Overview Lesbian Feminist Theories Woman-Identified Woman Adrienne Rich Compulsory Heterosexuality Anastasia Higginbotham

Woman-Identified Woman Women internalize a sense of self as a lesser being than men (self-hatred) To counter this, they need to construct their own definitions of what being a woman is –Developed among women Lesbian standpoint- allows this group to question and analyze what is taken for granted –Roles, life patterns, “woman”

Woman-identified Woman Homophobia upholds patriarchy and helps distance women from feminism –Term lesbian thrown at women to distance them from one another and –To keep them in line Social Change –A society in which men do not oppress women would be a society of open sexual expression (no categories of hetero/homo) –Primary commitment to women

Adrienne Rich Compulsory Heterosexuality Heterosexuality as an institution that disempowers women The autonomy of women threatens the state, religion, and the family –Many feminists have unexamined heterocentricity Feminist theory can no longer voice a “tolerance” of lesbianism, or make a token allusion to lesbians Need to get rid of idea of “natural” or “innate” or “preference” of sexuality Lesbian invisibility/marginality

Adrienne Rich Feminists get stuck trying to reform a “manmade institution- heterosexuality” When we should be fighting against the enforcement of heterosexuality –Fighting false consciousness (in women) –Fighting male-identification –Fighting compulsory female heterosexuality would change feminist scholarship, curricula, work, relationships

Adrienne Rich Proposes: The rejection of a compulsory way of life Lesbian Existence –Historical presence and acknowledgement of lesbians Lesbian Continuum –Range through each woman’s life and through history of woman-identified experience –Exploration of the erotic in female terms –A source of energy, of female power

Anastasia Higginbotham Transformation –from masochist to feminist –From women’s allies/friends to women as intimates/sexual partners “Sleeping with women felt like an extension of my sexuality and identity” Sexuality as a process, instead of a fixed identity Struggling with fear of being called a lesbian