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From Lesbian Nation to Queer Nation
In 1973 Jill Johnston's Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution(1) was published with the following dedication:
This book is for my mother
who should've been a lesbian
And for my daughter
in hopes she will be
Here Lesbian Nation metaphorically represented the responsibility towards lesbianism Johnston assumed for all women. (To me the subtitle bears provocative resemblance to a final solution.) The debate surrounding the term lesbian was roughly divided into arguments for an inclusivity and arguments for an exclusivity in definitional terms. There are however considerable overlaps between these definitions as well as inconsistencies within them.
When the concept of Lesbian Nation was being framed what were the criteria for access to it and was there consensus amongst lesbians as to what forms this responsibility toward lesbianism should take?
I think the criteria were always contested and the history of lesbian politics in the 1970s are largely about what the criteria are. There were two fundamental criteria. First, that one be biologically female, and secondly that one be self-identified as lesbian. Beyond that, I guess there was a third criterion which is that one be feminist, although the definition of feminism was perhaps so taken-for-granted that it was not specified precisely. And it was all three of those criteria that really were challenged in what we now call the `lesbian sex wars.' For example, the criterion of what constitutes a biological female being challenged by transsexuals, such as Sandy Stone and the Olivia Records controversy in the late 70s.(2) That one must be self-identified lesbian was challenged by bisexual women and the third, that one be feminist, that question became `what is the definition of feminism?'I suppose the feminist question was most contested around the issue of lesbian sado-masochism. Those debates shattered any notion of any kind of unified lesbian community or lesbian nation, so I think that probably answers the second part of the question as well, which is that there was perhaps an assumed consensus but one that from the very moment of its assumption was constantly being challenged and rewritten.
Even earlier than that, I recall perhaps the most intense arguments taking place around male children -- the question of male children and female space --...