Lesbian: Politics, Culture, Existence
A history of feminist and lesbian thinking from the 1970s to the present
Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.
She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus.
Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticisation and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media.
Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.
SEPTEMBER 2024 | ISBN 9781925950984 | Paperback | 152mm x 228mm | 360 pages
A history of feminist and lesbian thinking from the 1970s to the present
Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.
She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus.
Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticisation and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media.
Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.
SEPTEMBER 2024 | ISBN 9781925950984 | Paperback | 152mm x 228mm | 360 pages
A history of feminist and lesbian thinking from the 1970s to the present
Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.
She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus.
Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticisation and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media.
Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.
SEPTEMBER 2024 | ISBN 9781925950984 | Paperback | 152mm x 228mm | 360 pages
Look Inside the Book
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Poem: Together (1975)
2 Friends at the Wrong Time (2013)
3 The Institution of Heterosexuality and Lesbian Feminism as a Strategy (1976)
4 The Politics of the Exotic: The paradox of cultural voyeurism (1989)
5 What Do Lesbians Want? (1992)
6 Planting Roses: An exploration of lesbian traditions, cyberculture and poetics (1997)
7 Transgender People in the Women’s Circus: Open letters (2001)
8 From the Lesbian Body to Same-sex Attracted: The depoliticising of lesbian culture (2003)
9 The Political Uses of Obscurantism: Gender mainstreaming and intersectionality (2004)
10 The Butterfly Effect: The disruptiveness of lesbian knowledge (2005)
11 Ancient Hatred and Its Contemporary Manifestations: The torture of lesbians (2005)
12 Not on Anyone’s Program: How to count the unrecorded, unremembered, unnoticed lesbian refugees (2005)
13 Lesbian Economics: A challenge to economics as a sense of entitlement (2006?)
14 The Silences Between: Are lesbians irrelevant? (2007)
15 The Aerial Lesbian Body: The politics of physical expression (2007)
16 Matrices (2010)
17 Footnoted and Sidelined: The campaign for lesbian human rights (2011)
18 Poem: Slut but but (2011)
19 “Or, failing that, invent”: On lesbian language, memory and poetry (2014)
20 Fragmented Feminisms (2016)
21 From Inner Space to Outer Space: Australian lesbian writing (2017)
22 The TranScam (2021)
23 Separatism (2021)
24 The Lesbian Art of Suzanne Bellamy: Creativity as political strategy (2024)
25 Poem: Things a Lesbian Should Know (2019)
Bibliography
Index