Whither Asian American Lesbian Feminist Thought?

Abstract

What is produced by the invisibility of Asian American lesbian feminism? This article centers the work of contemporary Asian American lesbian feminist writer Merle Woo to ask: What is disciplined and normalized when "Asian" and "American" and "lesbian" and "feminist" cannot be held and thought as mutually embodied knowledges and practices? How does an insistent isolation of Asian racial discourse from relevant studies of gender, sexuality, imperialism, militarism, and other analytics of power in fact serve a white capitalist, colonial racial order? The article engages the writing of women of color feminist thinkers including Dana Takagi and Sara Ahmed to consider the ephemeral presence of Asian American lesbian feminist forms in Woo's poetry, journalism, and her epistolary essay "Letter to Ma" in the pivotal anthology This Bridge Called My Back. By citing women of color feminist work, including that of Asian American lesbian feminists, the page becomes a stage for fleeting collectivity.