The latest episode of the Lesbian Tea Basket is a pretty rare event caught on film. My friend Elisabeth did not set out to do this but I believe she out gayed me for approximately 7 minutes. Not that being gay is a contest, since being gay is truly the greatest team sport of them all. However, I am told by many people quite often that I am the gayest person they know and I cannot wait to show them how Elisabeth is even gayer.
Typically my gayness is expressed through lesbian cultural references. A subtle Ani DiFranco quote cast into the wind to see if someone might pick up on it or let it fly. The warbling of an Indigo Girls song at just the right moment. My purchase of a labrys necklace that is actually sharp just this past summer at the age of 31 and not as a relic from my queer youth. (Though I did just locate my pride rings from college and just as soon as I polish up the chain I’m going to wear them someplace to horrify some been-there-done-that-over-the-rainbow gays.)
Elisabeth delights me to no end because she does this even better than I do. In fact, at the very same party we filmed this at the slightest hint of something related she busted out her journal from college and began reciting a passage about her ex-girlfriend. So Lez!
During the same party we were wondering what the queer youth of today are listening to to bond them as a queer community. By this I mean that I learned that in the 70s and 80s at Girl Scout Camp, when one person wanted to know if another person was a Lez, they would ask them if they listened to Cris Williamson. Girl Scout Camp is where I first learned about Indigo Girls during a joy ride in a friend’s mom’s borrowed mini van. When I was coming out in the late 90s Ani DiFranco was the tie that bound. It certainly factored in the “I see you, you see me” silent acknowledgment of sexuality between me and my first girlfriend (because I was still almost entirely closeted at that time).
So who is the artist now that the closeted gay youth can use to out themselves to each other? My investigation continues.
As a group of early thirties queermos we were also talking about the ultimate lesbian primer cd. If you could only include one Dar Williams song, one Ani song, one Melissa Etheridge song, one Sleater-Kinney song, etc… which would you choose? This is clearly a Solomon’s choice since you don’t actually have to exclude the remainder of our herstorical lineage, now that we have ipods, but it is an interesting conundrum to think about.
So here we have the aforementioned Episode. The blog contest is this, comment with your list of Deep Lez references from the video and the person who has the most the earliest (so if there’s a tie the person who comments first gets it) before December 20 at midnight Eastern time wins a cd of lesbian hits made by yours truly. The winner will be verified by Elisabeth herself.
Also in this episode we experiment with those magic fruit tablets that change your taste buds.
P.S. Lesbian Love Jams v. 4 is the name of an actual cd that Elisabeth and friends made for my boss at Re/Dress as a thank you for a gift certificate donated to the Lesbian Love Octagon.
Perhaps this resonates with a particularly niche lesbian audience (that is to say, the middle-aged, midwestern dyke) but “Baby You Can Sleep While I Drive” a la Melissa Ethridge and K.D. Lang is an obvious front-runner.
First, let me say that the tea vlog is delightful, each and every time; and this particular episode was a lesbian revelation.
From a few viewings and several moments of rewind/fast-forward, I came up with the following list:
a. anything related to organic anything
b. the phrase “butch era”
c. mount holyoke sticker
d. lesbian baby shower invite
e. cat photos on the fridge
f. flannel-wearing lesbians who do the j-stroke in canoes to deliver organic lemonade.
g. Any references to Tennessee Williams
h. Miley Cyrus & “The Climb.”
i. Tea cup accessories as “femme realness.”
j. backwards baseball caps
k. “Come to My Window”
l. All Melissa Etheridge references
m. all Indigo Girl references
n. Yoga instructions
o. direct reference to the song “get out the map.”
You two are lesbo-fantastic.
I suspect, like relatives of Olivia Cruise line employees, I am not eligible to apply for my own raffle, which is a damn shame because there is shit in there I wasn’t even AWARE I was saying. Collective Unconscious runs deep!
Elisabeth, Olivia Cruise rules be damned, in this raffle you automatically win a copy of my ultimate lesbian primer cd. You’re also the judge of the raffle.
If you’re going to make a deep lez folk song reference Chris Pureka is your best bet with the younger lezzies. I personally sing Tracy Chapman at karaoke to court an acoustic guitar enthusiast=lesbian. It worked!
LOVE THIS!
my standby references are gossip & beth ditto.
non musical references are of course queer fat femme, the tea basket vlog, lesbian love octagon, re/dress, my exgirlfriend…rainbows & unicorns.