Faces Of Feminism by Sheila Tobias

Author:Sheila Tobias [Tobias, Sheila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Gender Studies
ISBN: 9780429969140
Google: 8wDFDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 39010704
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Lesbianism and Feminism Today

Feminism and lesbianism eventually came to accept that they had one common goal: the eradication of sexism in all its manifestations.47 But for many young women, the presence of homosexual women in feminist organizations—particularly on college campuses—provided one more reason for that odd refrain, "I'm not a feminist, but I support equal rights." Speaking for many young feminists in the early years, Ellen DuBois, an activist and a scholar, told Alice Echols of her personal reaction to the coming out of lesbians and the emergence of lesbian issues in the movement. Many young women of the time might have lamented the same: "I felt finally I had found a movement where I didn't have to worry about whether or not I was attractive or whether or not men liked me.... And just as I was beginning to feel [that] here at last I could forget all of that, sex once again reared its ugly head."48

Ellen DuBois later distanced herself from this remark. But therein lay some truth. "In the 1970s," writes Cruikshank, who in 1992 attempted a long view of the two prior decades, "gay identity was so novel and compelling that it tended to overshadow one's other identities."49 From her research, she concludes that the "high-energy public lesbianism" of the 1970s was followed by a less political and more private phase, sometimes called "lifestyle lesbianism," in the 1980s. And as lesbianism became less shocking, "newcomers did not need to feel radical fervor in order to join its ranks."50 In fact, coming out for many young and not so young lesbians was more of a private journey of personal acceptance than a political decision.51

As a result, in the 1980s and afterward many women new to lesbianism no longer regarded themselves as members of an oppressed group. They did not join political organizations or identify with a broad lesbian community; rather, they chose membership in smaller social groups.52 But in December 1991 when it was revealed in The Advocate, a national gay magazine, that NOW president Patricia Ireland lived (at separate times) with both a husband and a female companion, it was obvious that lesbianism could still be used to stigmatize. This time it was the New York Times Magazine and not Time that published a "second look," asking whether Ireland, because of her sexuality, could legitimately speak for today's women.53 "The equality of rights movement cannot afford such leadership," wrote New York Times columnist William Safire a month later.54

Whether or not lesbians chose to be political, the Ireland incident made it quite clear that, in America at least, lesbianism could still be used to taint feminism. As reported in a survey of the media coverage of the disclosure, the American public appeared unwilling to accept either a lesbian or a bisexual spokesperson for NOW.55 It was, as Gloria Steinem observed during the furor, the Kate Millett story all over again. But clearly, twenty years had made the movement less defensive. Even under pressure, Ireland refused to label

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