Gita Tost

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Gita Tost (born March 26, 1965 in Munich ; † January 19, 2000 ) was an author and songwriter . As a feminist and lesbian activist , she campaigned against sexual violence and for self-determination for women and girls and was co-founder of the Schlampagne initiative for the equality of alternative forms of relationships .

life and work

Gita Tost completed her studies with a Magistra Artium in general linguistics. Divorced and mother of one son, she later lived in an openly lesbian life. Her center of life was in Bavaria near Regensburg . Since the beginning of the 1990s she has been involved in the women's movement and has been active in the Regensburg women's center for many years. She emphatically tried to live her utopia of relationship networks between women, whose handicap through social norms and structures of violence she criticized in many ways.

In the course of the German debate about marriage for homosexuals at the end of the 1990s, she co-founded the initiative “ Die Schlampagne - Resistance l (i) ebony lesbians come out! “For the abolition of marriage privileges as well as the equality of alternative forms of relationship , which in their personal life meanwhile assumed a fundamental place. The Schlampagne was at the "1. Coordination meeting for lesbians for equality of all ways of life "in the women's center in Regensburg in September 1999 and was able to announce the support of the women- lesbian editorial office of the magazine Graswurzelrevolution , the association of lesbians with children Furien and Companjeras eV and Germany's largest lesbian association LesbenRing . Gita Tost and Schlampagne , with their uncomfortable criticism of the line of the LSVD, which supposedly aimed at adapting to existing norms, temporarily became a public eye beyond the lesbian movement .

Tost has been a freelance writer and songwriter since 1994 and has been touring Germany with concerts and readings. She described herself as a "creative feminist". Her work as an artist and author includes poetry, stories, song lyrics and music as well as factual texts. In her life and work she repeatedly dealt with the topic of sexual abuse and sexual violence, which she also dealt with from her own personal experience and suffering perspective, calling herself a "survivor". As a singer-songwriter she gave concerts, did cabaret , worked in workshops with her “Songs for Survivors” and gave numerous readings as an author. In 1995 her CD "Bittersüß" was released, in 1998 she founded the music cabaret duo Schall & Rauch together with Gitta Schürck , from whose collaboration the CD of the same name emerged.

In her factual texts, she also took a critical look at the depiction of lesbian sex in novels by lesbian authors and the handling of the topic in the lesbian sex advice literature of sex-positive feminism , which has been booming since the early 1990s (such as by Susie Bright , Pat Califia or Laura Méritt ) and influenced the German lesbian movement with her criticism of new sexual performance standards. In 2004, the sociologist Ursula GT Müller, early activist of the women's and lesbian movement, rated her criticism of sex descriptions in lesbian literature as being “pleasantly honest”. Tost conveyed her personal view of lesbian sexuality most extensively in her 1999 book FreiSchwimmerin - Lust- und Grau (s) zones of lesbian sexuality , with which she traveled to readings all over Germany. According to the social scientist Ilse Lenz , the book is "field research, self-help book, feminist theory building and erotic reading book in one". Tost himself has thus filled the gap between lesbian sex literature and books about the consequences of sexualised violence. Beyond the effects of experiences of abuse in the family of origin, in the book she already addressed the subject of assault and violence within lesbian relationships, which is still subject to strong taboos .

She published poetry in various magazines at an early age. The volume TRau! MFRAU , which contains poems and stories written by her from 1992 to 1999, was able to be put together by her in the order printed later and was published after her death.

In January 2000, at the age of 34, Gita Tost committed suicide. She died after a week of intensive medical treatment of the consequences of severe death from the death of a death cap .

As legal successors and thus responsible for the estate of Gita Tost, Gitta Schürck and Uta Keppler subsequently made it possible for TRau! MFRAU to be published in collaboration with Ulrike Helmer at Helmer Verlag .

In January 2010, the Regensburg Women's Center held a commemorative event for women on the tenth anniversary of Gita Tost's death.

Publications (selection)

Books:

  • TRau! MFRAU - poems and stories. Helmer Verlag , Königstein / Taunus 2001, ISBN 3-89741-063-X .
  • FreiSwimmerin - lust and gray (s) zones of lesbian sexuality. Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 1999, ISBN 3-89741-015-X .
  • Who, do and the thief. (With illustrations by Claudia Lange) Donna Vita Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-927796-15-8 .

Essays / journal articles:

Music:

  • Bittersweet chants for survivors. CD, 1995
  • As Duo Schall & Rauch with Gitta Schürck: CD Schall & Rauch , 1998

literature

Web links

Songs by Gita Tost (with Gitta Schürck, audio samples, MP3):

Sloppy:

Obituaries:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrike Helmer Verlag: Authors: Tost, Gita. Retrieved on July 21, 2012.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / helmer.txt-web.de  
  2. ↑ a b c d e f magazine LUST June / July 00: Gita Tost is dead.Retrieved on July 21, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b frauenzentrum-regensburg.de: Current dates January 16, 2010. Accessed on July 21, 2012. ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenzentrum-regensburg.de
  4. ↑ Welcome to Schlamputopia. Visionary Implications of "Schlampagne". In: Grassroots Revolution 245, January 2000. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  5. ↑ wolfsmutter.com: The Schlampagne. © Schlampagne (January 7, 2004). "Love in Freedom - Life in Networks" - The campaign against gay marriage. Retrieved on July 21, 2012 ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wolfsmutter.com
  6. ↑ lespress.de: Obituary: Gita Tost. From Esther Burkert. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  7. ↑ The Schlampagne - Resistant l (i) same lesbians come out! (Grassroots Revolution, October 9, 1999) Retrieved on July 21, 2011. ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.graswurzel.net
  8. ↑ Friday: HOMO-MARRIAGE: What you (do not) want. January 12, 2001. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  9. ↑ Farewell. Gita Tost is dead. In: Prevention magazine March / April 2000, p. 19. Accessed on July 21, 2012. (PDF; 1.3 MB)
  10. ↑ Gita Tost: FreiSwimmerin - Lust and gray (s) zones of lesbian sexuality. Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 1999, ISBN 3-89741-015-X . P. 66ff.
  11. ↑ Lesbian sex - a taboo must be exposed. In: Lesbenring -Info, 1994, December, pp 14-16; Reprinted in: Ilse Lenz (Hrsg.): The new women's movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference. Selected sources. 2nd updated edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 1045-1047.
  12. ↑ Ursula G. T. Müller: The truth about the purple dungarees. Highs and lows in 15 years of the women's movement. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2004, ISBN 3-89806-259-7 , p. 375.
  13. ↑ Ilse Lenz : The new women's movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference. Selected sources. 2nd updated edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17436-5 , p. 1045.
  14. ↑ On the taboo cf. L-Mag : Please take a look. Violence in lesbian and trans relationships. Issue July / August 2011, p. 8. or lesbenberatung-berlin.de: Violence in relationships. Retrieved on July 27, 2012. ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lesbenberatung-berlin.de
  15. ↑ Gita Tost: FreiSwimmerin - Lust and gray (s) zones of lesbian sexuality. Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 1999, ISBN 3-89741-015-X . P. 105ff.
  16. ↑ Gitta Schürck: A world without Gita Tost, in a different world with Gita. In: Graswurzel 248, April 2000. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  17. ↑ gs-kunst.de: CD "Schall & Rauch" 1998. Retrieved on July 21, 2012. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gs-kunst.de
personal data
SURNAME Tost, Gita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, songwriter and feminist and lesbian activist
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2000