writerlylesbian

I pretty much agree with how you've characterised the context of what political lesbianism meant back when the concept first came into being. I also agree that it gave many women a positive space in which they could connect with other women, and that it gave lesbians a space in which they could explore themselves and realise they were lesbians.

But I also agree with the person who quoted the recent Sheila Jeffreys article where she talks about sexuality being a social construct. That really is what she, and others, were arguing back then, and some of them are still arguing for it now. And I don't think we have a lot of evidence that most people can choose their sexuality at will.

The other thing I'd point out is that, regardless of the good intentions of political lesbianism in its original context, it still was absolutely a large-scale attempt to redefine what lesbianism meant. The intent was to move lesbianism away from being female homosexuality, and into being this other thing that was an ideological political position, that may or may not involve sexual contact with other women for some.

This did have negative consequences for some lesbians at the time, particularly those who resisted lesbianism becoming an identity and wanted to keep it as being a sexual orientation. There were a lot of lesbian feminists books that talked about lesbians who were sexually attracted to other women, but not feminists, as not being 'true lesbians', and being quite derogatory about such women. They were pretty much viewed as the 'genital fetishists' of the day, and I absolutely think it was the inherent homophobia in these 'political lesbians' (many of whom were just straight women) that made them act in pretty shitty ways towards actual lesbians who wanted to sleep with other women. Not in every case, of course, but there was a conflict going on there.

From talking to older lesbians who lived through those times, it seems like there was also a class element to all this as well. The butch femme culture that Jeffreys famously condemned was, from what I understand, mainly a culture of working class lesbians at the time. Many of the women who were involved in all the theorising around political lesbianism and lesbian feminism tended to be women who were middle class or upper class, and writing from within the university sector at the time. So it was a bit of a top-down movement that was seeking to reclassify lesbianism as something for all separatist women, regardless of sexual orientation, while the dirty genital fetishist lesbians (who weren't on board) didn't get a say. I know there was one lesbian from a working class background who ended up going into the university sector precisely because that community felt like they needed to have a voice who could push back against this whole idea of reclassifying lesbianism into an identity, because so many ordinary lesbians who weren't as politically involved weren't cool with it. I just wish I could remember who it was!

So I do think it's not surprising at how political lesbianism has evolved to become what it is today, because the seeds of that were already there in what the movement was proposing. I'm happy to recognise the original context of the idea, to talk of some of the positives that came out of it, but I'm also going to criticise what I see as some of its hugely problematic aspects, both then and now.