Joan E. Biren – Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979)

Suzanne Shifflett (prints currently 15% off to raise funds for her sick dog)

cozy nights <3

check more of my work on instagram // buy prints here

✨ call for zine submissions! ✨

are you a DYKE? do you have a WARM FUZZY friend (or coldblooded bestie)? then submit a photo of yourself and your pets to [email protected] with any name/pronouns/caption you’d like included next to your photo, to be featured in a future zine called Warm Fuzzy Dykes, a photo collection with a halloween-y, autumnal warmth 🍂☕️🐱🐶🧡

requirements:

be a dyke

be 18+

have a silly lil guy

cutoff date TBD based on submission rate

Good Luck, Babe!

Happy Valentines Day from me and My Wife ❤️

There's something I've been thinking a lot recently, about how lesbianism is truly a unique sexual orientation even among other minority ones, and how that affects our art and writing that should be about self-expression. Lesbians are so far in the margins, being first women, then a minority of women by being same-sex attracted, and then a minority of those ssa women by being exclusively ssa. That's not even mentioning other factors that might intersect, such as race or ability. This can leave us feeling isolated and scrambling for support and allies, and in my opinion, one can compromise too much while struggling to be understood, and even lose important parts of yourself in the quest for solidarity and inclusivity.

So, what I want to say to my fellow lesbian writers and artists:

Be bold.

Be honest.

Be unapologetic.

Question your motives and biases again to make sure you're not holding yourself back. Don't let yourself become your own lesbophobic call-out-poster or a narrowminded critic. Don't chew up your ideas, opinions and creativity just so some hypothetical audience would have easier time swallowing it.

Don't shrink back and lie to make your art appeal to others. Dare to prefer women and lesbians. Dare to put lesbians first. Dare to center lesbians. Dare to center lesbians like you and focus on topics that are important to you.

Personally for me becoming the loud and self-centered lesbian writer has meant that I've started to write lesbian/lesbian couples without feeling the need to "be fair" in terms of representation. I've started to write about explicitly homosexual experiences, where women love women not "despite their sex" but because of it, and are sure and happy about that.

I no longer cloak lesbian sexuality in "soft sapphic vibes" or leave it without a clear definition. I've started to exclude men from the women's stories. I've shed the need to include heterosexuals in main roles, even other women.

I started to exclude hyper feminine tropes just because I don't like them. I started writing masculine women and butches without worrying they are "too much". I create lesbian characters who are flawed, in pain, evil, complex and unlikable, and put them in thrillers and horror without worrying about crossing a line into that dreaded "too much".

I've pushed down many invisible walls by examining the ways I've people-pleased and shied away from how strong and unique the lesbian experience is.

Behind all those walls are stories I really long to tell, the kind that resonate with me, the kind I want to have in this world.

And I know no one else is going to depict lesbians like we do ourselves. No one else is going to tell our stories like we do, or paint us like we do, so let's stop wasting time pleasing others and start telling our own stories - unfiltered and proud.

Inktober day 7: Drip 🩸

Some Indigo's

take me in / open up and spread me thin / feel around the brain in my legs

'Slime' Marika Hackman

just letting everyone know that butch dyke artist suzanne shifflett has an inprnt store now, she has four of her paintings available so far but if you dm her on instagram (smshifflett) about any of her other works she may be able to add them for sale

only bought this dress so you could take it off

check more of my work on instagram // buy prints here

Medallion (1937) by Gluck

This portrait depicting gender non-conforming lesbian artist Gluck (right) alongside lover Nesta Obermer (left) was inspired by a night out when the pair attended a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The artist referred to this piece as the “YouWe” picture.

“They sat together in the third row and felt the intensity of the music fused them both into one person and matched their love.”

#tbt Before there was the L Word, there was Jane's World.

Lemme bless yall Timeline with new Willow and Keeoni art I was listening to Sweet Tooth by Destroy Boys while drawing this oneee to all my sapphics out there y’all should check out destroy boys really good band