At 12:22 AM 4/1/2004, That*&%#*#RogersWoman wrote:
>You say stubble burn...I say unwanted dental floss. Don't need the
>fuzz to know my partner is a natural redhead, either.
:) Why don't you want the Sizzlean to know? Is being a natural redhead
illegal in texASS?
>Kel, any thoughts?
We--you, Carrol and I--briefly discoursed offlist about something related: the rise of radical separatist feminism and radical lesbian separatist feminism. Both strands of feminist thought (many strands, so those of you who wish to reduce it to a SINGULAR feminism are... uh, never mind...) grew out of an essentializing tendency to view the source of women's oppression as a patriarchal domination of female bodies: when and where we could have sex and with whom (to control procreation and property), how we could display our bodies, etc.
The idea was to drop out of the world of men as much as possible--ideally in women's communities. If not complete physical sep, then being a lesbian was the next best thing. Short of that, there were some who argued that women existed as lesbian--women identified women--on a continuum (a la Adrienne Rich).
(Aside: The impetus behind this sort of thing was drawn from Marxist/Marxish theory: an
essentializing search for the revolutionary subject. It wasn't to be found in "the working
class" (since the WC had betrayed the revo). Where was the revo subject? Women? Lesbians?
Black women? Black lesbians? Third world women? Etc.)
But Rich didn't just leave it at that--this argument that all women are lesbian or woman-identified on some level. Rich had also argued that lesbians who practiced S&M or B&D practiced e a false form of lesbian sex. GAy men act out the values of patriarchy, acc to Rich; Lesbian practitioners of S&M/B&D do as well. When lesbians are not monogamous, faithful, mutually loving sexual beings engaged in egalitarian, loving, nurturing, non-objectifying sex, then they are doing so out of false consciousness.
Rich's claims did not go unanswered. What had emerged from the politics of hetsex was a politics of lezsex. Small wars broke out over things like whether a woman could really be a lesbian if she engaged in S&M or B&D or used dildos. Weren't these things just reinscribing patriarchy?
Gayle Rubin (1984 article, "Thinking Sex") complained about the regulation of sexu _between_ women. Women who engaged in S&M, B&D, and other forms of sex that appeared to mirror male-female sexual relations were seen as traitors to the movement. Rubin criticized Rich as an "anti-sex" feminist who, along with others, used "sexual correctness" to label some women as being "unfeminist" or "oppressive". It was a means of social control within the feminist movement which ended up defining only certain kinds of sex as "feminist."
Meanwhile, black feminists (which is where I began my feminist thinking) had been carving out their own struggles within feminist movement and within lefty movements. The Combahee River Collective was so frustrated with some aspects of the dominant strands of feminist thought that they were moved to write "A Black Feminist Statement" in 1977:
... "Although we are feminists and lesbians, ...we reject the stance of lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly black men, women, and children. .. We must also question whether lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strategy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of women's oppression, negating the facts of class and race."
It is in that context that bell hooks wrote (1984) _Feminist Theory: from margin to center_ where she criticized sexual politics and counter-culture/sep. feminism:
"Equating feminist struggle with living in a counter-cultural, woman-centered world erected barriers that closed the movement off from most women. Despite sexist discrimination, exploitation, or oppression, many women feel their lives as they them are important and valuable. Naturally the suggestion that these lives could be simply left or abandoned for an alternative "feminist" lifestyle met with resistance. Feeling their life experiences devalued, deemed solely negative and worthless, many women responded by attacking feminism. By rejecting the notion of an alternative feminist "lifestyle" that can emerge only when women create a subculture...and insisting that feminist struggle can being wherever an individual woman is, we create a movement that focuses on our collective experience, a movement that is continually mass-based.
Over the past six years, many separatist-oriented communities have been formed by women so that the focus has shifted from the development of woman-centered space toward an emphasis on identity. Once woman-centered space exists, it can be maintained only if women remained convinced that it is the only place where they can be self-realized and free. After assuming a "feminist" identify, women often seek to live the "feminist" lifestyle. These women do not see that it undermines feminist movement to project the assumption that "feminist" is but another pre-packaged role women can now select as they search for identity. ...
Sometimes lesbians have sought to equate feminism with lifestyle bur for significantly different reasons. Given the prejudice and discrimination against lesbian women in our society, alternative communities that are woman-centered are one means of creating positive,a affirming environments. Despite positive reasons for developing woman-centered space, like pleasure, supports, and resource-sharing, emphasis on creating a counter-culture has alienated women from feminist movement, for such space can be in churches, kitchens, etc.
Often emphasis on identity and lifestyle is appealing because it creates a sense that one is engaged in praxis. However, praxis within any political movement that aims to have a radical transformative impact on society cannot be solely focused on creating spaces wherein would-be-radicals experience safety and support. Feminist movement to end sexist-oppression actively engages participants in revolutionary struggle. Struggles is rarely safe or pleasurable. ...
The suggestion that the truly feminist woman is lesbian (made by heterosexuals and lesbians alike) sets up another sexual standard by which women are to be judged and found wanting. ... Feminist activists need to remember that the political choices we make are not determined by who we choose to have genital sexual contact with. ...
Feminist activists must take care that our legitimate critiques of heterosexism are not attacks on heterosexual practice. As feminists, we must confront those women who do in fact believe that women with heterosexual preferences are either traitors or likely to be anti-lesbian. ... "
It is out of these critiques--from women marginalized by "white feminism" in the 70s and 80s that there emerged a more sex-positive feminism.
More anon....
Kelley