When someone like Butler stepped forth to give words to those experiences, to acknowledge that they exists, and helped people to see that they weren't crazy -- because that is how the feminist sex wars made people feel: as if their experiences and desires were not real! -- not surprisingly her work made a splash among people in academia who were wrestling through these things. Some of these same women -- Gayle Rubin -- were busy wondering if women's studies departments were even for them at all. For someone like Rubin, an anthropologist who helped give prominence to the term "sex positive" this was life and death stuff. The voices of feminists dominant at the time were working together with the voices of conservatives who were making sure to use this fear mongering to harass the gay and lesbian community, closing down bath houses, raiding leather clubs, etc. You needed a language to explain why something claimed as liberatory was inadvertantly working with conservative forces to make miserable your life and the lives of people you love and care about.
............................
Excellent. Thank you for this.
Once upon a time, I was one of those who kvetch about "clear writing" and pomo this and obscure that.
Like antibiotics employed before the age of resistant organisms, you've decisively cured me.
Carrol's been quite a lot of help too.
Ah, I hear the beowulf cluster's seductive song...must return to work because debt never sleeps.
.d.
Let us weep in somber contemplation of the scientific and brutal destiny of the Greek brothers.
...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/