"
Cork lesbian ball
The Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball became an annual event and is symbolic of the playful, gender bending nature of the Cork lesbian community. Writing in 2000, I commented that “the Fantasy Ball provides the freedom to express and explore and play with our fantasies – wear something you have always wanted to but never dared before or something you would never usually wear or something particularly daring for you or just something you feel good in. The ball provides one of the few opportunities for overt lesbian sexual expression and play – an opportunity which is not often available for lesbians in Ireland.” This is echoed by Ger McCarthy, who talks about the importance of the Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball as an “overtly sexual lesbian space…something that was not really available anywhere else.” It was also a space to play with gender expression: “our understanding around identity and especially around gender identity has really become more complex over the years. My memory of the fantasy balls was that they created that space for playing with gender expression, before we even had the language around that.” Unfortunately the Cork
This year also marks 30 years since the first lesbian fantasy ball in Cork. The first Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball, billed as ‘Pandora’s Box: a Lesbian Camp Drag Fantasy Cabaret Ball’, was held in Blackrock Castle on 19 November 1994. It was organised by Geraldine McCarthy and Emma Bidwell. Ger had spent the summer in San Francisco, which, she remembered, had this “wonderful dyke energy.” She returned to Cork: “I remember sitting in my garden and just thinking, fantasy ball, fantasy ball, not a fancy dress ball, fantasy ball, just somewhere where for one night we can turn up and dress in how we fantasize, however that might be.” Ger talked about her idea with Emma Bidwell and asked if she would be interested: “It was like the lights went on and away we went.” Emma Bidwell wrote about the Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball in 1997 in the Irish Journal of Feminist Studies: “It is in many ways the Irish lesbian scene and herstory in miniature. There are all kinds: butch, femme, man, boy, girlie, goddess, slut. There are those still finding their nerve to be what they want, those who are pushing the limits of what is acceptable to others, those who will always play safe, those comfortable with who they are and the unseen many who are still so scared of being lesbian that they are invisible in this parade.” The advert for the 1996 Fantasy Ball described it as ‘A Time For Lesbians to Unleash Their Desires (Or At Least Wear A Silly Costume)’. The Inside Out report of that ball captures the atmosphere: “On a bitterly cold night on a hill near Glanmire the gathering began. From Cork, Belfast, Dublin, England, Scotland and Spain women, girls, dykes and divas arrived at Vienna Woods House Hotel for the Fabulous Fantasy Ball. Looking around: a space chick passed a cocktail to the Ice Queen, a demon licked the hand of an Amazon and Marilyn Monroe shared the bar with a buccaneer. In the make-up room, an inventive woman had organised safe sex packs, sewing kit and nail clippers. The drinks flowed along with the laughter, and sexual innuendo and the raucous evening turned into a rampant night.”
Lesbian Fantasy Ball is no longer an annual event. Perhaps it is timeto revive it?
70
71
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker