So there were four of us sitting here. Four women who primarily f*ck women, and one of them said, I’m so glad we’re all gay. And we all laughed. She said stuff about like; that we get to do all these fun things and women are just so much prettier and it’s so much more interesting having sex because there’s no like straight-up model like the hets have. Things like that. Then started thinking about other things other people have said and rounded a handful of them up for you. Pasted some of these things for you here. Share your favorite quotes that aren’t here in the commentttsss.
Oh for starters, Greta Christina said this, and we like it:
“An awful lot of people, of all genders and orientations, would benefit from the kind of sex that lesbians take as a given. The kind of sex where success isn’t overwhelmingly defined by one partner’s “performance.” The kind of sex that doesn’t make a sharp distinction between “foreplay” and “sex,” and that doesn’t have a strong opinion about which has to happen first. The kind of sex where the journey is the destination.”
“There’s a moment in a woman’s life when she discovers she can have sex with as many people as she wants. Suddenly everyone is a potential partner. That’s when men get in the act which is why lesbianism isn’t really a thing it’s just this unbridled lust. It’s like god. If writers are the only people, I mean the last ones who have lives, lesbians are the only people who have sex. There’s a point at which you know this.”
-Eileen Myles, Inferno
“When I make love I take my whole life in my hands, the damage and the pride, the bad memories and the good, all that I am or might be, and I do indeed love myself, can indeed do anything I please. I know the place where courage and desire come together, where pride and joy push lust through the bloodstream, right to the heart… I go to bed like I used to go to karate. Want and need come together in a body that is only partly my own… I took my sex back, my body. I claimed myself and remade my life. Only when I knew I belonged to myself completely did I become capable of giving myself to another, of finding joy in desire, pleasure in our love, power in this body no one else owns.”
– Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure
“I love butch women because no one else would ever have reached into that flannel-clad bundle of inarticulate erotic yearning with a mirror that reflected a sex goddess… I felt my sexual effect for the first time, and grew and grew like Alice in Wonderland drinking her magic potion. I love butch women because it was the synchronicity of butch sexual response that gave me my body… Women who decried being objectified had never had the opportunity to feel like this. They were an emblem of our sexual difference, those panties: We sinned, and shared our secret, together.”
– Carol Queen, Real Live Nude Girl
“Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like Braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, or tell the whole story. I didn’t know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.”
– Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body
“Was it possible that someday — someday — I would hold naked in my arms, and continue to hold and continue to hold, pressed close to my body, a woman on whose femininity and masculine strength I could lean, trusting, whose mettle and daring would place her so high in my esteem that I would long to throw myself at her feet and do as she wished? I dared hardly believe what I was asking. I dared hardly believe myself.”
– Kathy Acker
“I let my hand drop; she kept her fingers upon my lips, then moved them, very slowly, to my cheek, my ear, my throat, my neck. Then her features gave a shiver and she said in a whisper: ‘You won’t tell a soul, Nan—will you?’
I think I sighed then: sighed to know—to know for sure, at last!—that there was something to be told. And then I dipped my face to hers, and shut my eyes.”
– Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
Tim: What is it you do, you girls? Should I even care? Does it even count?
Marina: Well, you were there — you saw how much it counts.
-The L Word
“The sexual encounter is queer because both partners are queer and the genders of the participants less relevant. Just because Batman is male and Catwoman is female does not make their interactions heterosexual — think about it, there is nothing straight about two people getting it on in rubber and latex costumes, wearing eyemasks and carrying whips and other accouterments.”
– J. Halberstam, “Queer Creatures,” On Our Backs Nov/Dec 1992
Sexy Tumblr Alert: If you wanna get SUPER NSFW then you should check out the Strap-On Log. Or, Tattoos For Girls combines heaps of fun tattoo ideas with partial nudity generally of the Suicide Girls variety.
that super NSFW tumblr makes me so grateful for my unemployment.
Those quotes rocked my world. Just wanted to let you know.
I want to read every work referenced in this compilation that i haven’t already. thanks for more procrastination material!
oh well this was just beautiful, you know? like women making love to each other.
Loved all the quotes, especially Dorothy Allison and Jeannette Winterson. Love all the metaphysical erotic imagery and the primacy of the body. . . great!
I can’t decide which quotation I like best, but I DO know that the girl with the gun tattoo is my favorite. <3
Writing this here because it seems most relevant to NSFW Sunday…
This week at my college (high school in American terms) LGBT group we were looking for a film to watch, so someone Googled ‘top lesbian gay films’ or something like that. Then she says ‘Haha, this site’s called AUTOSTRADDLE. That’s definitely going to get blocked on the school computers…’. Unfortunately the conversation moved on before I could say that I actually had that site bookmarked. Autostraddle <3
I absolutely love the Carol Queen and Kathy Acker quotes. Something about them makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about being gay. It’s almost better than waking up surrounded by adorable kittens.
thank whoever you said “almost better”. Being gay is fabulous and everything, but kittens are super like nintendo!
Thanks for this. It was beautiful.
I liked these quotes a lot. I need to check out their authors.
Also, I know exactly the bar the Down Queer Alley pic was taken in front of. Strange.
EILEEN MYLES!
HEDWIG!
I hope writers aren’t really the last people who live. Editors need some love/life too. This is a pretty gorgeous post anyway though.
There is something ridiculously lush about that Kathy Acker quotation. It’s like it says a lot of things I have felt for a long time, but never really thought consciously, or articulated into any particular form. I like this, I like this a lot. Thank you very much for this <3
I loved this. Thank you for putting it together.
I don’t understand the Inferno quotation. Can anyone enlighten me?
It feels weird to say this but this was the most beautiful thing I have read since I found Autostraddle. My whole body feels happy in a way to be gay. Yay me! Thanks btw.
I loved this entire post, but the Dorothy Allison really hit me. I was sexually assaulted, and one of the most difficult parts of recovery has been reclaiming/rediscovering my body and the joyous experiences I can have with it.
Beautiful quotes, love this post! It’s times like these I’m reminded why I’m happy that I’m gay. I love women and I’m glad other women love women, too :)
Also, the pic with the tattooed garter belt and gun? DAY-UM. I’m not into guns, but that shit is superhot.