"I'm Julie Bindel and I want to recruit you!"

[blahflowers]

And now, something that might amuse auntysarah: Julie Bindel on her sexual liberation.

At 15 then, having only ever had one, non-serious, boyfriend, I came out as a lesbian. Three years later, I moved to Leeds... [and] finally met the R[adical] F[eminist]s. The RFs told me that, to them, lesbianism was a choice that women could make, and not a "condition" we are born with. "All women can be lesbians" was the mantra. I loved the sense that I had chosen my sexuality and rather than being ashamed or apologetic about it, as many women were, I could be proud, and see it as a privilege.

I wonder if Julie is now going to consult her girlfriend about the possibility of legal action against herself for implying that she chose to be a lesbian? Sadly there is no comments feature on the Guardian page in order to ask this important question.

EDIT: Interesting, people could start commenting after midday. I wonder why there was a delay in allowing this to happen?

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

It's not a secret tho. She's talked about this belief several times in her column, IIRC

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

But apparently if anyone else so much as hints at it, it's grounds for a libel case...

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Well, she's not much of a one for consistency, is she? Guh.

Yeah, I thought her response to you on the FB group was quite weird considering things she's previously said about sexual orientation as a choice. But not that weird if one considers that she's really just point-scoring.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

"So, Ms Bindel, you have, as a matter of public record, stated several times that your lesbianism is a conscious choice made on the basis of your political beliefs?"

"Yes, your honour."

"And is it not the case that a substantial part of your case against Ms Brown for libel rests on her describing her knowledge of the existence of rumours that you may be a political lesbian?"

"Yes, your honour. Also, she is mean to me."

"And are you aware that, in order to prove libel, the remarks in question must be defamatory?"

"Yes, your honour."

"Ms Bindel, I understand your girlfriend is a lawyer of some repute, so I imagine she will have no trouble explaining to you who will be paying Ms Brown's legal bill, and just how much shit you have dropped yourself in right now."

[blahflowers.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

"Political lesbian" isn't synonymous with "lesbian by choice." "Political lesbian" has historically implied "fake lesbian," i.e., "lesbian who isn't actually attracted to women at all but merely calls herself a lesbian anyway."

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

Indeed not, but if she's stating (as she has several times) that she "chose" to become a lesbian because it aligned with her views of feminism, then reporting on rumours that she's a political lesbian is hardly defamatory, as she's seeding them herself.

[choctaw-ridge.livejournal.com]

I loved the sense that I had chosen my sexuality and rather than being ashamed or apologetic about it, as many women were, I could be proud, and see it as a privilege.
What a ridiculous thing to say. If I feel that being gay was not my choice, I am by default ashamed or apologetic about it? No intellectual rigour to that woman at all, is there?

[blahflowers.livejournal.com]

To be unnecessarily fair to the woman, I suppose she might be talking in the context of growing up in a small town in the 70s and feeling that ole' crushing weight of heterosexism on her.

[choctaw-ridge.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but what does that have to do with choosing one's sexual orientation? I too grew up on a council estate in the 1960s and 1970s, suffocated by the crushing weight of heterosexism. I didn't allow that to determine whom I would choose as sexual partners. Apparently she did.

And stop being unnecessarily fair. You'll be voting Lib Dem next.

[blahflowers.livejournal.com]

Have done in the past, not likely to again if they continue repositioning themselves along the Tory agenda...

I meant that she chose to explore/accept that she might be queer rather than staying at home and spending each night trying to convince herself she was straight. Otherwise she is the woman from the Lee and Herring 'Ironic Review' sketches that loudly insists she's a lesbian while the others point out she only did it once and didn't like the taste.

[daria2.livejournal.com]

Yes, if she came out at 15, I don't think that's some high-falutin' intellectual decision. To me it sounds as if hearing the LYE message as a teenager gave her a positive and political perspective on both her sexuality and her instinctive aversion to the destiny of being a taken-for-granted mother and domestic skivvy.