i just really do want people to understand that lesbians' history and bi women's history aren't these two discrete unconnected things. for the vast majority of time, things like language, spaces, and experiences were shared. separatism is really incredibly recent

bisexual people have always existed, but contemporary self-identified bi activism really only emerged in the 'west' in the late 60s. even then, this weird essentialism where these two groups were implied to have fundamentally different, 100% discrete experiences didn't exist

and people get so obsessed with these idea that these groups always had fundamentally separate essences and communities that it leans into straight up rewriting history to claim that! like, this was historically just Not A Thing, but people claim with such certainty that it was

it's odd with 'butch/femme' in particular, because not only was it historically used by men AND women, but people ahistorically imply the complexities of gender & performing for women inherently elude bi women and they just... historically literally don't! people just made it up!

i don't identify as either- neither word reflects my experience. but the implication that bi women 1) haven't always historically used those terms (we have) and 2) aren't capable of grasping gender complexity/prioritizing women (we are) harms all bi folks & the community overall

these terms historically emerged from a time when this separation didn't exist, and continued to be used throughout a lot of our recent history. we've always shared community and space, and we don't have fundamental essences that render us incapable of understanding each other.

(also! these terms have a particularly unique history in ball culture, emerging from mostly Black and Latine communities of drag queens and trans women in new york in the 1960s-1980s. our community hasn't always been as rigidly separated as folks act like it is now)

anyway i think lesbians and bi women should simply kiss