Men’s image of lesbian feminists in the seventies
1980
Bridget said “People
assumed that all women involved in women’s liberation were dykes, bra-burning,
man-hating stereotypes that a lot of women believed and were terrified by. As
far as men saw us, the working class men were largely horrified and thought we
were filthy dirty perverted scum of the earth, because they were so threatened
by it, but couldn’t articulate their fear so it all spilled out as this real
bile. The professional men were a lot more reticent, but found they couldn’t
relate to you as they normally did to women, which was a lot more sexist and
patronising in those days. They knew they couldn’t do that to lesbians, who
would tell them to get stuffed, so they just didn’t relate to you at all”.