Lesbianism And The Rejection Of Patriarchal Violence

Mary Malone writes:
In a Patriarchal society Woman becomes an object, a commodity to be exchanged, to be bought and sold. Her personhood is denied, her autonomy is removed and her history is airbrushed.
Relations between Man and Woman are tainted by authority and subjugation. The male sex organ transforms from the means of Man's gift into the means of Woman's subjection and her humiliation.
It is in this context that women's naturally close relations have often wandered beyond friendship and become romantic or even sexual.
The reality of erotic relations between women has been accepted by many if not most societies. In her quest for personhood and autonomy a woman in a patriarchal society must often reject the company of men. It is in such situations that many women have entered convents or have joined professions that are almost wholly female, such as nursing and teaching.
In the late twentieth century this rejection of the patriarchal perversion of manhood was found in political lesbianism.
But female homosexuality has never been the mirror image of male homosexuality. Female homosexuality has often been a small space outside of relations of domination. In this small sphere tenderness can be shown.
Male homosexuality is often quite otherwise, a matter of domination, not tenderness.
But, it is the act of sodomy that is criminal, not homosexual tenderness. For most societies sodomy is akin to the act of rape. It is an act whose intentions are domination and humiliation.
Hence the early Christians were repulsed by sodomy. This is not because they were bigots but because they viewed themselves as free in Christ, and hence relationships were loving and giving. The Romans, on the other hand, viewed sexual relations as a matter of conquest. It was demeaning simply to be a woman because she was the one who was 'conquered' during the sex act. The Romans were fine about sodomy so long as it was they who did the sodomizing. The 'feminine' person who was sodomized lost status.
And so it is today amongst armies and in prisons throughout the world where the male sexual organ is perceived as an instrument of conquest and subjugation. Is it any wonder that few women can get their rocks off to their own humiliation, when sexual activity becomes an act that destroys their personhood?