I Read Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, And Science Of Bisexuality By Julia Shaw And I Was Shocked At

oh you totally should’ve mentioned that, it’s cool that we both thought of it then!

Hecatic flag 💜💜🤍💜💜

Hecatic (dervived from the Greek goddess Hecate) means when you’re bisexual + sapphic, I’ve seen many bi sapphic combination flags and just wanted to make my own :) Hecatic is all bisexual sapphics regardless if they have a specific preference or not, and regardless of relationship status (or lack of) <3

I wanted to make it pink and purple to showcase bisexuality and sapphicism :3 and the flower in the centre is a moonflower! It felt fitting with moons being a bi symbol and a flower on the sapphic flag!

Various Bisexual Flag moodboards ♡

Bisexual (pastel version, edited by me)

Camellian (a bi woman/bi sapphic who dates fellow sapphics exclusively; acknowledges attraction to men but chooses to not act upon it- basically a trans/nb inclusive vers. of febfem!)

Bi Dyke (bisexual woman/bisexual sapphic who chooses to reclaim the slur dyke)

Bi femme (a bi who is femme)

Selenic (any bisexual sapphic, regardless if they are dating a woman, a man, an nb, or single. Any bisexual wlw + nblw)

All photos sourced from Pinterest!

As Femme As We Want to Be

Tracy Schmidt Reports from the 2nd Annual Femme Gender Conference

—

The Second Annual Femme Gender Conference, sponsored by the Harvey Milk Institute (HMI) this May, gave more than 400 people a chance to explore that question and more – what femme is, how we work it, struggle with it, display it, honor it. HMI put on a huge event, with film screenings, four different performances, an art display, and two days’ worth of panels and workshops.

Just like the term “femme”, this conference covered a lot of territory. The conference organizers aimed to welcome every kind of person with more than a drop of femme in their souls, and to make plenty of space to talk about how we are, perform, or just love femme. Girls, boys, dykes, bi-femmes, fag-femmes, people from communities of color, young femmes, trans-femmes, lesbians, drag-femmes, working class and rich femmes, parents, fat femmes, and a few garden-variety freaks like me crowded the 33 workshops.

Femmes flocked to sessions like Femme As An Evolving Gender Identity; Bisexual Femmes and Femme Bisexuals; Fag and Drag Femme; I’d Love To Ask You Out But I Don’t Know Who You Are; Trans Femme: Beyond the Bedroom; What We’re Rolling Around In Bed With (femmes of color only); Femmes With FtM Partners; Switch Femme; Fem-man-inity; and How To Fuck In High Heels. We spoke with incredible panelists including Kate Bornstein, Lani Ka'ahumanu, Liz Highleyman, JoAnn Loulan, and Karen Bullock-Jordan.

We examined the challenges and joys of claiming femme identity alongside other identities in our lives. We discussed how different communities hold different experiences of femme. We debated whether we should speak of femmes as somehow transgendered. We ranted about inclusion. We argued about community. We laughed at ourselves. And we celebrated the power and range of our femme styles.

Most important, we met each other in a world where it can be hard to even see one another. It was experimental and emotional and challenging and practical and brilliant and contentious and connected all at once – two amazing days of the best of queer culture

—————

Tracy Schmidt was the Conference Coordinator for this year’s Femme Gender Conference. She identifies as a bi and poly femme dyke top whose areas of obsession include gender, motorcycles, S/M, travel, and cleavage. Her current project (with Liz Highleyman) is an anthology focused on newly emerging gender identities.

Anything That moves, issue 17, summer 1998.

bi femmes with this attitude are so badass and i love you all

~ sincerely, a bi butch

im a bisexual FEMME and im not going to apologize for using a "lesbian exclusive term". I bet u don't remember when we were included in the les community before the separatist movement. it's our birthright as sapphics. I'm not going to say sorry and I'm not going to stop. end this biphobic rhetoric. WE BELONG HERE AND WE ARE NOT LEAVING.

Reclaimed Trope Flags

Depraved Bisexual

A flag for bisexuals who reclaim the Depraved Bisexual trope.

Alluring Intersex

A flag for intersex folks who reclaim the Intersex Allure trope.

Luz Noceda bi meme requested by @pride-cat !

weird kink but ok. maybe you can get off on the seat’s edge 🫡

DONT 👏 CALL 👏 YOURSELF 👏 BISEXUAL 👏 IF 👏 YOUVE 👏 NEVER 👏 FUCKED 👏 A 👏 BICYCLE 👏

𐙚 ﹐dyke (reclaiming)

a slur that's used to target sapphics, especially ones that are butch, masc, and/or androgynous (not exclusive though)

flag meaning ꒱

dark brown represents black and brown sapphics, as they've historically been the backbone of our community and are so extensively targeted yet so underrepresented

purple represents butches and studs, and general sapphic masculinity and androgyny

pink(1) represents unapologetic queer love for women which may include nonbinary genders

pink(2) represents transgender and nonbinary dykes

orange represents gender nonconformity

im reclaiming the labrys (double-sided axe) as a symbol of empowerment and strength within ALL sapphics regardless of status (ex. bisexual, trans, nonbinady, pansexual, etc.) the labrys flag was adopted by violent queerphobic/misogynistic terfs. im reclaiming it from that hatred and using it as a symbol of sapphic strength and empowerment. i also added the sapphic flower symbol into the axe to emphasize sapphism.

my flag design + symbol ꒱

also stated that it’s ’less a bi woman makes a relationship queer, and more a straight man makes the relationship straight’

so (not @ OP) that's fucking gross and frankly misogynistic as hell; it also goes back to how often bi women are seen not even just as conscious perpetrators/enablers but simply inherent extensions of men. like that's basic level textbook misogyny, to see an average couple that can be safely assumed to have an equal partnership and decide the man's legacy has more power & worth somehow, and it couldn't be more obvious.

I saw a post from someone who was talking about how lesbians and bisexual sapphics have differences in what they are, not what they do, for example both lesbians and bisexual sapphics dating women and other sapphics is something we do together, but they then went on to talk about how a bi woman in a relationship with a straight man is not as queer as sapphics who are living within ‘queer relationships’

and while it is true to a degree that society has differences in how they treat and react to different types of relationships but i have to wonder, do you guys think that cis bi woman in relationships with straight men cannot have a meaningful and DISGUSTINGLY queer life (/pos) simply bc of their proximity to a straight man???

do you think these bi women cannot go out and participate in queer culture without their man?? do you think that bi woman are chained into the position of lesser queer bc they have a straight male for a partner??? do you think that they cannot contribute to the health and well-being of queer communities??

the person who posted the original post which got me thinking about this also stated that it’s ’less a bi woman makes a relationship queer, and more a straight man makes the relationship straight’ and i cannot tell you how fucking upsetting it is to see the resurgence of this rhetoric, bc this is what gets bi women abused and killed.

our oppression as the bisexual community is not hinged or limited to who we fucking date or how we present to society and i’m so tired of people assuming our queerness based on the gender and orientation of our partners.

Lupin Field

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand