Lesbian Feminism

After the second wave of feminism, the Lesbian Feminism largely emerged as a
dissatisfaction to womens liberation movements exclusion of lesbians. The term Lesbian
Feminism was introduced by Sheila Jeffreys, lesbian feminist scholar and political activist, who
explained its development: "Lesbian feminism emerged as a result of: lesbians within the WLM
(Women's Liberation Movement) began to create a new, distinctively feminist lesbian politics, and
lesbians in the GLF (Gay Liberation Front) left to join up with their sisters"(19). Lesbian Feminism
was not just a movement; it was also a critical perspective to the society. Sheila Jeffreys offers 7 key
themes for Lesbian Feminism (19):

An emphasis on women's love for one another

Separatist organizations

Community and ideas

Idea that lesbianism is about choice and resistance

Idea that the personal is the political

A rejection of social hierarchy

A critique of male-supremacy

This essay will try to analyze the last theme regarding male supremacy as an analysis of
heterosexuality as an institution.

One of the main goals of Lesbian Feminism was to resist to man-made institutions. Lesbian
feminism insisted on rejecting patriarchal culture. Cheryl Clarke, the activist from Black feminist
community wrote:

I name myself lesbian because this culture oppresses, silences, and destroys lesbians,
even lesbians who do dont call themselves lesbians. I name myself lesbian because I
want to be visible to other black lesbians. I name myself lesbian because I do not subscribe
to predatory and institutionalized heterosexuality" (New Notes on Lesbianism)

All this were the reasons to produce new alternative form of expression centered on women,
and the terms womyn, wimmin, womon have gained popularity. The need for this terms were to
distinguish women from men and masculine language. The term "women" was seen as women's
oppression and subordination, as it was formed from the word men.

Lesbian Feminism had a lot of critics and oppressions, for example, Betty Friedan, the first
president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), offered a tough critic to Lesbian
Feminism, during NOW meeting in 1969 she named the people involved there Lavender Menace
arguing lesbianism in the feminist agenda would undermine the credibility of the womens
movement overall. While Lesbian Feminism blamed the mainstream feminism for promoting
homophobia, as it didnt manage to integrate the sexuality in its discourse, and they treated lesbians
as a separate issue. At the beginning, mainstream feminism and lesbian feminism failed in finding
consensus. Betty Friedan, started the war in 1969, when she fired Ivy Bottini, an open lesbian, who
was the president of New York chapter of NOW and the openly lesbian newsletter editor Rita Mae
Brown. Flora Davis in Moving the mountain: the women's movement in America since 1960 says
that as an answer to this unjustified expulsion, in 1970 at the Congress to Unite Women, twenty
women wearing T-shirts with inscription "Lavender Menace" led by lesbian novelist Rita Mae
Brown came to the front of the room and faced the audience of 400 people (264). This was a protest
and a manifest. One of the members of that group read the "The Woman-Identified Woman", which
Cheshire Calhoun, researcher at the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, believes that was the first
major lesbian feminist statement (27). These 20 women were the first to offer lesbian experience as
a positive term, the psychologist Carolyn Zerbe Enns wrote in her book Feminist theories and
feminist psychotherapies: origins, themes, and diversity (105). The results of this protest were
rewarding, one year later, NOW declares that a womans right to her own person includes the right
to define and express her own sexuality and to choose her own lifestyle" (Timeline of NOWs
Work). Three years later NOW established Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism. Additionally,
Del Martin was elected the first lesbian president of NOW.

Even though, Lesbian Feminism failed in some fields, it also made a huge impact on the
development of feminism that cannot be neglected. In 1972 a woman could be prisoned for having
sex with other woman, but already by 1973 she could buy lesbian records, books, and attend
women-only lesbian events, and that is a huge step for the rights of women and LGBT community.

References:

1. Sheila Jeffreys, Unpacking Queer Politics: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective

2. Cheryl Clarke New Notes on Lesbianism (1983) in The Days of Good Looks: The Prose
and Poetry of, 1980 to 2005
3. Flora Davis Moving the mountain: the women's movement in America since 1960, Illini
Books, 1999
4. Cheshire Calhoun, Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay
Displacement, Oxford University Press, 2000
5. Carolyn Zerbe Enns, Feminist theories and feminist psychotherapies: origins, themes, and
diversity, Routledge, 2004
6. Timeline of NOWs Work on Lesbian Rights, now.org/resource/now-leading-the-fight

Articles used:
1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/lesbian-feminism
2. http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/lesbians-20th-century/lesbian-feminism
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_feminism#cite_ref-36
4. http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/lesbian/1970s-Lesbian-Feminism.html
5. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/lesbian_feminism_S.pdf