Abstract
While coming out or the telling of sexual selves for LGBTQ+ people is often seen as the final step toward living a free and healthy life, lesbians who also identify as feminists embark on a life-long journey in which the plot ebbs and flows around activism and mobilization. Their goal is not only to come out, but to be out. Both cisgender radical-lesbian feminists and trans feminists consider coming out as not only crucial for the realization of self, but also an important tactic for taking up space and intervening in a heteronormative world. But, while the original theories of radical feminism advocated a fierce anti-essentialism, some contemporary radical feminists continue to focus on biology and questions like “what is a woman?” I hope to refocus the question to ask: how are narrative audiences, discursive forms of text, and spaces important for feminists as they realize lesbian or trans identities and communities? Data come from a historical printed newsletter by self-described radical feminists practicing lesbian separatism and two current micro-blogs, one surrounding radical-feminist narratives and the other around trans feminism. Through a textual analysis, I show how self-proclaimed radical feminists and trans feminists use poetic and emotive writing to produce different kinds of narratives about coming out and being out in different spaces and for unique audiences. Ultimately, these discursive forms are important for communities as members’ stories challenge and are impacted by public narratives of gender, essentialism, and cis- and hetero-normativity.
Highlights
I venture out, away from the clearly marked path to explore what lies beyond.The grass is lush and green.The meadow fragrance makes me dizzy with delight.I am captivated by a rainbow in the distance.I run towards it with all my might, drawn like a magnet. . . —C.B. [Womyn’s Words] (WEB 1996)In modern times, the LGBTQ+ community proudly flies rainbow flags as symbols of pride
With coming out and being at as my focus, I ask: how are narrative audiences, discursive forms of text, and spaces important for feminists as they realize lesbian or trans identities and communities? With this, I hope to show how the coming out experience toward the realization of lesbian and/or trans identities can be about the everyday methodologies of activists rather than biology
Data for this study come from a 1980s–2000s printed newsletter written by cisgender radical-lesbian feminists practicing lesbian separatism and two current micro-blogs, one organized around radical feminism and the other around trans feminism
Summary
I venture out, away from the clearly marked path to explore what lies beyond. The grass is lush and green. Radical feminism is about consciousness-raising away from people in power as a way to critique patriarchy or the social and sexual dominance of women by men (Giardina 2003). It is about questioning the private sphere, especially sexuality and the normalization of heterosexuality, as imbued with politics. This has created conflict between cis lesbians and transgender activists, trans lesbians, and trans feminists or those who consider trans women’s liberation to be important for the liberation of all women (Koyama 2003) In the academy, this decades-old divide began with the work of trans exclusionary radical feminists like Janice Raymond (1979) and Sheila. With coming out and being at as my focus, I ask: how are narrative audiences, discursive forms of text, and spaces important for feminists as they realize lesbian or trans identities and communities? With this, I hope to show how the coming out experience toward the realization of lesbian and/or trans identities can be about the everyday methodologies of activists rather than biology
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