Bi-Lesbian: Difference between revisions

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The label "bi lesbian" originated in the 1970s as a result of the effects of lesbian separatism, a belief within some strains of lesbian feminism and often within radical feminism which advocates for separating women from men in as many ways as possible as a strategy to achieve women's liberation.<ref>Lesbian separatism section on feminist separatism Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_separatism#Lesbian_separatism</ref> Subsequently, this lead to lesbian separatists rejecting and often discriminating against women who refused to withdraw from their involvment with men, particularly bisexual women. Lesbian separatists accused bisexual women of "sleeping with the enemy" and forcefully removed them from lesbian spaces and from claiming the lesbian identity for themselves, by redefining it as "a homosexual female/woman" or "a woman who does not sleep with men/is not attracted to men". It is because of lesbian separatism that the bisexual label became very popular starting in the 1970s, as the word to describe a woman who was attracted to other women before was "lesbian", whether they were attracted exclusively or not, and now that had suddenly changed.