shift environment, I can't help but sus- from thinking in terms of visible1 A week afEer my pect that my notion of lesbian ap- invisible bodies to terms of marked1 first sexual pearance is shaped by the lingering unmarked ones, Lisa M. Walker influence of 1970s lesbian femi- chooses to continue to use the experience with nism. My ability to conform to this former, despite the "lack of clarity" a woman, f bought narrow notion of what a lesbian she perceives in these terms (868, my first pair of "looks like," then, is unquestion- fn). As she points out, the term "un- ably influenced by my race and class marked" is used to describe the cargo pants and privilege. normative body in theory, but "in- played seriously The subjects in Melia's study visible" refers to those bodies that point out that there is a tendency are not normative, and so the two with the idea of to dramatically alter one's appear- sets of terms fail to "map directly cutting my hair ance shortly after starting to self- onto each other" (868). She argues short: and identify as a lesbian (550, 554). that a focus on visibility among Thus I remain convinced that ap- several so-called minority groups maybe gening pearance is still intimately con- has become a "tactic of late twenti- a nose ring. nected to my own and many other eth-century identity politics" lesbians' sense of our identities as (868). Melia points to how queer lesbians. For me, looking like what activists have privileged appearance I think a lesbian is supposed to look and style as "a key part of resist- she butchy, ball-busting, bad-assed like or occasionally adorning my- ance" (548), and the prevalence of with facial hair?" they ask. "Or does selfwith lesbian signifiers (my cur- the popular slogan visibility = life she strut her stuff, show some thigh, rent favourite is a button that reads on the t-shirts of some gay and les- and leave a trail of kisses with her "I got this way from kissing girls") bian activists has also been noted lipstick?" The question of what a holds several different meanings. I (Freitas et al. 84). Clearly, visibil- lesbian looks like has been hotly believe it is a way for me to be rec- ity-looking "like a lesbiann-has contested, and has at times been ognized by other dykes, which I historically been and remains an used as a standard for judging who secretly hope ensures my place important aspect of many lesbians' qualifies as a "real" lesbian and who among lesbians and communicates identities, and hence gets- tied to does not. How much does being my sexual availability to other debates about who qualifies as a visibly identifiable as a lesbian re- women (which relates to why "look- "real" lesbian. late to the question ofwho "quali- ing like a lesbian" seems more im- So what does a lesbian look like? fies" as a lesbian? portant at times when I'm not al- Although many have suggested that A week after my first sexual ex- ready in a relationship). As Freitas at various points in history there is perience with a woman, I bought et al. indicate, "visibility is often an identifiable (normative) lesbian my first pair of cargo pants and coded for 'perceivers who matter"' appearance, or very specific stand- played seriously with the idea of (97). Visibility, then, is perhaps ards of dress and style, what a les- cutting my hair short and maybe related as much to desire as it is to bian actually looks-like depends a getting a nose ring. My last lesbian identity: being visible as a lesbian great deal (of course) on the his- lover, who was in a relationship with allows me to communicate my de- torical period, on her personal pref- a man prior to me, cut her long sire to others, just as being able to erences, andlor on her desire to hair drastically shortwithin the first visibly identify other women as les- conform to these standards (Melia; two weeks of our relationship.