In 2025, AVG-Carhif celebrated its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we posted a monthly favourite from the team (and more) on our social media.
In this video, Majo Van Ryckeghem, author and long-time social worker and psychotherapist, presents her favourite: inspiring lesbian literature from the 1980s and 1990s.
English translation of the video:
Majo: My name is Majo Van Ryckeghem. I am 75. I can’t believe it myself, but I have reached that age. And I now have a whole lesbian history behind me. I was married to a man. I have two children. We divorced when I was thirty. That was a very painful period. Not only for myself, but also for those around me. And then I gradually came into contact with feminism and lesbian support services. Together with other support workers, I wrote a few books. One was a book for housewives, entitled ‘Huisvrouw, een beroep met risico’s’. This was in response to the fact that women who are housewives are very often depressed. So, in fact, the common thread is always the influence of social factors: on women who work from home and on lesbian women. This led to ‘Thuiskomen: scènes uit lesbisch bestaan’.
AVG-Carhif: What is your favourite item in our collection?
Majo: I have two favourites. They are these two books: ‘Zondagsvrouwen’ by Sasha Lewis. Yes, those books are all from the 1980s and 1990s. And Hannah van Buuren’s ‘Vrouwen die van vrouwen houden’.
AVG-Carhif: Can you tell us a little more about them?
Majo: I always say there were no physical role models, but the books were my role models. And from there I moved on to social work and education. These books are important because when it comes to lesbian life, my generation and the generation before me only had Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness”, and that was a really miserable book. There was nothing enjoyable about it. What does happen here is Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle. It’s true, it’s been read to pieces, you can see that. It’s a book that’s really enjoyable and makes you laugh.
AVG-Carhif: Why is this so important to you?
Majo: In my writing, I’ve always done my best – I do have a sense of humour – to bring a light touch to it. Because it’s very important to know that being a lesbian or gay or bisexual is not a vale of tears, that there are also pleasant, certainly pleasant sides to it.
Would you like to learn more about Majo’s educational work or this lesbian literature? Come and visit us!