Fragments of Lesbian Knowledge

Catherine Thurmond

FRAG/MENTS OF LES/BIAN KNOW/LEDGE1

by Catherine Thurmond
As soon as I share my dream with another lesbian, I start breaking through the
alien circle... By this exchange we build reality.
Micheline Grimard-Leduc2

INTRO/DUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to build les/bian know/ledge in order to break through the
impenetrable silence that is les/bian existence. To begin this process, I will use a variety of
sources to sketch out what other self-described les/bians have found valuable on the subject of
les/bianism. I will then, at the end of this paper, bring these les/bian thinkers into collaboration
with each other to form some new meaning from their work. It is important to note that this
projects main purpose is not to define what a lesbian is; to attempt to definitively define what
counts as a les/bian and what does not would be ineffectual and totalitarian. As Sarah Lucia
Hoagland has pointed out, to define lesbian is, in my opinion, to succumb to a context of
heterosexualism.3 In other words, it is heterosexist to attempt to define les/bianism conclusively
since this aim essentializes les/bianism as something specific, and it has no real purpose other
than to obscure what les/bianism has given les/bians in society. For example, attempting to
define the essence of les/bianism is like trying to define what constitutes a true chair. The
1

The slash symbol is used throughout the paper to indicate a process of transformation, from an
old form to a new one that threatens the former.
2
Sarah Lucia Hoagland, Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value, (Palo Alto: Institute of Lesbian
Studies, 1988), 296.
3
Hoagland, 8.
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attempt to define a chair, to try to say all chairs have some essence that all other chairs share, is
futile and misses the point (or obscures the function) of the chair. To say that all chairs
principally allow one to sit, for instance, limits the possibilities and functionality of a chair. If all
chairs essentially allow one to sit, then I can no longer use the chair to grab something
unreachable, such as a book put out of reach on a bookshelf. The same goes with les/bianism. If I
try to define les/bianism conclusively, I will have to limit my perspective of les/bianism, thereby
reducing or particularizing les/bianism. I could essentialize les/bians as women who love other
women, but to say this would limit les/bianism to those who define themselves as a woman. For
example, Monique Wittig does not see a les/bian as a woman, and, if les/bianism is strictly
defined as women who love other women, Wittigs understanding of a les/bian would be lost and
obscured. Also, those who have a trans identity (or anyone who identifies differently from
les/bianism) may feel alienated from the process of examining the historical importance of
les/bianism for themselves, thereby obscuring les/bianisms significance in its ability to shatter
old forms, such as heterosexuality, and allowing for the possibility of newer forms to exist, such
as trans identity.
While the purpose of this paper is not to define a les/bian, I will use definitions of
les/bianism that other les/bians have used to further an understanding of les/bian existence. The
goal of this paper is to construct a clearer image of what les/bianism means to those who identify
as a les/bian and how the construction of les/bianism is useful to them. Returning to the example
of the chair, the goal is not to define the chair but to use the chair for some purpose. The chairs
definition (its contours, its construction) is a tool; it is functional, changeable, and allows its user
to manipulate it in order to construct new forms and meanings from it. The chair can become a
stepladder to reach for the book on the bookshelf; it can also be cut into pieces to construct a new

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form with novel functions, such as a weapon used to defend oneself where a leg of the chair can
be a sword and the seat used as a shield against attackers. The important question is not whether
the chair is still a chair. Rather, the question is: How can the chair be manipulated to construct
new functions and meanings in order to transform society?
Les/bianism is no different from the chair. Les/bianism is a material phenomenon, just
like the chair, and can be used to forge new material forms and produce a radically different
social reality.4 Language, images, and symbols, which are all material forms, are manipulated
and constructed in a variety of ways by different les/bians to understand themselves, to formulate
new strategies to resist oppression, to find new forms of compassion and love, and to find new
meanings unknown or obscured by heteronormativity. For example, the depiction of the vulva is
constructed for the male gaze in patriarchal societies. The les/bian gaze, however, reconstructs
the image of the vulva. Within les/bian sexual relationships, the figure of the male gaze partially
dissolves and becomes less functional, breaking down phallocentrism. Often constructed
exclusively for the male gaze (think of the restricted appearance of the naked female body, which
is confined to pornography or strip clubs produced for mens pleasure), the vulva is seen and felt
differently through the creation of the les/bian gaze. Les/bianism produces a new material reality
unknown to heteronormativity. The vulva meeting another vulva outside the context of the male
gaze changes the way les/bians relate to their body and mind. Les/bianism, which is denied and
hidden in patriarchal societies since it threatens to undo phallocentrism, creates a new form, a
new material reality that breaks down phallocentrism through the dissolution of the male gaze.
Since the voices of les/bians are systematically erased by a society bent on securing
heteronormativity, such as women fulfilling the obligation to have sexual relations with men,
4

Erin Mooney, Forging New Links: Sexuality and Subjectivity in Monique Wittig. (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University, 1990), 1.
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les/bian voices are often forgotten or misconstrued. While this paper is by no means an
exhaustive account of les/bian voices, it will still accomplish its aim, which will begin the critical
work of piecing together the voices of les/bians whose meaning has been lost to history and all
realms of dominant forms of social life.
This paper is an intentional weaving together of the work of different les/bian thinkers; it
is an attempt to construct some new form and meaning from the material lives of les/bians who
have been forgotten or obscured by a heterosexist society. Lastly, while I do give credit to the
les/bians I cite, it is important to note that these are my interpretations of these authors and not
necessarily their own understanding of their ideas. As Deleuze and Guattari may say, this paper
is something of a becoming, an in-between, a new construction, and a forging of meanings built
between les/bians ideas and my own understanding of les/bianism. This will, hopefully,
generate a les/bian assem/blage, producing what Wittig would call a trojan horsea war
machine that pulverizes old forms and formal conventions to create new ones.5 Through the
interacting of les/bian frag/ments of know/ledge, I aim to produce a new material social reality
built from the forgotten lives of les/bians.

MO/NIQUE WI/TTIGS LES/BIAN

Vocation: Writer6
According to Monique Wittig, a les/bian is not a woman since a woman has a particular
social relation to men.7 This social relation is based in heterosexuality, wherein women have
Monique Wittig, The Trojan Horse, The Straight Mind and Other Essays, (Boston: Beacon
Press Books, 1992), 69-70.
6
Under each heading, I will list a vocation that, I hope, resonates most with the lesbian I am
referencing. The purpose of listing a vocation allows one to see that this paper is, indeed, a
patchwork of lesbians ideas springing from diverse fields of know/ledge that, when pulled into a
collectivity, produce les/bian theory.
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particular sexual obligations to men and/or certain desires and attractions constructed by a
patriarchal society pull women towards the figure of the man. Les/bians, on the other hand, are
beyond the categories of sex (woman and man), because the designated subject (lesbian) is not a
woman, either economically, or politically, or ideologically.8 To Wittig, les/bians are not
women because les/bians refuse their role as women in some way.9 Les/bians may refuse the
reproduction of this construction of a woman within themselves by actions such as refusing
heterosexual marriage based on a contractual agreement that consigns her to a subordinate role,
refusing sexual relations with men, having sexual contact with or desire for women, refusing to
desire or produce children, and/or refusing unpaid labor such as housework and caregiving.
Wittig also argues that language is a material production.10 In other words, everything
that is written [or spoken] exists.11 Our language, in its current form, is a masculinist,
phallocentric language that presupposes binary oppositions.12 It is Wittigs goal to break down
categories of sex based in heterosexuality, and she believes les/bianism is one way of breaking
down this material system. Wittig holds that les/bianism acts as a trojan horse in society,
inventing new social possibilities, and providing for the moment the only social form in which
[those consigned to the role of women in society] can live freely.13 Les/bianism, however, does
not completely escape the social order of heterosexuality nor is it somehow outside of a system
of oppression since it exists alongside heterosexuality. Instead, les/bianism is for the moment a

Wittig, One is Not Born a Woman, 20.

Wittig, One is Not Born a Woman, 20.
9
Diane Griffin Crowder, Universalizing Materialist Lesbianism, On Monique Wittig:
Theoretical, Political and Literary Essay, Ed. Namascar Shaktini, (Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 2005), 71.
10
Wittig, The Trojan Horse, 71.
11
Monique Wittig, Authors Note, The Lesbian Body, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), 10.
12
Mooney, 1.
13
Wittig, One is Not Born a Woman, 20.
7
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radical break from heterosexuality that can act as a war machine and potentially lead to the
abolition of the category of sex (woman and man) when les/bianism is adopted widely by society
as an acceptable social form.14
The figure of the les/bian is a social form that not only begins the process of escaping
heterosexuality, but it is also a potential war machine that breaks down heterosexuality based
in patriarchal relations. Currently, this escape from heterosexuality is a partial escape since the
conceptualization of les/bianism is produced from the material reality of heterosexuality, and it
exists alongside heterosexuality. To use the example of the chair again, a les/bian is the broken
down parts of the chair, which have been transformed into the sword and shield to fend off the
subordinate positioning of the role of women in society. A les/bian, therefore, is a woman that
has been deconstructed, restructured, and transformed with radically different functions (still
constructed from the same material, yet profoundly transformed).
This process, while violent, is not an act of out-of-control aggression (as Alison Stone has
argued concerning Wittigs novel, The Lesbian Body) 15 but rather a process of transformation.
Processes of transformation, especially under oppressive conditions, are violent, but they are not
intrinsically prone to humiliation or domination, as Stone argues concerning Wittigs les/bian.
Wittig writes: Its necessary to talk about violence in writing because it is always the case with
a new form: it threatens and does violence to the older ones.16 The new form coming into being,
such as les/bianism, is violent because it threatens the old form, in this case phallocentrism. It is
not the new form (les/bianism) which is dominating or humiliating nor is the new form prone to

Wittig, The Trojan Horse, 69.

Alison Stone, An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007), 95.
16
Monique Wittig, Some Remarks on The Lesbian Body, On Monique Wittig: Theoretical,
Political and Literary Essay, Ed. Namascar Shaktini, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press,
2005), 45.
14
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react aggressively against itself.17 It is, instead, the old form, such as phallocentrism, that reacts
negatively against the new one in an attempt to maintain itself. This negative reaction of the old
form against the new form requires the new form to defend itself so as to maintain its existence.
Les/bianism, for instance, attacks phallocentrism and does violence against phallocentrism
because phallocentrism reacts negatively towards les/bianism to annihilate and destroy it.
Les/bianism, fighting to maintain its precarious existence under phallocentrism, is forced to do
violence against phallocentrism in order to maintain existence.

ROSE/MARY HEN/NESSYS OUT/LAW

Vocation: Materialist Feminist
Rosemary Hennessy refers to patriarchy as the unequal structuring of social life wherein
one group (men) accrue more social resources at the expense of a subordinate group (women).18
Patriarchy has been necessary to most socioeconomic systems throughout the world, and it has
been fundamental to capitalisms demand for the exploitation of subordinate groups.19 For
instance, to meet capitalisms demand for an economical, productive social order based in
currency, women perform unpaid labor in the home; this unpaid labor supports the exploitive
system that keeps capitalism functional. Hennessy further argues that patriarchy is based in
heterosexuality, guaranteeing the regulation of womens bodies, labor, and desire.20 For example,
womens bodies are strictly regulated through the idealization of a true woman grounded in
feminine ideals. Women are obligated to strive to be in a monogamous relationship with a man;

17

Stone, 95.
Rosemary Hennessy, Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism, (New York:
Routledge, 2000), 23.
19
Hennessy, 23.
20
Hennessy, 25.
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to produce children; and to be heterosexual, beautiful, and skinny. If they disobey or ignore these
guidelines, they will be punished and/or socially marginalized. Patriarchal social marginalization
is productive for capitalism since it keeps in place the exploitation of womens labor for men.
For instance, if a les/bian disobeys the rule to be heterosexual, her productive, cheap (read:
exploited) labor for a man will be lost. A les/bians social marginalization in society teaches
women not to disobey the rule to emotionally and physically labor for a man; if they do, they
will endure social persecution and punishment.
It is important to also recognize that Hennessy is a historical materialist, a position that
begins with the premise that meeting human needs is the baseline of history.21 Human needs,
such as food and shelter, are met in one way or another. These human needs are not simply those
we think of as basic needs. In order to survive, we also have affective capacities that are essential
for satisfactory lives such as touch, stimulation, social interaction, and support from one another.
However, workers under capitalism have to regulate their own affective capacities since
capitalism exploits their affective capacities for the purposes of producing capital. In many ways
under capitalism, we are forced to regulate and suppress our affective capacities as workers in
order to maximize our productivity. An example of the exploitation of affective capacities is the
emotional labor needed from workers to accomplish their job, such as smiling and being polite
and congenial to consumers.22
Another critical definition to consider is Hennessys outlaw needs, which are the
illegitimate, non-hegemonic ways we meet our basic needs of love, affection, education, leisure
time, health care, food, shelter, etc.23 Les/bianism is example of an affective capacity that

21

Hennessy, 210.
Hennessy, 211.
23
Hennessy, 216.
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Hennessy may say is an outlaw need in capitalistic society. Because les/bianism in society
inhibits the productive demands of capitalism based in the exploitation of womens emotional
and physical labor for men, it is outlawed and considered to be an illegitimate human need.
Outlawing les/bian affective capacities denies women the right to build meaningful and
necessary social bonds in the way they are encouraged to do with men.
One further idea that is important when considering Hennessys work in relation to the
transformative potential of les/bianism is disidentification. Disidentification is an unlearning
practice or process wherein existing ways of identifying are uprooted, generating a widerreaching understanding of capitalisms disenfranchised subjects.24 For example, the
transformative process of disidentification with womanhood allows one to see how operations of
oppression function upon women. Les/bianism is one way women can produce a
disidentification process since it will induce societal rejection and awareness of the imposed
enforcement of being a woman in society. Furthermore, disidentification is a position of
reworking our identities. It is difficult, leading to fear, anger, and frustration as it calls into
question the identities we have relied on our whole lives. Les/bianism, for instance, is not easily
achieved since one must call into question their womanhood, the very subjectivity les/bians are
raised to embody.
Lastly, disidentification allows us to see our identities as a historical and material
construction. As an illustration of this point, the disidentification with womanhood through a
materialist analysis allows one to see womanhoods material construction in society. For
example, les/bians disidentification with womanhood, depending on the social context and
situation, often leads to them being thought of as men. Because they do not conform to

24

Hennessy, 229.
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stereotypical depictions of womanhood (as they have been raised to) they can, at any time, be
thought of as a man, therefore revealing womanhood as a material construct. One can cut their
hair as a man does, dress in a suit like a man, and talk the way men are taught to speak, and,
therefore, be perceived as a man in every sense of the word. It is the material manipulation of
symbols, images, inflections of voice and language that allows its user to construct forms and
meanings, not a true essence. In other words, les/bianism, often the disidentification with
womanhood in some form, allows one to see that womanhood and manhood are a material and
historical phenomenon.

MAR/THA VICI/NUS GEN/DER IN/VERSION

Vocation: Literature and the Victorian Woman
Processes of disidentification threaten the current capitalistic structure. Old capitalistic
forms secure and maintain themselves through the annihilation and co-optation of potentially
anti-capitalistic forms. Les/bianism is one such form that is annihilated and co-opted in order to
uphold capitalism based in the exploitation of womens affective and physical labor. Les/bianism
during the nineteenth century, for instance, came to be seen as a perversion with the rise of the
medical establishments interpretation of gender inversion.
Elaborating upon medical definitions of the les/bian used during the late nineteenth
century, Martha Vicinus in her lecture, From Inversion to Perversion: Medical Definitions of the
Lesbian 1880-1930, states that gender inversionthe figure of the effeminate man and the
mannish woman was prominent in literature and theater and was perceived as an indicator of

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homosexuality.25 Sexologists were influenced by this dominant conception of gender inversion,

and they attempted to find physical markers of homosexuality on the body.26 One influential
Victorian sexologist of the time, Havelock Ellis, noted some characteristics of the inverted
lesbian: The brusque, energetic movements, the attitude of the arms, the direct speech, the
inflections of the voice, the masculine straightforwardness and sense of honor, and especially the
attitude toward men, free from any suggestions either of shyness or audacity.27 These
characteristics of the invert, influenced by cultural constructions in literature and theater,
actualized the figure of the les/bian as it is still known in society today, producing it as a social
and material reality. The materialization of the mannish les/bian, however, was produced to mark
it as perverted. Les/bian existence, in other words, came into being as a dominant form precisely
to oppress it.
For the nineteenth century, the conceptualization of the inverted les/bian was considered
an abnormality, a deviation, a perversion, and a threat. For example, Britains leading medical
journal, The Lancet, criticized Radclyffe Halls The Well of Loneliness, a novel about an inverted
les/bian, since the main character failed to outgrow strong attachments between members of the
same sex which is in error.28 Vicinus claims that this conceptualization of the les/bian as
perverted, as an error, erect[ed] certain barriers to discourage the development of dangerous
relationships.29 The figure of the les/bian, as Wittig may say, is considered dangerous because
the production of the mannish les/bian threatens the current heterosexual capitalistic social order.

25

Martha Vicinus, From Inversion to Perversion: Medical Definitions of the Lesbian 1880-1930,
(Bethesda: National Library of Medicine, 2004), DVD Lecture.
26
Vicinus, Lecture.
27
Mark Netzloff and Bradley D. Ryner, Early Modern Drama in Performance: Essays in Honor
of Lois Potter, (Lanham: University of Delaware Press, 2015), 139.
28
Vicinus, Lecture.
29
Vicinus, Lecture.
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To ensure the material production of men as extractors of labor and women as producers
of labor based in capitalistic exploitation, the perverted les/bian was invented. Due to the
emergence of industrial capitalism during the nineteenth century, old structures of the family
were beginning to break down, making it possible for the first time for women to live outside of
marriage.30 In the attempt to secure and maintain capitalisms production of cheap and/or free
affective and physical labor extracted from women, the figure of the perverted les/bian came into
being in order to frighten (and threaten) women away from leaving their husbands and families.
Les/bianism was effectively condemned, castigated, and perverted, preventing les/bians from
being a visible possibility.

BAR/BARA HAM/MERS HIS/TORY LESS/ON31

Vocation: Filmmaker

If repression has indeed been the fundamental link between power,

knowledge, and sexuality since the classical age, it stands to reason that we
will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost: nothing
less than a transgression of laws, a lifting of prohibitions, an irruption of speech, a
reinstating of pleasure within reality, and a whole new economy in the mechanism
of power will be required.
Michel Foucault32

The image of the inverted pink triangle invokes the harrowing and repressive stories of
male homosexual prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. What is often forgotten, however, is the

30

Neil Miller, Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present, (New York:
Vintage Books, 1995), xxiii.
31
History Lesson is a reference to Barbara Hammers documentary of the same name, History
Lessons.
32
Barbara Hammer, Nitrate Kisses, (New York: Frameline, 1992). DVD Film.
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black triangle: a symbol of the asocials, frequently a symbol of the degenerate woman. In
Barbara Hammers classic experimental documentary, Nitrate Kisses, those who wore the black
triangle were given a voice. Behind the black triangle les/bians appeared. It is often assumed that
les/bians do not have a history due to their virtual invisibility in society, but, les/bians do, indeed,
have a history... one that is often forgotten, obscured, and silenced. Les/bians during this time
were forced into silence about their experiences in the concentration camps to ensure their own
safety. If they told others they were imprisoned in a concentration camp, they would have to
mention why, but they could not do so because les/bianism was so thoroughly stigmatized. It was
stigmatized to such a degree that even heterosexual women who had been in concentration
camps with les/bians described them in a very, very negative sense. They all put them into this
category of butches, and of asocial human beings.33
Hammer had the chance to interview a couple of black triangle asocials who were
imprisoned in concentration camps, and what they had to say is shocking. One les/bian
explained:
even after the Third Reich, it wasnt very nice to be a prostitute or a criminal
or to be asocial. So the lesbians didnt raise up their voices. The other women, the
heterosexuals, Jewish women, or women who had been in the concentration
camps for political reasons, they could raise up their voices. Their social status
was better, and is still.34
Les/bians during the Third Reich and after World War II had little ability to speak, and their
silence was deafening. Other women imprisoned for other reasons, whether they were Jewish,
heterosexual, or political prisoners, were able to raise their voices, able to enunciate what
happened to them, to perhaps find some peace through the reiteration of their past to others.

33
34

Hammer, Film.
Hammer, Film.
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Les/bians, however, had to remain silent. Another les/bian Hammer spoke to compared les/bians
experiences to the Romani people:
We have not very much details, I dont have this details. Some women here was
going to try to get this history [of lesbians imprisoned in concentration camps],
but it is very hard to find something out because the Nazi time was very, very
hard time for the lesbians, and because, after the war, the lesbian and gay people
were like the gypsies.35
With the intractable fear of being persecuted, les/bians were unable to speak openly about their
experiences during the Third Reich, leading to a forgetting, a forgetting of a tragic historical
event that others have been able to memorialize, reflect upon, and remember. This intense fear of
persecution led to the absence of public spaces for les/bians to heal. Since les/bians could not
speak openly about their experiences, there was a lack of public spaces to not only tell their
stories, but also to work together to change the way society responds to les/bians.36 The les/bian
from the previous quote goes on to say:
We had the same problems like the gypsies We had to hide our history and
work with the hurting inside They dont have anybody who listens to their
story. [When they are asked where they were during this time], they say
nowhere They cannot say they were in a concentration camp, so they had to
hide their story, and it is very hard to ask them their story because they had no
words for it. For so many years, nobody asked. And, after forty years they have
no answer anymore So it is very hard to find out what happened during this
time.37
The reduction of the les/bian as something horrendous, as something of an asocial type, is still
pervasive to this day, making it difficult for les/bians to find one another since the paralyzing
stigma and silence keeps them invisible and silent.
35

Hammer, Film.
This sentence is inspired by The Monument Quilt, which is a crowd-sourced collection of
thousands of stories from survivors of rape and abuse. By stitching our stories together, we are
creating and demanding public space to heal. See https://themonumentquilt.org/ for more.
37
Hammer, Film.
36

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SAR/AH LUC/IA HOAG/LANDS LES/BIAN ETH/ICS

Vocation: Philosopher
Les/bian existence for so long has been an existence in need of elimination and
banishment. Social judgment has perverted the les/bian as a social evil, an error or mutation of
the woman, one that is neither a man nor a woman, but rather a freak. Les/bians, as they are
currently constructed under heterosexualism, have no social selves; they are without a collective
system of values, deprived of a collective reality that substantiates them.38 The mass emergence
of les/bians speaking for themselves during the 1970s through today, however, has allowed the
possibility for les/bians to construct their own meanings and understandings of les/bianism.
These new constructions exist partially outside of the construction of the les/bian as freak, as
something to avoid and annihilate. The figure of the les/bian was radically altered through
les/bians own material construction of themselves, allowing them the ability to create a
collective and collaborative reality based in new values that can lead to new social forms.
Les/bians during the 1970s emerged into a new radical social space that allowed them to
speak and find other les/bians. This emergence was not an easy one, however, under a rule of
heterosexualism. The process of lesbians emerging from exile to find each other is one that is
difficult under heterosexualism, which is based in heterosexual ethics and in dualistic thinking
patterns of good (man) and absolute evil (lesbian).39 Hoagland argues that heterosexual ethics
is an ethics of fear, control, resentment, strutting, coercion, obligation, oppression, destruction,
and antagonism.40 Les/bianism, like everything else, then, exists within this oppressive space. At

38

Hoagland, 296.
Hoagland, 296-7.
40
Hoagland, 298.
39

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every moment, les/bians must still defend themselves in order to maintain their continuing
existence. Even with their mass social emergence during the 1970s and their partial acceptance
into society, they are still under a rule of heterosexualism that denies them a space to exist.
Les/bian ethics, on the other hand, unlike heterosexualism, has given Hoagland and other
les/bians a reason to continue to fight for their right (and everyones right) to exist outside of
heterosexual ethical values based in the idea of essential good and evil. Les/bian ethics is an
attempt to find a new conceptual framework. It rejects heterosexual values of dominance and
subordination and recognizes that power can be enabling, not controlling, which is neither a
merging nor estranging but interacting.41 This les/bian project, more than anything, is an
attempt to enable not a merging of les/bian ideas but rather an interaction, a collaboration among
different les/bians. It is an attempt to assem/ble an understanding of les/bian existence/s.

LES/BIAN ASSEM/BLAGE
This frag/mentary assem/blage of les/bian know/ledge has been brought together in an
attempt to recover les/bian existence/s that have been silenced, ignored, and obscured. The
exposure of les/bian existence/s will hopefully begin the process of producing an understanding
of the oppressed material reality of les/bianism, creating the need to radically break and fracture
the material order of heterosexualism. This exposure of les/bians lives and theories hopefully
will inspire some new process of transformation from one form (les/bianism) to some other
unknown form that cannot yet be articulated under heterosexualism.
Before moving on to this synthesis of les/bian know/ledge, it is important to emphasize
that les/bianism is not the final goal that goes beyond a non-exploitative society. Les/bianism is a

41

Hoagland, 297.
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stepping stone towards a non-exploitative society, a war machine that has the potential to go
beyond categories of sex. The conceptualization of les/bianism is for the moment a strategy for
some les/bians towards their freedom from phallocentrism. This strategy is fraught with
contradictions since there are different understandings of les/bianism that cannot be merged into
a totality. Once phallocentrism disappears, les/bianism (as it is understood here) will no longer
be a functional, material form as it is currently conceived. Wittig, after all, has said that a
les/bian is a slave that has (partially) escaped her exploited role as woman under a rule of
heterosexuality.42 In a non-exploitative society that no longer functions under heterosexuality,
there would be no les/bian since a les/bian is a slave who attempts to run away and who fights
for a new social order where les/bians have the right to exist. A les/bian is an escaped slave that
still exists under an order of imposed heterosexuality. Therefore, a les/bian cannot exist in a nonexploited social order based outside heterosexuality.
I will now attempt a synthesis of les/bian know/ledge that will hopefully help us move
forward. The example of the chairs transformation into sword and shield, like the transformation
of woman into les/bian, is a clear starting point to begin synthesizing the ideas of the les/bians in
this paper in order to produce a les/bian know/ledge. The chair may first change colors from teal
to grey to resemble the coloration of a weapon and to begin a process dissolution from the old
order. Then, the chair may cut itself into pieces to alter its shape. The result is a transformation
from chair (woman) to sword and shield (les/bian). It is a mistake to believe the sword/shield or
les/bian is reproducing the same material categories of sex (man and woman). Les/bianism, as
Hennessy may articulate here, is a process of disidentification from womanhood and manhood,
calling into question the old material reality of heterosexuality. Even though the construction of

42

Wittig, One is Not Born a Woman, 20.

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Catherine Thurmond

the sword and shield (les/bian) was built from the material of a chair (woman), it does not mean
it reproduces the same material reality since it has gone through a process of transformation and
disidentification from the old order of heterosexuality. Also, les/bianism is the production of a
not-man, a not-woman: It is the appearance of something in transition. It is the beginning of the
overthrow of one enforced material production (woman/man) for something that has not quite
been allowed to exist before: a partial non-man, non-woman: a freak of nature, a mutation in the
social order that allows for transformation.
This process of transformation and disidentification under oppressive forms of reality
produces violence since the old forms of reality fear extinction and attack the new form to
maintain itself. The invention of the mannish inverted les/bian as a perverted social form is an
example of an attack on les/bian exist/ence. In order for the new form (les/bianism) to maintain
its existence under the old form (heterosexuality), it is either forced into silence (forced
underground) or into a counter attack. Radclyffe Halls popular literary production, The Well of
Loneliness, is an example of a counter-attack that revealed the oppressed reality of inverted
les/bians. The Well of Loneliness, later banned for obscenity, could even be said to be a war
machine that communicated the experiences of inverted les/bians during the nineteenth century
through a popular medium of the time: the novel. Another instance of the deafening silence and
the loss of les/bian voices are the les/bians imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps who were
forced into hiding to protect themselves. It is an instance of forgetting.
To maintain its existence under the current system of heterosexuality, les/bianism is
forced to fragment itself. One part of lesbianism counter-attacks (the sword), a process which can
reenact heterosexual values of domination. An example of a counter-attack is when les/bians
maintain their ground through the use of violence. Another part (the shield) may reinscribe

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Catherine Thurmond

subordination through its silence. For example, les/bians may avoid confrontation with
heterosexual society when they are being attacked in order to maintain peace. Lastly, lesbianism
has the ability to transform society through the production of a new material reality based in new
les/bian values. Les/bian values, as Hoagland articulates, are an interacting, enabling form of
power instead of a debilitating dynamic of dualistic thinking of good and evil, which is
heterosexual thought. For instance, les/bians could create a safe space for the free expression of
themselves without the threat of violence or persecution from others.
There is one final topic yet to be synthesized that is vital to an understanding of les/bian
know/ledge, which is that of les/bian materialism. Les/bian materialism is the attempt to dissolve
and escape phallocentrism based in the exploitation of women under a social world order of
capitalism. Under capitalism, womens affective and labor capacities are exploited. It is
important to understand that women are workers under capitalism who are denied payment for
their affective and sexual services as mothers, wives, and (sexual) workers. It is vital to
recognize the importance of womens affective and labor capacities as they are currently
constructed in society since they provide for vital human needs in society. However, it is an
exploited and valueless position in society, which is problematic. Les/bianism provides a way for
women to potentially (but always partially) escape their current exploited position under a
capitalistic system based in the exploitation of womens emotional and physical labor.
Lastly, it is important to distinguish between the production of les/bian know/ledge and
political materialist les/bianism. Les/bian know/ledge breaks down phallocentrism in society
while political materialist les/bianism is the purposeful attempt to go on strike against
capitalism by actively demanding the overthrow of womans exploited position in society. To be
a political materialist les/bian is to refuse to have ones affective and labor capacities exploited

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Catherine Thurmond

under capitalism through collective protest. It is the transformation of woman into les/bian in
order to depose capitalism of its function to exploit women. One does not have to sleep with
les/bians or women to be a political materialist les/bian. Rather, to be a political materialist
les/bian is to fight for a new social form in society through collective political protest that
acknowledges and fights for the lives of les/bians and women in society.

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Catherine Thurmond

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