Dyke (slang)

[3][7] The Oxford English Dictionary notes the first attestation as Berrey and Van den Bark's 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang, which lists bulldiker as a synonym for lesbian.

Other theories include that bulldyke derived from morphodite, a variant of hermaphrodite;[2] that it was a term for stud bulls and originally applied to sexually successful men;[10] or that it was a dialectical corruption of the name of the rebel Celtic queen Boadicea.

[12] In a 1970 study, Julia Stanley theorized that the source of these varying definitions stems from gender-determined sub-dialects.

Bull dyke is an extension of this term, with the addition of this person described as nasty, obnoxiously aggressive, and overly demonstrative of her hatred of men.

[13] In 1995, Susan Krantz discussed the etymology of bulldyke, with derivations of the Middle English "falsehood" for bull and dick for dyke (Farmer and Henley 1891).

[2] Therefore, a possible origin for a masculine lesbian comes from bulldicker that could specifically mean "fake penis", denoting a "false man".

[19][20] Alison Bechdel, author of comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (1983–2008),[21] said use of the term was "linguistic activism".

[22] It has been described "as important to new generations of lesbians as landmark novels like Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) and Lisa Alther's Kinflicks (1976) were to an earlier one.

"[25] Because of its association with the leather community, some may choose to use the term dyke, rather than lesbian, to indicate a position in the feminist sex wars.

However, the office reversed itself and permitted the group to register its name after attorneys appealed and submitted hundreds of pages to show the slang word does not disparage lesbians in the way it once did.

[30] On December 8, 2005, Dykes on Bikes won the trademark case,[31] and the organization has since gained international recognition for leading gay pride parades from San Francisco to Sydney.

They are generally non-commercial, in sharp contrast to corporate-sponsored pride events, and some are participated in by bisexual and trans women.

The stated mission of the Boston Dyke March, for example, is "to provide a dynamic and welcoming space for participants of all sexualities, genders, races, ages, ethnicities, sizes, economic backgrounds, and physical abilities.

[45] However, there is some evidence that this trend may be reversing in some regions, with an increased number of lesbian bars opening in the United States since 2023.