May 02 2008
Greek tragedy. (Actually, comedy.)
This is just a rainbow of hilarious (yeah, I went that far):
Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term “lesbian”.
To think that there are genuinely straight Lesbians out there, and lesbian Lesbians too. Or is that Lesbian lesbians?
Either way, maybe this is the kind of thing the EU protected name committees should get involved in. You can’t have proper champagne unless it’s made in the Champagne region — and you can’t have proper lesbians unless they come from Lesbos! Ha, next I’m envisioning someone taking a pornographer to court for fraudulently labelled goods…
Still, the ambiguity must do wonders for their tourism. But finding websites for local companies must be a real pain.
And to think, there’s no actual direct evidence that Sappho and her gang were actually homoerotic (as far as I understand, anyway). Certainly they shared a very strong emotional bond, but sex? Jury’s out, and has been for millenia. But the modern world is just one big dog with one big bone.
In this story (that I’ve read wherever there’s a news service - it’s been very popular), nobody suggests what ‘lesbian’ should be changed to. I would’ve thought this would be Practical Point no. 1. To avoid further outraged local councils, I suggest that any applicable names on this list (if there are any) should be avoided: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rude_Britain/