Lesbians in film and text

Choose two of the following five short essay prompts and write a 2-3 page response to each question. Please include direct quotations from our assigned readings (at least one) and use parenthetical page references when you can—(Faderman 123), for example—but you only need to create a Works Cited page for any texts, including websites, you may choose to discuss that are not in our course material. Also follow these formatting requirements: double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font, 1-in. margins. Your two short essays are due in class and in hard copy form on Wednesday 3/7. You may consult with your classmates and see me for limited advising, but your written responses must be your own original work. To receive an extension, you must email me in advance of the due date and, in that email, propose your own new deadline, i.e. set the date and exact time that you will be sending me your work, and I will write back to approve or negotiate your new deadline. If you ultimately violate your own deadline, then late penalties will apply. A) Faderman defines social construction as a process wherein the social conditions for lesbian existence must come into being before the identity label, “lesbian,” can emerge. Lesbian history, she further suggests, can be told as a history of contest between social constructionist and essentialist viewpoints on lesbian desire. That these theories can coexist is reflected in Gayatri Spivak’s notion of “strategic essentialism,” which describes how marginalized groups will indeed claim that some things are natural or unchanging for the sake of practical or political gain. One of Faderman’s primary examples, the early 20th century discourse of sexology (e.g. Freud and his contemporaries), demonstrates that the formation of lesbian identity has involved the reclaiming of pathologized or seemingly negative representations of women’s desire, for instance. Also note how the Combahee River Collective declare “any type of biological determinism a particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic,” and yet implicitly agree with Robin Morgan about the dispensability of “white heterosexual men” to revolutionary politics at the end of their Statement. With such paradoxes in mind, use an example from our syllabus or from real-life experience to discuss the role and impact of identity labels and “identity politics” (as coined by the Collective) in lesbian and/or women’s history and culture. B) According to a certain mode of activist thinking, the concept of “safe space” exists to address some of the conflicts that Lorde discusses in “Eye to Eye.” Such conflicts over internalized oppression or relative social privilege occur between people who may identify as members of the same marginalized gender, race, class, or sexuality-based group—who, in other words, might call the same spaces (or, indeed, people) their “home.” Using an example from our syllabus or from real-life experience (and “Eye to Eye” for inspiration), imagine what specific types of issues would need to be worked out between specific characters in an ideal “safe space” before they could go “home” again—and also try to imagine what an ally (someone who does not identify as a member of this group and therefore would not belong in the “safe space”) could possibly do to support this process. C) From experimenting with literary form (e.g. Stein’s modernism), to emphasizing the role of the imagination in history (e.g. Faderman’s rhetoric or Dunye’s “mockumentary” format), to playing with the enduring conventions of LGBT tragedy (as enforced by the censorship codes of Hollywood and Broadway), LGBT narratives may frequently seem “unrealistic.” Why—and is this a bad thing? Discuss the meaning and function of “realism” (or the lack thereof) in a primary text (i.e., literature or film) from our syllabus. Describe the role of lesbian and/or queer aesthetics in your interpretation (where “aesthetics” applies to the perceivable qualities of an object, or the sensory strategies employed in artwork to generate those perceptions). D) Rich’s theory of “compulsory heterosexuality” offers a powerful analysis of social oppression that carries universal implications: according to her, everyone is affected by it, in every historical period and culture. Rich’s theory of the “lesbian continuum” also offers a powerful vision for uniting all women, regardless of sexual orientation, under the banner of feminism. However, Rich’s theories alone do not explain—and indeed, may even appear to undermine or exclude— several facets of 20th century lesbian culture: butch-femme relationships and modes of gender expression; the experiences of transmen and transwomen; bisexual women (and men); aromantic people, people who choose to be single, or anti-social individuals; kink or BDSM practitioners and porn enthusiasts; people whose political or social allegiances to racial/ethnic, nation-based, or socio-economic and class-based identities equal if not outweigh their gendered and sexual identifications; and so on. Using an example from our syllabus or real-life experience, discuss the possible limitations of Rich’s theories, and—without losing the spirit of her ideas—propose a revision or a compromise that might serve to “update” her insights for feminism today. E) Instead of addressing “racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression” as independent entities, the Combahee River Collective issues the powerful claim that “the major systems of oppression are interlocking.” Led by a number of lesbian feminists of color, the Collective announces that “the synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives,” and using the logic of self-love or self-interest, they claim that black women’s liberation is a guarantee of freedom for everyone else. “Women of color feminism” therefore teaches us to approach all forms of oppression with equal urgency: in the words of Sweet Honey in the Rock, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” But who is “we”? Using a fictional or historical character from our syllabus or from real-life experience, discuss and analyze an example of someone who struggles against interlocking oppressions. What strategies of resistance do you notice—and what are the emotional or interpersonal effects of the struggle? Evaluate, if you can, the role of oppositionality (or the figure of the oppressor or enemy) in their vision of social justice and liberation.