Ky Schevers

Most of the cultural feminists I met were either older women who helped build radical lesbian culture from the 70's onwards or younger women in their teens and twenties.

The older women are worried that their culture is dying out and see the queer and trans movements as being largely responsible for this. They see the younger rad fem lesbians as hope for the future.

Many people are aware of these older women, since they been talking about their concerns for decades now but I think less people are aware that there's a growing subculture of young rad fem/cultural feminists.

These younger women tend to feel alienated by queer/trans culture. A lot of them had bad experiences, including abuse, in queer subcultures and found sympathy among rad fems. They also found it easier to talk about misogyny and/or lesbophobia among rad fems than among queers.

These younger women tend to idealize past lesbian feminist culture. Many dream of living on "womyn's land" some day. They're typically better read than your average gender crit. They've actually read Daly and other rad fem thinkers and discuss their work with their friends.

Much of the lesbian feminist culture they're connecting with does have value but they're also absorbing the idea that the most transphobic, essentialist, separatist, etc forms of lesbian feminism are the most pure and authentic.

Their version of lesbian culture is set in opposition to queer/trans culture. Lesbians feminists started a grand project that got derailed by queer theory/activism and the trans movement and now they're trying to recover it and get it back on track.

They're being told that the trans/queer movement cut them off from the radical lesbian culture that ought to be their birthright. There are attempts to create new lesbian feminist culture but a lot of energy is directed at recovering the past.