Event: Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend
Introduction
Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend is a five-day event in Palm Springs City, at the tip of the Coachella Valley within the Colorado Desert, California. It is held at the end of the March every year. This year I was part of the 20,000 people who flew to California for the debauchery, and this paper will summarize my observations and analysis of the lesbian community. First, lesbianism, as observed in Dinah, is not about hatred for men, or anti-men or feminism, but rather, a celebration of identity. While the girls were predominantly happy, most of them agreed that they enjoy the presence of men in normal lives. Lesbianism is relatively more tolerated compared to sexual relationships between men, as most of the women did not complain about discrimination, at least not at the same levels with the negativity directed at gay men and transgender people. The space for expression is limited for lesbians, though, and the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend is just one of the few places where issues like sex and the threat of infections get discussed in the context of lesbians. Finally, the growth of the lesbian community is an offshoot of the rejection by a conservative society, and a search for a belonging by similarity, if my observations in Dinah are anything to go by.
Observations
The weather was hot, as usual in Palm Springs, and the sun was in the sky all day long, sometimes seeming to slow down as if to take a look, a glimpse actually, of the twenty thousand girls; white and colored, tall and short, round, slim – and others who came in their toned bodies, revealing the spaces between their legs, something the savvy millennials call beaver breather or a factory air. Nationalities were perfectly represented, perhaps, even better represented than in the Paris Climate Conference. The water in the pool was mildly warm from the scorching sun, getting colder every one hour the pipes opened to re-pump more fresh water. My conservative estimate would put a minimum of five thousand girls in that water on that first day of April 2016, and another five thousand on the lawn, basking in pairs, others in small crowds and some – few of them – doing yoga at the far end of the poolside. There were abundance and scarcity; too much laughter and giggles, and a scary scarcity of full dresses. As commented on the Guardian, it looked like there had been a ‘gaycalypse' that destroyed all clothes (Mahdawi).
I was hit by the way the girls discussed issues; with intimacy, openness and notorious lack of apology. Sex was a central topic on most lips, and you could hear some seasoned attendees of the Dinah festival giving the young girls guidelines. Then it dawned on me that it has been twenty-five years since the first festival was staged, and some of the girls present today were not born. Politics of LGBT (Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals and Transgender) took center stage too (at least somewhere closer to sex), and the girls from different nationalities shared notes on how their governments were treating the gay emergence. Some girls looked like they were experiencing happiness for the first time in their lives, distasting the idea of going back to their countries, where, even the knowledge that they attended the festival would put them on the death sentence. Others looked comfortable and homely, as if they lived in Palm Springs all year round, with their confidence getting written on their gait and flirtations when they approached other revelers. The competition was high, as the demand exceeded supply; looking at it from the point of a hunter, where, all the ladies wanted to hunt instead of being hunted – they wanted to rule their destiny.
Despite the bliss, happiness and fun, I observed that some ladies looked out of place, wearing faces that showed worry and uncertainty. Maybe they were still caught in an identity crisis, or they were coming from a history of self-denial. Most of them in this category were mature women, in their late thirties and forties, and it was evident from the way they took an observer position it was their first day in Dinah. How they survived the rest of the week is a mystery; maybe they grew into the event or got a hook, or just, perhaps, they departed before the end of the five days. One would guess that; they could be thinking about the priests and religious friends, who, for their conservatism, would never hear of lesbianism. Or they might just have been thinking about the Bible, but who knows?
Analysis
The Dinah festival is an outlet for many women around the world who live under oppressive sexuality laws and discriminating societies. Even in America, some states have conservative gay laws that infringe on the freedom rights by the individuals. For instance, in April, the Mississippi Governor signed into law legislation that allowed people with religious convictions to deny services to gay couples (Katz and Eckholm). In that environment, the lesbians feel pressured to hide their identity so as to keep accessing essential services. Imagining a lesbian couple coming from Mississippi to the Dinah party, the new sense of freedom would make them feel like first class citizens all of a sudden. The experience is breathtaking, and the presence of thousands of people undergoing the same challenges is a source of motivation to stand for their identities. The community set up at Dinah, and the unending fun and conversations fosters a sense of belonging, and a feeling of relevance. For someone coming from Saudi Arabia, Dinah offers the only five days of her year worth to remember, because a suspicion of being a lesbian would get her killed. The comparison of cultures and their influence on the lives of the women helps in informing new dispensations and ideologies on the need to stop discrimination on the basis of sex.
In Palm Springs, the festival is pegged on fun and enjoyment. Most people come to flirt and look for partners in fellow women and girls. Comparing with feminism activists, the festival would not really qualify for women agenda (Calhoun). As observed, the ladies flocked the desert just to enjoy themselves and they had little concern about men. To the majority, these were just five free days in their lives and it was not an opportunity to make gender-based conversations. When the law touches on sexuality, it should be remembered that it attacks men and women. The Dinah festival is much about gay rights (for both men and women) than it is about affirmative action. Looking at many women in a free set up, escaping from discrimination and societies that were fond of forming opinions about them makes one understand the importance of inclusivity, and the need to abolish any form of discrimination that makes one individual enjoy fewer rights than another.
The growth in popularity of the Dinah lesbians' event has been fueled by a society that declines to respect fundamental rights. Many gays and lesbians do not have the freedom to look for partners in the common society set up, and most of the times, they have to live for extended periods of time debating with their sexuality. While the dating sites give heterosexuals many options, lesbians mull over the possibilities of getting partners, and legal threats arising from such partnerships. Hence, the making of the lesbian community is a result of the failure of the society to accommodate minority groups. As observed, most ladies in the festival were average citizens with average wages, but they saved all year long to attend the festival and feel appreciated for once. Having laws that overstep on individuals’ freedoms is like stepping on a time bomb, and the states of America that still discriminate on lesbians should revise their positions because they are not any different from dictatorial regimes elsewhere in the world (Ford).
Lastly, regular citizens living in conservative societies still grapple with challenges of their sexuality. There exist significant differences in how the society treats people of the LTGB community compared to heterosexuals. Even economically, members of the LGTB community have lower incomes than their heterosexual counterparts (Holly). Most religious groups and denominations denounce homosexuality, a factor that puts lesbians and gay people in difficulty positions; on one hand they have parents and siblings who care for them, and church members who them to marry people of opposite sex, and, on the other hand they are fighting with their instincts on which path to follow. That is perhaps the reason why some attendants in the festival were not very happy and contented. They understand that the debate does not stop with them.
Conclusion
Ethnography studies cultures of ethnic groups within societies or sub-communities that develop due to similarities of interests. In the case of the lesbian community, many challenges frustrate their normal lives, and they live in communities that are oppressive, either openly or secretly. Passing pro-gay laws does not change the mentality of millions of people overnight, and, even in some free communities like New York and Luxemburg, lesbians face discrimination. The collective hatred enhances the development of these sub-tribes.
Works Cited
Calhoun, Cheshire. “Separating Lesbian Theory from Feminist Theory.” Ethics 104.3 (1994): 558–581. Web.
Ford, Zack. Nine states with anti-gay laws that Aren't that different from Russia's. ThinkProgress, 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 May 2016.
Holly. “Community post: 7 LGBT issues that matter more than marriage.” QuickPost. BuzzFeed Community, 2016. Web. 27 May 2016.
Katz, Jonathan M., and Erik Eckholm. “Anti-Gay Laws Bring Backlash in Mississippi and North Carolina.” U.S. 7 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 May 2016.
Mahdawi, Arwa. “20, 000 Lesbians in the Desert: Welcome to the Dinah, a World Without Men.” The Guardian 8 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 May 2016.
