I love these kinds of posts. Super informative and entertaining.
For me I associate "dykey" jobs with being a bit more hands-on and blue collar. They aren't famous for their work but they're the backbone of society and keep things running- if you want shit done properly, get a dyke to do it!
(I'm personally biased because my partner is an engineer and I maybe only understand 20% of what her job actually is... But she keeps those machines running for damn sure 💪 )
Great list! I would add with ambulance driver, nursing! Healthcare is an overlooked field filled with lesbians, especially with the historical context of lesbian nurses and lesbian hospital volunteers being some of the only healthcare professionals/just decent people that would care for gay and LGBT+ members with AIDS!!!
That was TERRIFIC! As an elder Lesbian, I can appreciate your thoughtful inclusion of these hard working women in your work. We are and always will be HERE.
Librarians and teachers. K-12 teaching has a lot of LGBTQ folks in general. Also lawyers. I personally 2 different lesbian lawyers but I know there's a lot more!
omg I love this post so much 🫶🏻✨ I laughed so hard at poet as #1 bc I am a queer screenwriter novelist poet and have mentioned Emily Dickinson, Plath, Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Mary Oliver, Sappho, longing, etc. when flirting
in a v cliche dykey moment I am currently chatting with a Butch who also writes speculative Sapphic sci-fi and poetry, and, after discussing poetry and kink and telling her about the time I was asked to recite my fav Dickinson poem while being edged and then quoting a line from “Lesbos” from Ariel, she was like wow, so you’re like, really gay 🥰
and then she mentioned she’s a veterinary nurse…and I’m a librarian…and I’d say those are v dykey professions 💕✨
What about famous dykes IN literature? Orlando, of course, and The WhistleStop Café come randomly to mind...
My Dad's cousin, Audrey Turner was a well-ish known artist in the London scene in the middle of the last century, who, as my Dad said "preferred the company of women". I have inherited a couple of pictures, some notebooks, sketchbooks and photos. And stuff...😉
Sounds like the material you inherited about Audrey Turner would be an EXCELLENT addition to a queer archive like the Lesbian Herstory Archives! That kind of stuff is gold for historians : )
Looks like ya might've missed social workers, we're a pretty dykey lot!
Just off top of my head, thinking of dykes I've know:
summer camp counselors, COWGIRLS, truck drivers, taxi cab drivers , women's basketball coaches, mechanics, sex workers, bar tender....
A lot of helper professions—social workers, therapists, nurses….
I came on here just to say that!
I love these kinds of posts. Super informative and entertaining.
For me I associate "dykey" jobs with being a bit more hands-on and blue collar. They aren't famous for their work but they're the backbone of society and keep things running- if you want shit done properly, get a dyke to do it!
(I'm personally biased because my partner is an engineer and I maybe only understand 20% of what her job actually is... But she keeps those machines running for damn sure 💪 )
Great list! I would add with ambulance driver, nursing! Healthcare is an overlooked field filled with lesbians, especially with the historical context of lesbian nurses and lesbian hospital volunteers being some of the only healthcare professionals/just decent people that would care for gay and LGBT+ members with AIDS!!!
That was TERRIFIC! As an elder Lesbian, I can appreciate your thoughtful inclusion of these hard working women in your work. We are and always will be HERE.
Thank you!
Awww that means so much to hear! So glad you enjoyed it!
Love this post! My dykey moms were an artist/rebel and a stone mason
Librarians and teachers. K-12 teaching has a lot of LGBTQ folks in general. Also lawyers. I personally 2 different lesbian lawyers but I know there's a lot more!
Social worker! Stripper! Carpenter!
Okay. Now I want to own a tearoom/bookstore and put out pamphlets on the side. And sing the blues when nobody reads my pamphlets.
omg I love this post so much 🫶🏻✨ I laughed so hard at poet as #1 bc I am a queer screenwriter novelist poet and have mentioned Emily Dickinson, Plath, Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Mary Oliver, Sappho, longing, etc. when flirting
in a v cliche dykey moment I am currently chatting with a Butch who also writes speculative Sapphic sci-fi and poetry, and, after discussing poetry and kink and telling her about the time I was asked to recite my fav Dickinson poem while being edged and then quoting a line from “Lesbos” from Ariel, she was like wow, so you’re like, really gay 🥰
and then she mentioned she’s a veterinary nurse…and I’m a librarian…and I’d say those are v dykey professions 💕✨
P. S. love the gay picnic photo too 😍🌸💗
I talk about Emily Dickinson …https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8-g2Fmyis-/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
(I mean, all the time!)
Union organizer? Really any kind of organizer/agitator/ radical.
what was the dickinson poem??
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry—
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll—
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul—
Oh, that’s a fine pick. One of my favorites too!
So good!!! Gertrude Stein also drove an ambulance! Writes about it in Autobiography of Alice B Toklas.
Are we leaving out sports professionals? All sorts of dyke action there!
💯💯😍
The military. Gotta love a girl in uniform 😍.
Yes! LGBTQ+ people serve at very high rates in the military.
id definitely like to add preschool or primary school teacher to this list!! or anything to do working with kids tbh!!!
Yay poet!…
Imagining forty years from now when there is universal agreement that one of the dykiest jobs is a barista. 😉☕
What a really interesting piece, thank you!
What about famous dykes IN literature? Orlando, of course, and The WhistleStop Café come randomly to mind...
My Dad's cousin, Audrey Turner was a well-ish known artist in the London scene in the middle of the last century, who, as my Dad said "preferred the company of women". I have inherited a couple of pictures, some notebooks, sketchbooks and photos. And stuff...😉
Sounds like the material you inherited about Audrey Turner would be an EXCELLENT addition to a queer archive like the Lesbian Herstory Archives! That kind of stuff is gold for historians : )
I actually know a Lesbian who works with diesel engines.