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  • Rhetoric as instrumental and constitutive
  • Ideological approach
  • Identity and Coalition

Rhetoric constituting collective identity

Contesting/resisting how collective identities are constructed

Connecting to history of identity discourse

Dominant discourses:

  • Medical
  • Legal
  • Social

Textual analysis questions (Part I)

• How do the authors define the term "lesbian" and what do they point to for support?

• How does the label "lesbian" function in society and within the women's movement, according to the authors?

• How do you think the label "woman identified woman" might work differently?

Textual analysis (Part II)

  • How does the text make an argument about language?
  • What are the benefits of creating labels for identity?
  • What are the limitations?
  • What other reactions/thoughts do you have regarding this text?

Examining "The Woman-Identified Woman"

Within gay movement:

sexism, racism, & invisibility

Rhetoric, Identity, and Activism: Inclusion/Exclusion

Challenges for Lesbians

Within feminism... homophobia, racism, classism, & invisibility

Within ethnic liberation movements:

sexism, homophobia, & invisibility

Conclusion

  • Importance of studying public discourse
  • Value of constitutive and ideological approaches
  • Value of internal (textual) and external (circulation) modes of analysis
  • Connecting to history through discourse
  • Revisiting struggles over identity, community, and coalitions

Enter: "The Woman-Identified Woman"

Intersecting and Overlapping Contexts

  • Who were the Radicalesbians?
  • Why did this happen in 1970?
  • WIW as an alternative identity

Oppression --> Lesbian, Gay, and Trans* Action

Complex Challenges --> Feminist activism

  • Wage inequality
  • Workplace discrimination and harassment
  • Lack of agency surrounding healthcare, sexual assault, domestic violence, childcare
  • Poverty
  • Lack of equality in higher education

Feminist ideological divide:

Liberal feminism

Radical Feminsm

More Layers to WIW

Identity rhetoric

Who gets included?

Who gets excluded?

  • Women of color; heterosexual women (Tate)
  • WIW limits both radical and liberal feminists (Poirot)

Contested identity arguments (Tate; Poirot)

Circulation of texts (Jasinski and Mercecia)

Resistance by lesbian-feminists

"I do not want to blend in. My difference is something I want to retain, it is my strength" --Patty Kunitsugu (1977)

Shifting Language

Overview

  • Outlining the context
  • Grappling with the text
  • Connecting text to context
  • Exploring how the text (and rhetoric) circulates

Enforcement:

  • Raids
  • Police entrapment

Re-framing women's liberation:

"I know you've heard the slogans: Woman Identified Woman, women who love women, etc., as if we have pledged undying allegiance and love for all women. It is implied that lesbians plead the cause of women as a sex. I am suspicious of these sentiments." Megan Adams (1979)

"Women's liberation, with its energies dedicated to children's day care centers [and] abortion laws . . . could give a damn about the gay community's battles for sex-law repeals, income tax reform, and the dual employment discrimination of female homosexuals" --Sharon Earll (1971)

"It's time we stop kidding ourselves. The straight world will not support us, they mean to kill us; straight women will not support us, they mean to ignore us; gay men will not support us, they mean to imitate us . . . .We are none other than Lesbian-identified-Lesbians, --Betty Peters (1972)

We are Black, we are gay, we are women, we are Black Gay Women. We cannot split ourselves. --Eliandra Henderson (1971)

Being a lesbian makes me stronger, it makes me want to fight all the time. I can walk away from a lot of things, like the trips guys lay on my head, because I'm a lesbian. It gives me some kind of strength over the black female who isn't a lesbian, who caters to that bullshit trip that goes on in the ghetto. --Jeanice Jeanette (1974)

"I am no longer gay. I am a lesbian. 'Gay' is no longer our word. As women-loving-women, proud of who and what we are, we must think of ourselves in strong, proud terms—as Lesbians—with a capital 'L'" --Sharon Crase (1973)

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