INTRODUCTION
Whenever I, or any people for that matter, browse through literature pertaining to gender studies, identity politics and even philosophy, I always have difficulty looking for texts that center on lesbianism. I believe the lack of available resources reflect and, to a certain extent, contribute to inadequate understanding and misconceived perceptions regarding the issues faced by lesbians today. In my everyday search for lesbian representation, I have come to the realization that the media has come a long way in integrating homosexuals in its industry. Unfortunately, it appears that the lesbian receives far less exposure, if not, entirely in the background, as compared to gay men. It is a challenge to collect fragments of the lesbian culture in the form of articles, films, and TV show DVDs. And I have always found this difficulty to be deeply rooted on the fact that the lesbian lifestyle is simply not receiving the ample attention it deserves. This is could be, on the one hand, due to the tendency of lesbians to be silent members of society. As a result, the silence of lesbians has led to an over-all hushing of their lives including the ordeals they face.
As such, this thesis will discuss the dilemma lesbians1 encounter based on their
gender identities. It is in high hope that in pursuing a philosophical inquiry on lesbianism, I will be able to supply a substantial account on a subject that deserves further attention in academic discourses.
One of the concerns of this paper is anchored on the claim that lesbians are confronted with the issue of double displacement due to their sex and gender. Sex is generically defined as the biological birth category of a person as male or female. This
1 The term lesbian in its most basic sense refers to a female who identifies the same sex as the
object of her desire and sexual preference. Lesbian gender per se is a patchwork of masculine and feminine qualities which the lesbian reinforces and chooses to manifest as part of her identity and lifestyle.
category has become the basis of societies in socially constructing and naturalizing gender as masculine or feminine. Sex is far more stable than gender in the sense that the former is physically confined. Gender is a social construct that has developed to become a social fact. In this thesis, I will be deconstructing gender to accommodate other identities aside from the masculine and the feminine.2 Sex and gender distinctions are
further standardized and reinforced through roles, social beliefs, and practices. In order to address the issue of double displacement, this project shall gear towards the attainment of a higher social good in the form of gender justice. This goes to say that the central task of my thesis is to liberate the lesbians from double displacement by producing and conceptualizing a “gender-just society.” It is necessary for the latter to be the ultimate goal of any intellectual endeavor that wishes to solve the issues a particular gender faces. The paper suggests a scholarly activist stance. As such, the feasibility of the recommendations to be rendered is reliant on the attitude lesbians would have to adopt. A gender-just society is plausible if and only if the lesbian can first overcome the myths or false notions regarding her identity in society.
To clearly establish the project this thesis wishes to pursue, Chapter One will familiarize the reader with the context/issues in which the lesbian is situated. It will include a review of the status of women and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Queer (GLBTQ) communities in different societies. Afterwards, I shall also discuss the contribution of feminist thought in the analysis of lesbianism. In the section entitled Feminist Theory versus Lesbian Theory, I am to purport that feminism which has claimed authority in providing an account of lesbianism (both in theory and practice), has in
certain ways failed to adequately perform the task of formulating a lesbian-oriented praxis.
Chapter Two is devoted in laying down arguments that will support the claim that double displacement exists. This will be done by investigating how the lesbian is discriminated, repressed, and misplaced via the various institutions of society. I would consequently tackle the ways in which the lesbian is viewed and identified within the public sphere in order to understand the root of her difficulties and passivity in addressing the issue of double displacement.
Chapter Two will also discuss how the male-female and masculine-feminine binary categories became the primary point from which a society institutionalizes heterosexuality as the norm of gender relation and identity. In doing so, individuals are raised and trained to conform to their particular sex and gender designations. Moreover, the need to procreate will be used to justify heteronormativity. This is an assumption that every one is and ought to be heterosexual.
In the same chapter, heterosexuality will be described as an institutional and self-preservation entity that maintains social order. A society makes it imperative to strictly conform to the gender categories one is placed in view of the assumption that being heterosexual is normal and necessary. One who does not fit within this gender framework would be considered as a deviant, a rebel, or even abnormal. Failure to obey by the rules of gender identification would lead to dire consequences. The lesbian therefore, being both female and homosexual, inherits the afflictions of both categories. As a result of this scenario, achieving a collective lesbian identity and a free gendered self becomes obscure.
The Final Chapter will center on gender justice as it relates to double displacement and how it is to be placed as the absolute end to be attained. As such, it falls under the strand of socio-political philosophy which is concerned with the normative aspect of addressing social ends and issues. By the time the reader reaches this concluding chapter, he/she would have presumably understood that the different forms of gender oppression like sexism are social justice issues.
In formulating a gender-just society, I will be employing the Capability Approach of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Humanist Feminists and gender theorists are currently choosing this general normative framework in analyzing the issue of gender equality and justice. The Capability Approach, though still in the stage of becoming a full blown theory of social justice, can be used to construct the conditions needed to for gender-just society. Needless to say, this thesis shall ground its solution on positive freedom. Bodies, regardless of gender, ought to receive certain privileges based on capabilities. Capabilities will be referred to as the ability to do and to be (termed as functionings) and will be considered in this thesis as fundamental entitlements.
The applicability of gender justice in this thesis will be limited to civil societies that have already accommodated a liberal stance. The category of lesbian and homosexual should be first presented in the said society. Furthermore, it must be noted that the concepts applied here are feasible within the context of Western and Western-influenced states wherein there is conscious presence of gendered institutions and human rights.
CHAPTER 1 : EXPOSITION AND CONTEXTUALIZATION
Before I am to inquire the issue of double displacement, one must first recognize the social reality in which it is embedded. As such, this chapter will aim to familiarize the reader with the landscape that this thesis would be working on. I have also opted to include a section devoted to an overview of feminist thought as it relates to lesbian praxis. Although there are a lot of disciplines that engage in studying lesbianism, it is the feminist that had served as arbiter in such discourse. As mentioned in the introduction, this chapter contextualizes the problem of lesbians as individuals and as part of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer3 (GLBTQ) community. I must reiterate that
background discussions for any work that pertains to gender is indispensable. This is in order to establish that gender oppression is a current predicament and a contemporary issue that society has remained silent on.
The following section will consist of brief reports that aim to highlight the status of gender liberation on different continental locations. The lesbian is, in the succeeding paragraphs, discussed as part of the homosexual community and the women sector. After we have seen her position in different scenarios, we will be able to discuss the lesbian quasi-independently.
3 The term gay is used in this thesis exclusively refers to homosexual males. The term lesbian as
clarified in the introduction is the homosexual female whose gender and sex is both considered inferior. Bisexuals are individuals whose object of desire can shift from male to female and vice versa. Transsexuals on the other hand, are people who have decided to alter their sex to coincide with their gender preference. The term queer refers to individuals who do not wish to categorize themselves using the usual gender categories.
The Status of GLBTQ minorities and Women in different Social Contexts
The United States: A Pioneer on Gender Advocacy
The United States (US) is considered to be the most advanced in the process of creating a gender-just society primarily because it is the host to numerous GLBTQ advocacy groups. In comparison to other states, the gays and lesbians in the US tend to actively participate in political and social dialogues. Their values and attitudes tend to focus more on the individual, rather than what society dictates or perceive as correct. Furthermore, it could be traced in their history that US gays and lesbians are the pioneers in demanding for equal civil liberties and most especially in the alleviation, if not the full eradication, of gender discrimination.
A good point of reference would be the “Stonewall Rebellion of 1969” in New York City, where gays protested against the use of brutal force of abusive police officers while raiding gay bars.4 This momentous event in gay history became the launching pad
for GLBTQ advocacy. The entry of lesbians in the GLBT movement5 soon followed in
the early ‘70s as part of the second wave of feminists. Afterwards, these second wave feminists began to explore the role of lesbianism, as emphasized in the publication of Simone De Beauvoir entitled “The Second Sex,” and the highly angered article of Charlotte Bunch’s “Lesbians in Revolt.”6
Despite the head start, lesbians and gays in the US are still subject to rightwing-led discrimination headed by the Republicans, neo-conservatists, and like-minded
4 Andre Reding, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights in the Americas, (New York:World Policy
Institute, 2003), 89.
5 Individuals who considered themselves in the category of “queer” were not yet recognized
during this time.
6 Marilyn Pearsall, Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy, 3rded.
individuals, through legislations that suppress gender justice. Despite public dissent, the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the US military, which inhibits gays and lesbians from serving the army as “out” soldiers, is still being implemented. On the other hand, majority of Bible Belt states in the US do not tolerate GLBTQ behavior particularly in recognizing same-sex unions, except for some parts of Florida who recently amended their local legislations acknowledging same-sex civil unions. Furthermore, there are no laws that protect gays and lesbians against hate crimes in more than half of federal states the country.
Despite initial efforts in demanding for equal civil liberties, it is still not enough to assume that “gender revolution,” as American scholars coined the term for the liberation and equality of both sexes, is over. Although it can be asserted that women have been able to infiltrate various fronts of society, a lot of feminists argue that the truth of this is exclusively centered on White middle class women, and to other races and groups that exist in the US.
The role of women, in general, is still in question mainly because of their sex and gender. This has been manifested in various organizations and companies who are still able to elude from the laws that should have been able to protect women. Laws, which were supposedly aimed at protecting women at work, are not being fully implemented. Some women are not hired, given less income and benefits, or easily terminated primarily because of the assumption that as women, they could not properly do their work as good as men can do it.
South and Latin America:The Machismo Culture
One of the fundamental cultural markers related to gender in South and Latin America revolves around the machismo culture, the Latin American concept of hyper-masculinity. Machismo culture refers to the overall cultural structure of the Latin Americans such that it adheres, not only to the patriarchal system of its society, but most importantly in the attitudes and values related to extreme masculism. Machista ethics solidly describes the attitudes and values of the male species: sexually-aggressive, domineering, and has high regard for the male-dominated society. Its ideals are further emphasized by the religion of the Latinos, Roman Catholicism, as reiterated by Andre Reding:
Machista ideals of manly appearance and behavior contribute to
extreme prejudices against effeminate men, and frequently to violence against them. The Roman Catholic teaching that homosexuality is a sin further contributes to intolerance, and is seen by many to provide moral sanction for mistreatment. To live an undisturbed gay or lesbian lifestyle in much if not most of Latin America, one has to hide it.7
It is said that the Roman Catholic Church accepts homosexual individuals, but not the sexual acts that these homosexuals engage in. However, homosexuals do not deny the fact that these sexual acts, or even the concept of thinking of it, is inevitable to commit. Hence, even if the “act” is different from those who commit them, there would still be the negative view of gays and lesbians as people who continue to sin because the act cannot be separated from the person. Given the need for the homosexual to abstain him or herself from sexual acts
with the same sex, there is always the question of whether this would hinder his or her capability to live freely in coherence with his identity.
It must be noted that as compared to gays, lesbians receive less maltreatment and harassment in Latin American countries primarily because lesbian relations are invisible in their cultural fiber.8 And since
machismo has a male-oriented definition, lesbianism is seen as a far less threat in society. Despite such indistinct behavior, there is still the issue of displacement because of the non-recognition of lesbians in its culture.
On the other hand, Latino culture also imbibe the way of thinking that women can only be truly be called a woman if they experience sexual intercourse. Armed with such thinking, males engage in rape, or forced sexual intercourse, if only to enforce their machista ideals, and perceive such act as a favor, onto the unrecognized lesbian sector of their society. Lesbians are also abused by their own family members through domestic violence and incestuous acts. As a result, these crimes are, most of the time, seen as private disputes, rather than considering it as a gender-related issue.9 Instead, abuses toward
lesbians are placed in police records as either rape or domestic violence. The lack of recognition and documentation for gender crimes have allowed the governments of these states to hold any
8 Ibid, 16. 9
Thompson, Becky. interview, Maria Trinidad Gutierrez and the Mexican Lesbian and Gay
accountability and intervene with the homophobic behavior in their culture.
Given the aforementioned issues and concerns, the ideology that women are inferior to men is highly viewed by Southern, Latin American, and Carribean states since colonial times. With this, the image of the woman is regarded in two views: a) if she is married, then she is placed on a pedestal and situated in the home; b) if she is single, then she becomes a part and an object of the game called sexual pursuit. In both views, the woman is viewed not as an independent person with a given set of capabilities. Instead, she is conceived either in terms of her relation to men, i.e. as a mother to her son, a wife to her husband, or as an object of men’s desire.
This mode of thinking has evolved changed throughout the years, especially during the era of industrialization and socialism in most of Southern and Latin states. However, the nature of submissiveness remains prevalent, even with the introduction of women in the workforce and the public sphere. In fact, the labor arena is one of the areas in which the woman is further subjected to subordination due to their inferiority complex or their tendency to be too submissive in work demands. As a result of their submissiveness and inability to complain, women laborers, particularly in sweatshops and factories, in Latin America are still subjected to substandard working conditions, cheaper labor cost, longer working hours, and too
much workload. To aggravate matters, they are still financially dependent on their husbands, or even other male relatives for this matter. Husbands and male relatives tend to take their earnings, forcibly or through coercion, in an attempt to instill their role and stature as the superior sex, as sanctified by tradition.
Canada: Homosexual Policy Support
Canada is leading the call for revising laws to accommodate the rights of GLBTQs. It has continuously created and developed pro-homosexual laws for gays and lesbians.10 Recently, it has also begun to
uphold same-sex marriage privileges. Unfortunately, this does not suffice to conclude that Canada is the archetype for the future gender-just state. Gender oppression continues to persist for colored Canadians and immigrants. Lesbians continue to receive discrimination, although in a more subtle way, from the communities they belong to despite legal protections extended to them. In this regard, Canadian GLBTQs tend to simply to shrug away these incidents. The flaw in the system exists due to lack of implementing guidelines for such laws. Furthermore, Canadians are somehow complacent over the existence of these laws, such that they lack the enthusiasm and passion to criticize or question whether the law is fully realized.
Europe: Netherlands, The Most Gay-tolerant Nation
The International Social Survey Program conducted a study on homosexual tolerance behavior and found out that the Dutch were the most tolerant among other countries, scoring 77 over 100 in a tolerance survey. It should also be noted that the Netherlands is the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001.11
In contrast, even with the anti-discrimination law for same-sex oriented individuals, 70% of Siberians have experienced some form of violence against them based on their gender preference, appearance and practices according to a 2006 survey on gay and lesbian related crimes by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.12 Vuckovic
also highlighted in her article entitled “Discrimination against Lesbians and Gays in Siberia 2006” that about 43% respondents claimed to have encountered such violence on a regular basis, whether it be physical (being slapped, kicked, and even beaten by random strangers), emotional and psychical (in result of frequent taunting, ridicule, refusal to talk, denial of entry from some establishments, et cetera.).13
Like in South and Latin America, the Labris GLBTQ organization, a lesbian organization, also reported that even though gays and lesbians reported violent experiences to the police, the cases were
11 Jonathan Kelley, Attitudes towards Homosexuals in 29 nations, in
www.international-survey.org/A_Soc_M/Homosex_ASM_v4_n1.pdf, accessed on November 1, 2001.
12 Samuel Cox, Division Report: Gender-related Violence. United Nations Commission on
Human rights. 2000.
13 Dragana Vuckovic, Discrimination against Lesbians and gays in Siberia 2006, in
http://www.labris.org.yu/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136&Itemid=48, accessed on August 16, 2007.
filed as mere random physical injury or domestic violence. Instead of arresting the culprit, police officers merely advised the complainants to settle the dispute and avoid “attracting too much attention.”14 The
organization also reported that gays and lesbians were being terminated from their respective jobs on the assumption that they are gays or lesbians, albeit their non-admittance. On the other hand, some businesses fire lesbians on the pretext that they do not meet specific job requirements, particularly in the aspect of meeting the requirements for certain dress codes (in reference to dykes, butches, and transgendered women). Another justification an employer uses is the fact that women who are not married in their 30s are assumed to have lack emotional stability, and thus may affect their ability to perform their work effectively. This, obviously, would have difficulty of finding a job when she reaches this particular age. Furthermore, lesbians and women are also objects of pornography and sex trafficking. Such premises are contradictory to Article 18 of the Labor Law of the Republic of Siberia, which clearly states that any act of any direct or indirect discrimination based on sexual orientation in seeking employment or as employees is forbidden.15
Due to the liberated view of sexual intercourse in the region, there is much belief that women are, to a large extent, open for conquest. This leads to acts of harassment and date rape, particularly
14 Ibid. 15 Ibid.
for those bisexuals and femmes. Although filed, these cases are often left unsettled due to the mindset of European males that in being harassed and raped, the women wanted it. Such thinking prevails in the minds of male dominated law enforcement agencies.
Africa: Legal Persecution of Homosexuals
Despite being the first ever country to ever prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, as well as the recognition of same-sex civil unions, there still a widespread persistence of gay and lesbian hate crimes in South Africa. In August 8, 2007, three lesbians were murdered by straight men after attending the first ever “Pride March” due to its so-called “offending activities.” Instead of categorizing such act as murder, the suspects were charged with hate crime, under the anti-discrimination law. Thus, the punishment would be far more severe in order for the State to send a message of tolerance and actual recognition regarding the discrimination homosexuals, in general, suffer.
However, in other parts of Africa, GLBTQs are not as fortunate. A lot of countries still prohibit homosexuality such as Kenya, wherein individuals found guilty of being gay can be imprisoned for 14 years. In Zambia, gays and lesbians are legally prosecuted under the state’s penal code, which states that “having carnal knowledge of a man or woman against the order of nature or commits unnatural offenses is
guilty of felony.”16 This law was further reiterated by Vice President
Christon Tempo in 1998, when he released a statement vowing that: “…If anybody promotes gay rights after this statement, the law will take its course. We need to protect public morality. Human rights do not operate in a vacuum.”17 True to such
words, the police were given instructions to arrest men and women who support homosexuals or are actual gays and lesbians.18 Moreover, the government continued
supporting the organization Zambia Against People with Abnormal Sexual Acts (ZAPASA), which aimed to fight against homosexuals. The same situation is widespread in different parts of Africa like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, et cetera.
By virtue of being women, African lesbians would inherit the same faith from its patriarchal society as they are considered to be second class citizens. Because of their dominant male culture, women are also not given equal access to medical treatment. In the rise of poverty in the continent, women and lesbians alike are chosen to be the primary recipients of the burden, which includes limited access to: education, media, government, and practices that could be deemed dehumanizing (such as vaginal circumcision, banishment, slavery et cetera).
India: Women as a Liability
Similar to the aforementioned locations, the strong patriarchal nature of Indian society ensures the worse treatment for lesbians than for gays, particularly on the lack of
16 Stefano Fabeni, “The Violations of the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Persons in ZAMBIA”, International Gay and Human Rights Commission Report, (July 2007), 2. The term ‘women’ is not interpreted by the Zambian government as pertaining to lesbians. The law takes a default male perspective.
17 Ibid.
18 The lesbian was initially not part of the law persecuting individuals who practice homosexuality.
The original Zambian law stated that men who will engage in homosexual acts would be subject to fourteen years imprisonment. The involvement of lesbians in the police hunt was de facto in nature and should not have been covered by legislature. As such it could be deemed as an illegal arrest with no due justification.
laws that protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Although India has a law particularly against gay relations, it is seldom implemented but instead utilized for extortion, abuse, and threat. This law excludes lesbian relationships, hence lesbians are considered to be an invalid gender in the country. This makes our case of displacement a bigger issue, because of India’s ignorance, rather than the actual act of abuse.
Like African women, Indian women, who are not part of the cosmopolitan cities of India, are also subject to second class citizenship and unfair treatment. This includes the practice of “son-preference,” where the son is the more preferred sex by society’s standards. For this reason, there is a high mortality rate for female children due to the low allocation of family resources for them particularly in the following aspects: food, education, medical care, shelter, et cetera.
The Dowry System also reinforces the belief that women are considered to be expenditures by fathers. In this system, the father of the bride is required to give “dowry,” in money or in kind, to the family of the groom. With this, Indians view their women as a liability to their family because of the need to give expensive dowry during marriage, instead of using such resources on other means of survival.
The Philippines: The Least Tolerant Nation
In the same study that showed the Netherlands as the most tolerant nation towards homosexual behavior, the Philippines scored 8 over 100, making it the least tolerant among the 29 participating countries.19 If this holds true, then lesbians and gays maintain a social
stereotype acceptable by the Filipino culture. Despite the fact that
physical violence towards gay men and lesbians are infrequent in the country, discrimination and harassment is very much prevalent due to the silent and tolerant character of metropolitan society. Moreover, middle class lesbians do not often find the need to pursue further legal rights, much more protection. Access to media representation also tolerates a blinding complacence and satisfaction of the lesbian from the reality of being displaced.
In terms of “coming-out,” people in the rural areas consider lesbians if her physical features relate to that of the pseudo-male, or the butch. In the Philippines, gays and lesbians are able to gain the acceptance of their families in the form of silence. Otherwise, coming-out only becomes an issue when the chosen mode is confrontational, particularly when a lesbian initially denies her gender preference. As a result, organizations such as Can’t Live Inside the Closet (CLIC) and the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network (LAGABLAB) reported through an interview with Anna Leah Sarabia, the founder of CLIC, that some lesbians experience humiliation, parental violence and ridicule when their gender was revealed in such confrontational manner.20
The degree at which GLBTQs and women experience gender discrimination and/or oppression varies. However, we are able to see the recurring pattern of explicit and implicit homophobia and sexism, not only in the Philippines but as well as in other countries. It must be acknowledged then, that gender related incidents of oppression are not
merely isolated cases. Rather, they become social concerns in most parts of the globe such that these travesties and subjugation directed upon homosexual males and females become issues of social justice. As a form of social justice, gender justice appears in light of the fact that some members of society are recipients of socio-economic, political, and cultural inequalities based on their sex and gender, while being denied of privileges accorded to every individual by virtue of being rational human beings in a society.
After setting the status quo and context from which this project launches itself from, I shall move to the second part of this chapter which discusses how feminist philosophy influenced the formulation of a lesbian theory. The manner in which historical feminists discussed lesbianism has been crucial in such a way that its ideas had a huge impact on the direction of lesbian liberation and thought.
Feminist Theory and Lesbian Theory
Feminist thought has claimed authority over discussions and inquiry of lesbianism by virtue of their aim, which is concerned with the issues of “womanity.” Given its nature, lesbianism cannot separate itself from feminism entirely, although there is a need to set boundaries in which the two converges. With this, I will identify the limits of doing a feminist approach on the issues of lesbians, and their interpretation of the lesbian identity, particularly focusing on identifying some of the errors of feminist theories about the lesbian. I shall pursue this in order to avoid the same flaws in posing the problem of double displacement and in suggesting a gender-just oriented solution. If a lesbian wishes
to understand and comprehend her gendered personhood through a scholarly discourse, she would find herself unsuitable to the description and identity articulated by its initial arbiter – the feminists.
An Overview of Feminist Thought
After analyzing the available resource materials, it appears that there is no clear-cut description to categorically defining feminism. In fact, feminists find themselves arguing what constitutes the very term. For the sake of clarity, feminism will be defined here in its most general sense: a movement that is comprised of social, political, and cultural praxes, advocacies, and philosophies that aims to understand and eradicate the cause of inequalities and oppression particularly towards women.21
I consider that the position of feminist thought, as a strand of philosophy, is not confined to the tasks of conceptual analysis and discourse. It has literally become a philosophy in action, in the sense that the philosophizing of women, about women, has led to the creation of a political advocacy that aims not only in telling us what is wrong, and what we ought to do. Actually, it has been devised to set out and show us how they think it should be done. To understand the issues of feminist thinking, as well as its action driven face outside of the academe, I will briefly trace the evolution of the said discipline. This would allow one to see where feminism is coming from, and why it is what it is, before laying down its main tenets regarding society, women, and the lesbian.
The thoughts, ideas, and history of feminism are best spoken through the three waves in which feminist thought is said to have occurred. The aforementioned waves are generally reflected from the formulation of a feminist agenda within the US and Europe.
21 Marilyn Pearsall, Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy, 3rded.
However, I attempted to diffuse and decontextualize such ideas in order to address gender oppression in most societies.
It has been said that feminist thinking was given a figure during the 18th century
through the now classic 1792 work of Mary Wollstonecraft entitled “A Vindication of the Rights of Women.” It demanded for the political liberation of women through equal political and social rights with men who were then considered to be the only eligible participants in the public sphere. At the same time, it was also the start of feminist activity in the US and United Kingdom in order to gain the right of suffrage for women. It can be said that the first wave of feminism is a liberal one, which centered on gaining entry into state institutions while gaining political and official recognition as the able counterpart of the male. It is also during this time that women began to argue against the notion of rational inferiority, thus demanding for equal access to education and civil liberties.22 Interestingly, it was only during the arrival of the second wave feminism that
the term ‘first wave’ was officially coined.
The first wave feminist activity geared its agenda towards acquiring the right to vote and some privileges awarded only to men. It centered on attacking the de jure (official) means like the law and other state policies that oppresses women. As compared to the first, the second wave feminism takes the issue of de facto means in which gender oppressive society is able to maintain itself. This is intertwined with the desire to eliminate practices that reinforce male dominance of various social activities and relations. Second wave feminists still saw the importance of the first wave feminist contributions. However, they sought to eradicate both sources of inequality (de jure and
22 Giltraud Schuvik, The Birth of the Woman:An Introduction to Feminism, (New York: Basic
de facto) as a necessary realignment of issues, from issues of equality towards issues of freedom, in order to liberate the woman.
The second wave of feminism began shortly after the World War II, with the appearance of Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex.” This became the turning point for the shift of the conceptual framework of feminism from a discussion of equality towards a discussion of freedom. Her claim, that “women could not be equal, could not be anything but the second sex until they are free to change themselves and their conditions,”23 was so powerful that it became the starting point and argument for
succeeding feminist theories, as compared to the aim of feminists’ agenda during the first wave.
Also during the second wave, that feminism penetrated and aroused the interests of the American and European public of the 70s, it began to split itself from within. Feminist thought no longer became a unified understanding of the woman and her condition instead different views began to give birth to different interpretations and solutions. For example, the liberals continued to pursue a path to civil liberties as the primary means to attain freedom and equality. Meanwhile, radical feminists proposed a program of absolute separatism from all things male, getting back women power by starting a social revolution. For the Marxist feminist, they believed that all oppression, like gender oppression, was all rooted in the economic rule of the privileged that required a revolution overthrowing the bourgeoisie. I would have to say that I disagree with the system and theory of liberation proposed by the radicals and the Marxist feminist. On the other hand, I find the liberal stance inadequate when it espoused a change in certain institutional policies alone. At the most, I would more likely side with the humanists who
utilized an existential and third wave feminist thought, in the form of “feminisms,” which is referred to a feminist in a more global and location-sensitive manner. It must be noted, however, that despite the fact of having belonged to the third wave feminism, “feminisms” refuse to associate themselves with it and instead be associated with the fourth wave feminism.
Third wave feminism refers to the fusion of the different strands of feminism. It attempts to reconcile these views in form a globalization suiting approach. It is not a inflexible form of feminism as it evolves by adapting the different modes of women liberation across cultures unlike feminism, which imposes its view, analysis, and prescriptions on a society. Feminisms contextualize their views depending on the status quo of the community. It also recognizes that the cause of gender oppression may be impossible to find. They do not attempt to engage on history or patriarchy as the sole root of all evils.
Instead of claiming a unified form of feminism that governs the liberation of women, I prefer the coming together of different form of feminisms. The claim for gender justice should not subscribe to universality. Rather, one should view that certain just inequalities could validly exist in societies with internal and external multidimensional difference. The emphasis should be in assuring that certain “capabilities,” or fundamental functions and rights, of individuals regardless of time and space, are safeguarded.
The third wave of feminism consists of various types, which sprung from the critiques made by their predecessors, such as the following: black feminist, lesbian feminist, postmodern feminist, ecofeminist and the mind boggling post-post feminism
feminist. Third wave feminism claimed that second wave feminism made a mistake by proposing a myth of a unified woman. Black feminists, for example, found that feminist thinking during the 70s and 80s were insensitive to the needs and causes of the Blacks. In fact, feminism during the aforementioned period was deemed to be applicable only to the middle-class, the White, and the heterosexual woman.
In their attempt to alleviate gender oppression, radicals and liberalists alike were unable to consider how the issue crossed path with other means of oppression. They were criticized for making it seem that the primary problem for any woman would be her subordination to men. On the contrary, poverty stricken women argue that gender subordination would be the least of their problems. The Black woman, for example, as Bell Hooks claimed, would rather identify her oppression as a Black woman in a White dominated community rather than as a woman in a patriarchal society. This is because most part of her life was subjected to this racial distinction rather than her sex.She further criticized the possibility of providing a feminist theory that would represent all women as she emphasized that, “it is not enough to claim that all women are oppressed and sexism renders suffering that cannot be measured as the justification to say that a common bond can be forged among women.”24
Most women, who do not belong to the same social strata as the traditional American feminists, would find it difficult to reconcile their experience of sexism and patriarchy from the ones mentioned in the written works of these thinkers. It is necessary to consider that an affiliation to a different race, or a gender preference, could easily lead to a whole different view of the world, unlike the second wave feminist that hastily
24 Bell Hooks, Feminist Theory:From Margin to Center, (South End Express, 1984), Woman and
Values:Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy, 3rded. (Belmont:Wadsworth Publishing Company,1999),
generalized the female into a universal category of woman. They also assumed that the problem of a White American heterosexual feminist is identical to the plight of a Filipino homosexual female and a GLBTQ rights advocate.
Lesbian Misplacement in Feminist Thoughts
As I have mentioned earlier, feminism has claimed ownership over lesbianism by virtue of having the woman as its central concern. Surely this has some truth to it, but only to an extent that the lesbian is born with the sexed body of a female and to the extent as well that she suffers certain symptoms of oppression based on her birth sex. I shall now render the appraisal of feminist theories on lesbians in this concluding sub-section. This will also be used as an opener to the discussion of double displacement in Chapter Two.
When Sigmund Freud published his medical work in 1920 entitled, “The Psychogenesis of a case of Homosexuality in a Woman,” he declared the concept of lesbianism as a mental disorder. Using his famous Psychoanalytic approach, he speculated that homosexuality in men and women may well be a case of narcissism. Accordingly, he claimed that a woman becomes homosexual when she undergoes a negative oedipal complex, wherein the mother is naturally the original love object of a lesbian female. But instead of the desire shifting to the father as the object, the girl (the daughter) retains her love for her mother.25 Furthermore, Freud asserted that lesbians who
adopt the pseudo-male role is the girl who is unable to shed the masculine component of her personality and resolve her penis envy. Thus, out of anger and jealousy to her father
25 Janet Shibley Hyde, Lesbianism and Bisexuality, in Half the Human Experience: the Psychology
and to other males, such issues were resolved through mimicry of men who possess what she needs to win the love of her mother.26
This was the scenario at the time when feminism decided to take lesbianism under its wing, with a goal to retort against the accusation of lesbianism as a disease that infects the minds of women during the 1960s and 70s. For some time, the term “lesbian” was even used to insult women and regard them as psychologically abnormal individuals. This was used as a justification to send them to mental institutions. Women, who defied certain gender prescriptions, exhibited desire to perform masculine identified acts, and even those who found comfort in wearing pants were accused of being lesbians. The feminists of the 70s, who aimed at resolving this stereotyping, claimed that male supremacy viewed lesbianism with so such stigma out of insecurity and fear of having their possessions usurped by lesbians.
Also during the 70s, radicalesbians27 who coined the term
woman-identified-woman, claimed that the appeal to pathology of male-dominated psychology was a desperate attempt to keep women in their place, such that women would continue to portray the role of the subordinate dependent on man. Accordingly, the clamor for equality produced a lesbian concept contrary to the assigned inferior category of women. This idea further flourished when radical feminists integrated the work of Simone De Beauvoir in the “Second Sex.” There was a shift in thinking that when De Beauvoir claimed that “the woman could not be equal, could not be anything but the second sex, until she is free to change to themselves and their conditions.” From an argument of
26 Ibid, 309.
political equality, the assertion of equality in freedom, as a necessary core of human beings influenced the current wave of thinking.28
This view becomes pertinent in our discussion of lesbianism since De Beauvoir also emphasized the view that lesbianism is a form of rebellion from the current conditions of the woman as the other. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the feminists during that time embraced the lesbian as a woman who is the most free due to her refusal to relate with men, to be fixed within a domineering system of heterosexuality, and her passion to practice her freedom by loving her own kind.29
It is understandable that the hype of the 70s Gender Revolution gave birth to an aggressive feminist voice demanding for change. This was the initial phase of lesbian feminism that overwhelmed feminists of the possible promise the lesbians offer. In looking at the various texts on lesbianism during this era of feminist thought, one would be able to see how the latter saw the lesbian as the ideal needed to overcome patriarchy. At the onset of Charlotte Bunch’s essay entitled “Lesbians in Revolt,” one could clearly see the echoing of anger against the current system of her time and how she, together with her peers, found hope by idealizing the lesbian:
To be a lesbian is to love oneself, woman, in a culture that denigrates and despises women … lesbianism puts women first while society declares the male supreme. Lesbianism threatens male supremacy at its core. When politically conscious and organized, it is central to destroying our sexist, racist, capitalist, imperialist system… lesbians must become feminists and fight against oppression, just as feminists must become lesbians if they hope to fight male supremacy.30
In short, lesbianism was regarded as a “choice” the woman should take in order to liberate her self from the clutches of male domination. Although most of the feminists
28 Ibid, 4-6.
29 Louise Hamilton, Mlle De Beauvoir: “A Synopsis and Analysis of the Second Sex”,
Femwrytsfem, December 2001 available from www.femwrytsfem.com/article/23892; internet, accessed
July 2007.
30 Charlotte Bunch, “Lesbian’s in Revolt”, In Lesbianism and the Women’s movement, (Diana
today no longer adopt such a view, a strand of radical feminist thought continued to promote the lesbian choice as the exercise of absolute freedom. Even if lesbians are unconscious of the political value of their gender preference, they also continued to be silent soldiers against a heteropatriarchal system of oppression.31
On the other hand, Julia Penelope implied in her work that a lesbian’s choice to own a deviant gender identity entails that she should be conscious of the consequences and negative responses towards her identity. She argued, for example, that choosing to adopt the Butch-Femme, which further explained in the next Chapters, roles could hamper the capacity of lesbianism to disable heteropatriachy by promoting the social relations of male and female as the norm of which they must copy.32 The Butch-Femme
role depicts the lesbian as the true woman, a view that for me is a myth as it focuses merely on the aspect of these sexed bodies and directing their desires towards the woman. Moreover, one does not allow the lesbian to be but instead treats her as a tool, a condition, and a model to be reproduced. Ironically, the lesbian’s concept and possession of freedom becomes vague, if not suspicious, when individuals form a frame of what lesbianism ought to be, without considering the fact that being free also entails the need to adopt the masculine identity. It is far more powerful for the lesbian to claim the masculine role and deconstruct it to become “the butch.” It doesn’t necessarily have to be mimic manly characteristics if masculinity is considered as a social construct and that the concept of sex-gender coherence is an assumption.
Separatism, or the separation of men and women, has been viewed by Charlotte Bunch as a solution to eradicate patriarchy. Despite calls to overthrow men from their
31
Julia Penelope, “Heteropatriarchal Semantics and Lesbian Identity: The ways a Lesbian can be”, in Call Me Lesbian: Lesbian Lives, Lesbian theory, (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1992)
privileged position, society would still prefer the current oppressive structure. In my opinion, Bunch’ ideas is an impractical methodology to eliminate the inferior treatment of women. This is primarily because I do not see men as enemies to be annihilated, despite their hyper-masculinity. There is no guarantee that displacement and oppression would not exist if all women adapt a woman-identified-woman position. It blinds the fact that even lesbians would refuse to see themselves as the totality of womanhood, despite assertions of the radical lesbians during the 70s. Some consider themselves women only as far as their genitals go, but if feminists truly value respect and right to self-determination, they must not force their ideology on lesbians. It is highly questionable that feminists deemed lesbian issues as a mere matter of ignorance and instead, considerably blame patriarchy again in the process for instilling the notion of masculinity. Although male dominance is one of the primary causes of double displacement, I disagree with the position that radical lesbian feminists declare in confronting the issue. This is because these feminists failed to give a stable rational argument to challenge the system and instead opted to target the male per se. Furthermore, they overlooked the fact that males are also subject to certain repressions and regulations in terms of gender. It would be a backfire solution to adopt a system that would seek to liberate women on the account of men becoming the oppressed. I will further discuss and elaborate the idea of the lesbian as the authentic self Chapters Two and the need to assert her active participation in Chapters Two and Three.
When lesbianism is viewed as an applied case of feminism, there is always the possibility of setting aside the difference of worldviews themselves between the heterosexual and the non-heterosexual. As a result, feminists overlooked the difference
that exists between experiencing women subordination and lesbian subordination, since the latter has to face the problem of being identified, not only as woman, but as a homosexual in a heterosexual society. Lesbianism can be an act of rebellion, but it does not necessarily follow that in order to change the condition of all women, she must act on her freedom and be a lesbian.
At the most, gender roles ought to be re-evaluated to be more accessible to individuals possessing a different gendered-self. The masculine and the feminine should be seen as mere descriptions and, if possible, rendered to be value-free or neutral concepts juxtaposed to sex.
CH
APTER 2: DOUBLE DISPLACEMENT
Double displacement is the accumulation of all forms of gender injustices that falls upon the lesbian based on her sex and gender. This definition is derived when one affirms the fact that a lesbian cannot fully set aside her sex by occupying a gender category, the lesbian. Double displacement is considered as a combination of lesbian subordination and women subjugation, which I will further discuss in this Chapter.
It would be discriminatory to say that gender oppression exists only in reference to the plight women faced by virtue of being women. The problem simply is that women, since time immemorial, were considered secondary to men. The issue of how humans were subdivided up to form sexes is another issue that has yet to be settled through time.
Hampering or limiting one’s choices, or gender preference, may not necessarily be through de jure (official) or institutional means. Repression can exist even in silence through the various social practices. More often than not, some lesbian opt to act straight in order to avail of certain heterosexual privileges such as: special treatment in standing room only movie houses and public transportation, availing sick leaves, and more importantly in public debates and discourses where women, despite their harsh opinion, are still regarded with respect because of their sex. There is no direct assault on the lesbian, but she is conditioned to compromise her gender identity in order to avail of the advantages of being a woman. Signs of oppression and short observations (such as misogynist statements, physical harassment, verbal abuse, et cetera) allow us to distinguish signs of oppression. Since it is difficult to be conscious on how society normalizes repression, lesbians who are exposed to the patterns set by social norms and gendered institutions would, in the long run, accept the status quo without complaints.
Lesbian subordination has been assumed to be in part and parcel of gender oppression because a lesbian possesses a gendered identity with certain implications and consequences for the individual and her external relations. Unfortunately, gender oppression, as a whole, tends to be centered on the conflict of two sets of gender, the masculine and the feminine, where the latter is viewed as the losing party. As a result, solving gender oppression becomes more heterosexual in nature and often ignores non-heterosexual subordination within society.
The lesbian is, by default, a sexed entity. She only captures the category of a woman by virtue of her being born with a vagina. This becomes the basis of her growth, while imbibing the feminine role and the subsequent performances, or performative acts, necessary to continually affirm the nature of her sex. A salient act in maintaining her “woman” status is the necessity to desire the opposite sex. In leaving this feature behind, the lesbian loses her ownership of a stable, coherent and socially-acceptable identity. Feminists have interpreted this as a good thing, such that she does not have to conform to the oppressive implications entailed by the category of woman.
However, a “gendered concerned act” occurs when a lesbian re-directs her desires from the male to the female, thus maintaining the burden of her sex. Even if she does not want to be with a man, she will not be able to free herself from the implications of her sex. Whether or not the lesbian accepts her female body as hers, and refuses to see her body compatible with the gender she chooses to assume, she cannot deny that society would still perceive her as a woman. The general “conservative” public would subject her to certain standards and norms applicable to that of a woman, whether she would be keen on accepting it or not.
Cheshire Calhoun claimed that gay and lesbian subordination should be treated as a different axis of oppression in order to avoid concealing heterosexism as another cause of homosexual plights when spoken in the context of a heterosexually-dominated discussion of gender oppression as a whole.33 If gender oppression is to be viewed as the
subjugation of women from men alone, there is good reason to maintain the separation of gay and lesbian subordination from that of gender oppression. Thus, this would prove to be insufficient in painting the picture of lesbian identity. And because of this, there is a need to consider the lesbian as a sexed body with a gendered identity.
Feminists thinkers has conveniently used and unused the dualism of the sex and gender of a person when speaking of the subordination and identity of the lesbian. They have often sided with the view that being a lesbian would leave out the consequences of being female. Although Calhoun’s ideas are acceptable, I consider the concept of dualism of sex and gender as a misguided opinion. Borrowing the words of Calhoun:
… Tootsie roll metaphysics or pop-bead metaphysics is simply wrong. It is not true that each part of my identity is separable from each other part, and the significance of each part is unaffected by other parts.34
This trend of thought implies that sex does have an effect on the gendered identity of the lesbian, although the demands and consequences a lesbian face extremely varies from the heterosexual woman’s absorption of her sex. Feminists like Monique Wittig emphasized too much on gender, thus led her to set aside the sex of lesbians. This can be seen in her claim that lesbians are “not-woman,”35 a shift from the
“woman-identified-woman” concept of radicalesbians. Wittig’s claim of “not-“woman-identified-woman” emphasized the
33 Cheshire Calhoun, Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet, (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000), 75-76
34 Cheshire Calhoun, “The Gender Closet, in Women and Values”, Readings in Recent Feminist
Philosophy, 3rded. (Belmont:Wadsworth Publishing Company,1999), 194. 35 Ibid, 46.
exclusion of the lesbians from the binary scheme of gender and sex. In highlighting the difference of the heterosexual from the homosexual, I suppose her not-woman claim failed to recognize the other features that could qualify the lesbian in the category of woman. By addressing only the issues of gender, she missed out the experience of lesbian displacement based on her sex. As a result, the lesbian is still subject to oppression.
I do not wish to deny that Calhoun’s and Wittig’s claim that the lesbian, in terms of her sexuality, is far more concerned with her subordination and displacement, primarily because of the heterosexual norm of society rather than the disadvantages of being a woman. However, I wish to correct the implication that this is her only plight. The lesbian inside the closet may repress her true identity by prescribing to a feminine imagery of being heterosexual in the eyes of society. However, I cannot see the significance of continually acting out a feminine script viewed as an automatic sign of oppression from the heterosexual camp. If one truly views gender as a social construct, then one must, to a large extent, resist the temptation of looking at femininity and masculinity as immutable features of heterosexuality.
The following section deals with the issue of some, if not most of, lesbians who do not recognize themselves as being oppressed. This is important to our discussion otherwise, non-recognition often leads to non-participation. Also, lesbians tend to take an underground approach in dealing with their displacement. Homosexuals are deemed to be an insignificant minority rather than a key sector that can shape society. This can be partially attributed to the fact that a lot of lesbians would choose to keep their gendered identities private. Because of this, lack of visibility would further drive society not to
recognize and adjust its structure in order to accommodate the presence of the lesbian community.
I think that in a gender-just society, keeping one’s gender relations a private matter would not be a problem. However in the present state lesbians are in, their passiveness has been detrimental in eliminating political and economic displacement. “Heterosexualized media” of social information aid in regulating the image of the lesbian in a society. The lesbian today is offered some connections with her gendered identity through programs that are aimed for consumers like her. This current trend of GLBTQ commercialization both has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of resolving double displacement. I shall discuss this issue in the subsection entitled “Lesbian Images and Categories as means of Objectification” I would then proceed to the outlaw role of the lesbian in her relations with various institution of society.
Recognizing Oppression
It is deemed essential to discuss gender oppression by first taking into account whether or not the latter would exist with or without the recognition of the lesbian (or any individual for that matter) of being oppressed. A lack of recognition from those who are deemed oppressed may be detrimental to any liberation agenda.
I am inclined to respect choices since I believe that this is one of the essential powers which place human beings above any other species. There is difficulty in justifying the existence of gender oppression if people who are oppressed deny being in such a situation. However, I could not just allow myself to go forth with a thesis that
included studying the oppressive situation of the lesbian if in the first place the lesbian does not see her identity in any disadvantageous position.
One of the features of being oppressed is the absence of choices.36 The lesbian
would not recognize the concept of oppression as something she encounters if it is a manifestation of an act of society against her. She will not feel oppressed unless someone actually harasses her by virtue of her being a lesbian. One of the reasons why the lesbian community is slow to unite against oppression is because their respective views on oppression are highly subjective. It boils down to whether or not a lesbian is a direct or merely an indirect victim of homophobia and discrimination. Historically the lesbian has never felt the absolute absence of choices. In fact there has neither been a law anywhere in the world nor in history that proclaimed being lesbian as illegal, unlike the homosexual man who has been more exposed to discrimination and persecution of institutions. Differences in the ordeal of gay men and lesbians in the past can be one of the major factors that shaped these groups’ approach to liberation today. A hypothesis rendered by Sen regarding gender oppression can be seen as a plausible explanation for this scenario.37 He suggested that if and when a certain group of individuals is within a
society that normalizes inequality and oppression, they (in this case the lesbians and women), tend to adopt such normality as natural and not merely as a social construct.
In the case of gender oppression, I suppose there was a point in time that there was an absence of one’s rights to certain political, economic, social opportunities, as deemed to be the privilege of any person. This is the reason why “displacement” rather than “oppression” is the more appropriate term to describe the situation of lesbians. There
36 Bell Hooks, “Black Women:Shaping Feminist Theory”, in Women and Values, 3rded.
(Belmont:Wadsworth Publishing Company,1999), 27
37 Atty. Allan Pasamonte, Lecture Handout: Philosophy of Law, 1st semester AY 2005-1006,
is infrequency, although it is argued that there is only a lack of documentation, in the direct acts against lesbians. More often than not, lesbians experience unjust inequalities in the form of withheld privileges. One may continue to pursue a project of liberation because of the perceived disparity in the opportunities and rights appropriated to heterosexuals compared to homosexuals. Furthermore, liberation is to be pursued for the very reason that there are essential bases for the existence of these disparities. Institutions grant recognition and acknowledgement of rights to the members of a society based fundamentally on being rational and free human beings. The lesbian qualifies in such category and she should not be situated outside of the system based solely on her gender choices. For as long as she does not become detrimental to the state and others, there is no due reason for society to displace lesbians outside the system.
Gender choices are personal exercises of freedom. A lesbian does not hold any obligation to marry, form a family with a husband and adopt a subordinate feminine role. If she chooses to portray a heterosexual life because of the necessity to avail certain privileges accorded by society, then this may be viewed as a way of displacement. As such, the lesbian finds the need to deny her own identity for convenience and acceptance. On the other hand, if a lesbian chooses to be with a man simply because this becomes her preference, then she must be allowed to do so. The goal of the state is to safeguard the positive freedom of its constituents, at the same time, make sure that just limitations are in place so as to maintain social order. Even if there is an absence of recognition, there is still a need to guarantee that the tenets of justice are being upheld. If a lesbian does not want to avail herself of certain privileges then it is her choice, albeit such privileges limited from the GLBTQ community.
The Lesbian Regulated through her Sexed Self
The body becomes sexed and gendered the moment a child is born and the doctor proclaims that it’s a girl or a boy depending on the genitals attached to it.38 It is true today
that even sex can be considered as an undetermined aspect of one’s being. Due to the advancement in technology, a person can now choose to reconfigure the body in order to fit the gendered identity one sees as reflections of his/her true self. It is really quite interesting, considering the fact that the view has always been that the gender follows from the sex of a person. Gender is a social construct, a set of practices, a prescribed social meanings, and roles. The sex is taken to be the deciding factor of society in order to raise the child fitting on a particular gender category.
The lesbian cannot be identified as a lesbian when she is born, thus her genitals speak for her like any other woman, unless she is a hermaphrodite but this aspect is a whole different inquiry. Corresponding to her sex, she will be conventionally raised to occupy the gender role of the feminine. Some lesbians would discover their desire for the same-sex as early as their preparatory years, but nonetheless she will normally raise as a girl. This would continue until she refuses to identify herself with the role of the feminine, and eventually find a category that would suit her. On the other hand, she could continue the portrayal of the feminine, disregarding the feature of her object of desire.
Lesbian Images and Categories as Means of Objectification
38 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (US:Routledge Press,
The term “objectification” in this context pertains to a particular existential
doctrine. It defines people as duly recognized subjects and should not be dehumanized under any condition. To render individuals as mere objects of a person’s desire or thought, rather than active subjects and rational agents, is to objectify them. It is fitting to say that the meaning of the word objectification is to be taken as a fitting humanist perspective. False representations and images are a few ways in which objectification is employed. Through the deployment of these meanings, the lesbian becomes invisible. There comes a point where the representations are normalized to become social facts. In effect, the lesbian exposed to this sort of social reality finds herself needing to conform to the stereotype presented to her in order to reconcile her existence within the cultural fiber. The lesbian becomes noticeable if society scrutinizes her identity from the dominant male-female sexuality perspective. If one would accept a phallocentric view of society, it would be necessary to interpret the lesbian as something that is centered on the masculine in order to make it coherent and even possible for a perceiver.
The portrayal of gay and lesbian identity in contemporary arts practices has been pivotal in debates that surround gender equality and social recognition. The visual is a powerful tool on how individuals would build their views regarding gender, especially in gaining a perspective of the so-called “queer” culture today.39
In speaking of the “queer,” I aim to again put this thesis in the correct context. Queer individuals move outside the traditional GLBTQ. His or her desire to be accepted within the social reality is done by demanding the same treatment of heterosexuals towards a more culturally confrontational stance. This is done through the questioning of
39 Peter Horn and Reina Lewis, Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities and Visual Cultures,
