The Dauntless Book for Lesbians?

• Selves and Identities • 3 Comments

Even if you haven’t yet read my rather lengthy review of The Daring Book for Girls, I thought it might be interesting to take the book’s basic premise—a compendium of activities and information across a range of subjects, things every girl should know—and see if we could give it a lesbian twist. (I’d do a parenting riff on it, too, but Parent Hacks seems to do that every day, and rather well.)

What are the essential skills (PG only, please), historical references, famous people, and other tidbits every dyke should know? What would you put in a volume to give to someone just coming out in order to ensure her lesbian cultural literacy? The U-Haul joke? Melissa Etheridge? Ellen DeGeneres? Audre Lorde? Martina Navratilova? How to find your way around a Home Depot? Ten tips for surviving a women’s music festival? How to respond when someone calls you “sir” or asks about your non-existent husband? How to play softball? How to feign interest in a softball game? (Input from non-U.S. readers especially welcome; I realize most of the above references reflect our heritage here in the States.)

(The title of this post is meant as a joke; I acknowledge the copyrights held by the authors of The Daring Book for Girls and The Dangerous Book for Boys.)

3 thoughts on “The Dauntless Book for Lesbians?”

  1. megan

    this is the book i needed when i first came out too – i still say things like “I’m such a BAD lesbian!” whenever the cultural literacy things come up.

    the toaster joke. singer-songwriters who ARE gay and who only SEEM gay (i.e. melissa v. patty griffin). where to buy fashionable clothing for the slightly butch dyke who is sometimes girly. the indigo girls: emily vs. amy and how you can tell their songs apart. why some lesbians think it’s a Big Deal when other lesbians date bisexual women. important u.s. places in lesbiandom: ptown, northampton, san francisco. people lesbians claim even though they never did come out (i.e. jodie foster).

    if we come up with more, i’ll come back and post more. :)

  2. alterisego

    An enthusiastic discussion of why The L Word is not the only conceivable portrayal of lesbian culture.

    Toasters? U-Hauls? I think I need this book. Someone should write it.

  3. Deb on the Rocks

    I’ve written a few how-to posts that would work, like how to switch from friend to lover in the bathroom.

    Also, subcultures: softball dykes, social work/rape crisis hotline dykes, hippie grrls, closeted cops, women’s studies academic dykes, carpenter dykes, Joey-has-2-mommies-a-daddy-and-daddy’s-boyfriend dykes….

    Womyn-born women v. oppression theory debate (see Michigan).

    Maybe we could get a grant to do this?

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