Lesbian feminism, in itself, is a response to the second wave of feminism. The second wave of feminism was responsible for making gender discrimination visible, encouraging women to take government/political positions, and also contributed to procreative rights. Lesbian feminism emphasized on focusing their energy away from men and more into other women. The paper, The Woman Identified Woman, by Radicalesbians describes lesbianism, like male homosexuality, as a category of behavior possible only in a sexist society characterized by rigid sex roles and dominated by male supremacy. By being a lesbian, it robs men from the opportunity to enforce those sexist roles in the household. Lesbian is a label invented by the Man to throw at any woman who …show more content…
As a lesbian woman, they are usually subjected to not only low wage jobs (such as nurses, child care workers, secretaries, etc.), but continuous abuse and discrimination if she does not hide her lifestyle from her employers. The woman who rejects men at work is mocked, being called ‘dried up’ or a lesbian (as an insult) (Rich, 133). Her career depends on her accepting this discrimination, while also attributing to the womanly stereotype by dressed and appearing feminine. The internalization of this discrimination and role of womanhood will slowly turn into self-hate, and that self-hate sometimes turns into shrill defensiveness and relentlessness to turn the situation around. As long as one clings to the idea of “being a woman,” they will have conflict and lose their sense of self over time (Radicalesbians, 3). The idea of supporting other woman through this feminist revolution was a very important part of lesbianism, they wanted to ensure that the energies of this movement will flow towards other women and not backwards towards men.
As a political movement, lesbians were insistent on becoming more visible to closeted or self-imprisoned women who were too scared to come out and become part of the movement. Clarke, in her paper, Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance, states that the only power that men have over other women, is his heterosexuality. If he is unable to take control of a woman, i.e. a lesbian, his patriarchal power decreases
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
It is often found that the stereotypical “butch” and “femme” pairing are more visible than other lesbian relationships. However, this does not mean that they do not exist. The ever-growing popularity of the lesbian social sphere has symbolized both difficulties and effects of identifying with such a label. The label or identity itself, though distinctly separating lesbians from “normal” heterosexuals begins to exhibit pre-existing conflict experienced by gay males: “there’s always been something wrong (Aldrich, 38).” This quote implies the conditioned and ingrained belief that homosexuality’s “taboo” existence was more than just wrong, but distasteful and something that society should look down upon for being an “abnormality.” Sometimes, this social reality for lesbians made it hard for them to “come out the closet” and be visible. This experience is exemplified as “The repressed lesbian has a harder time of it, for she is less aware of her abnormality (Aldrich, 41).” Additionally, to be able to clearly and accurately identify “the lesbian is to meet the many women she is at close range; to see her against her various backgrounds, hear her sundry voices, and familiarize yourself with the diverse facades of her several lives (Aldrich, 42).” Here, the presence of the “double life” is demonstrated to further analyze the lack of privileges that the lesbian community had, including the social aspect of their
lesbianism and sex between two women. As one may see from the book, the Islamic
In this essay, Gay deconstructs the stereotypical view of a feminist, by showing that you can be a feminist, even if you’re not in the small box the rest of the world thinks you should be in, in order to qualify as a ‘feminist’. Throughout the essay, Gay uses several quotes and stories from other women who are either afraid to say that they’re feminists, or don’t quite understand you don’t have to be in the limiting ‘box’, even though in their moral beliefs and actions, these sourced women are, in fact, feminists. According to Gay, if we didn’t have this stereotype, then maybe more women with diverse lives and views would be able to ‘come out’ as
To understand and add historical to the opinion the public felt towards homosexual women in the 1950s it is imperative to understand the popular view held by much of the public towards lesbians as early as the mid-nineteenth century. In 1843 William Bryant wrote an essay that was published in the Evening Post that described a portion of his trip to Ver...
In addition, being lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer: LGBTQ, during the 1960’s is view as a crime and a mental illness and totally immoral in the United States. Amber faces oppression at work as well by her union representative. One time her boss was flirting with her and asking her to sleep with him, however, she told him that she was not sexually attracted to men and then she went to the union to let them know that her boss was disrespecting her, but the union representative told her that it was none of his business. The only reason why the union does not care about Amber's complaints is because she is a lesbian. It is an outrage that a human being must resist an inhuman injustice by being attracted to someone of the same sex. Amber got another job where they used to say they did not care about anyone’s sexuality, however, she got fired from that job after she appeared with her girlfriend at a party where her coworkers invited her. Both she and her girlfriend were “beat up, or left with anonymous nasty notes and ugly homophobic pictures in our lockers...” Amber got involved into political to fight against oppression and prejudice for the LGBTQ because “the cost of being both
The respondents have managed to ignore the negativity and they have been able to finally see their worth. Gender inequality is present through stereotyping in the workplace, that is why gay and lesbian should be more mature in understanding the negative people around them. Instead of putting themselves into misery because of what they hear, they should have in their mind that good things will happen to help their skills and abilities to excel.
Second wave feminism has proved to have an intense effect on the western societies. The second wave essay on feminism focuses on a wide range of issues of women such as workplace discrimination, women education, reproduction and many others. Second wave feminists can be grouped into integrationists and radical feminists. The essay explains the differences between these two groups, the role of women in the society and the benchmarks women have set up regarding gender equality. Women have replaced the old scenario in which women were treated as objects of male desires and needs and led to independent and equal participation along with men (Beauvoir, 1952).
According to the article by Tara Prince-Hughes, the identification “lesbian” refers to a woman’s sexual orientation and desire. However, identifying as an “invert” refers to a woman’s masculine gender orientation. Stephen Gordon struggles throughout the book to find a way of expressing and understanding her inversion. For Stephen, she is aware of her instinctual masculinity but being at such a young age she is completely confused by it. Growing up with masculine behaviors and the desire for a masculine ap...
Mike is an assistant manager at a grocery store, whose ambition is to be a manager one day. However, the fear of being discriminated against he pretends to like girls. In one the scenes, mike’s coworker asks, “Mike I never heard you talk about girls. Do you like girls?” Mike lied to his coworker and answered, “Yes I like girls”. In America, sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace has been a major issue for many years (nih.gov 2015). It occurs when an employee is being subjected to unfair treatment because of their sexual orientation. Moreover, being openly gay at work can affect job promotion, health benefits and work atmosphere. In fear of discrimination, Mike is forced to hide his sexual orientation and pretend to like
Some main principles of second wave feminism are the focus on sexual reproductive rights and increasing women’s presence in the work field. Because the WLM was largely led by white, cis-gendered, middle-class women, queer women of color had a difficult time gaining recognition within the movement. This essay will explore the ways in which queer
In today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex and sexual desires revolve around men, and Hoagland sets out seven patterns showing how this is the case. Sex is thought of as a “powerful and uncontrollable urge” and male sexuality therefore is a basic component to male health, sexual acts show male conquest and domination, sexual freedom gives men total access to and over women, rape is, by this logic, natural and women who resist a man’s advances are “‘frigid’”, sex involves losing control and sexual desire, when described as erotic, “involves a death wish (eros)”. The bottom line is that in today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex is all about men having a natural power over women; sex involves a total loss of control which creates a split between reason and emotion since being in control is a matter of reason controlling emotions, “we tend to believe that to be safe we must be rational and in control but to...
Similar to the various waves of feminism movements in the past, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.
The word “Queer” means “strange, unusual”, the same with word “odd”. The theory of queer gender is not a specific theory, but a comprehensive interdisciplinary discourse that come from multiple subjects such as history, society and literature. The theory of queer gender established outside of the mainstream culture: these people and their theory cannot find their position in the mainstream culture, and they do not have intention to do so. “Queer” is a appellation for a social group including people who are not conform with the mainstream society about sexual preference and gender identity, like homosexual and bisexual.