It's not what you think.  Vas is still the same abrasive homosexual femme dyke y'all have come to know, but she is no longer a Lesbian.  Confused?  Well, I guess it has to do with the fact that words mean things.

I have no problem using most offensive words on the basis that they exist for the purpose of being used.  I will call people nigger/spic/yid/dago/honky/redskin/bigot/asshole/piece of shit/fluffy bunny/et cetera(s), if they have behaved in a way that earned the title, if they belong to said group and think it's funny, or as a light self-denigrating jab.  I will not use those words lightly or outside of the proper context.  I do have a lot of unease about using groups of people to describe behaviors or states of being that may not be pertinent to who these people really are.  For example:

"I would never jew you out." = "I would never shortchange you."
"What a gyp!" (Will piss my husband off on contact.) = "What a rip-off!"
"Let's go nigger-knocking." = "Let's knock on someone's door and runaway."
"You throw like a girl." = "Your pitch was very weak."
"That's so gay." (My husband says it too much.)  = "That's pathetic."
"You don't look hispanic." = "You're pretty."

After much pondering, the word Lesbian pretty much falls under this troublesome category.  I read this article about the people of Lesbos suing a gay-rights group over the word, a while ago.  At first I thought, it was a frivolous concern, yet as the days passed, the article just haunted me.  I couldn't stop thinking about how horrible the people of Lesbos must feel about having their ethnic name being a label for a stereotype.  I mean seriously. At least "sapphic" refers to a specific person who had a hankering for girl.  "Gay" is a positive stereotypical label because it implies happiness, and in terms of being a sexual minority a predominantly heterosexual society, "queer" doesn't seem unreasonable.  Even "dyke," which is frankly my favored slang term, is based on common behaviors seen among homosexual women.   Getting that out of the way, I must note that not all homosexual women are from the island of Lesbos, and not all Lesbians are gay women.  For this reason there's really no way to defend the word in the context of homosexuality, as anything other than a description for a state of being, pejoratively using a name used to describe a group of people of a certain ethnicity.

Now, I think everyone has the right to use any words they want.  If you want to call yourself or others Lesbians, even if you aren't referring to people of Lesbos, go right ahead.  It's freedom of speech.  I am not the mind police, and it is not my job to judge.  Just don't expect me to participate any further.  I am not going to edit words and art I've done in the past to prevent offense.  That would be intellectually dishonest.  What I can do, is take what I learned and adjust my future behavior accordingly.

These are actual quotes about food from random people from two demo events and Lucinda.  Enjoy!

"I just had a foodgasm!"
- Lucinda while eating something delish with me at Sushi Tango

Customer: (Eats a sample of a double chocolate muffin)  "This muffin is up to no good."
Vas: "It's so tasty, it can only be a bad influence."
Customer: "Nothing that delicious has good intentions."
- Customer and I, chatting during a demo.

Vas: "Break is over.  I'm going to continue my slow march to hell by passing out delicious ice cream sandwiches."
Worker at Client Store: "If that's hell, let me burn!"
- Worker and I chatting about an frozen novelty demo.

"It's okay to take this sample.  The next table has yogurt, so you will achieve balance between good and evil."
- I, the Vas


Breaking the Language Barrier

Lucinda and I met up at Calhoun Square for dinner, shopping and chatty.  We had the opportunity to visit the awesome new-to-us art store of one of my mom's best friends of all time.  We also revisited some great memories at Sushi Tango.  We had an awesome exchange prior to dinner that went more or less something like this.

Vas: Tell ---- not to pick you up, because I am going to take out of for dinner.  Tell him that I am going to get you out of his hair for the evening.
Lucinda: (Gives me a dirty look, relays the message and eventually finishes the conversation.)
Vas: Bet he was happy to hear that.
Lucinda: Yeah, he was.  Now he can geek out with his friend and build things.  (Bemused) Get me out of his hair?
Vas: Sorry, I had to speak Guy, which is almost like speaking Dyke, so...  He got the message.
Lucinda: (Sighs.) I am so glad that your here, I'm Bi, so I only speak half Male and half Female.
Vas: Yeah, Bi-people have that problem with fluency.
Lucinda: Tell me about it.
Vas: The worst part is that they don't speak either language quite right.  They are bilingual...
Lucinda: Kind of like...
Vas: A really bad Nuyorican Spanglish.
Lucinda: (Laughing) Yeah, a weird bisexual Spanglish.
Vas: No wonder you're (marginalized) like the Chicanos.