What’s in a word?

Call me fussy, but there are just some words I really don’t like. One of them is “dyke”, referring to its use as an alternative name for lesbian. I don’t actually like the word lesbian either because of the way it is often pronounced quickly by people like it’s swearing to utter it (and there’s just something about my mother using it that makes me cringe).

When I studied geology, a dyke was an intrusion of igneous material in an existing ‘country rock’ and, when I went to Shropshire, dyke referred to Offa’s dyke: a ‘ditch’ that separates England from Wales. Internet sources tell me that the use of dyke for lesbian originated as “bulldyker”, a butch woman. It sounds crude, offensive even (especially when considering that “dyke” was a slang word for a woman’s bits, mind you that sounds nicer than the “c” word that’s creeping back). And yet, certainly from my older gay friends, it’s a popular word for women who love women. I guess it’s from the philosophy that taking a word back and making it your own makes it less hurtful, but that doesn’t work for me.

A word can be used to label people. Me, I am determined not to label myself because with a label there comes stigma or an expectancy, almost, of what you should be. A label puts you in a box, but I am more than just a woman who loves women.