Old growth feminism: Interspecies & intergenerational intimacies on lesbian land.

Abstract

In 1974, women inspired by the back-to-the-land commune movement and women's liberation politics began forming lesbian intentional communities in rural Oregon. Living outside the mainstream allowed them to relinquish gender norms and experience their bodies differently in nature-their lesbian identity was not just a sexual orientation, it was gender non-conforming engaged ecofeminist praxis. The different lands they purchased fifty years ago are situated in the middle of logging country-huge swaths of land around them have been clear-cut over the years, while the lands they continue to care for today serve as conservation sites for old growth forests and all of their more-than-human inhabitants. This essay merges research gathered ten years ago for my master's thesis about the southern Oregon lesbian land community with ongoing written and photographic reflections of my time in the community over many years. This essay is a collection of vignettes and excerpts from interviews that speak to the interspecies and intergenerational intimacies of life on lesbian land and the possible implications for queer and feminist ecological futures more broadly.