Lesbian Politics, Culture, Existence

by Hawthorne, Susan

• ISBN13: 9781925950984
• ISBN10: 1925950980
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2024-09-03
• Publisher: Spinifex Press

Summary

Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’ s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’ s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men. She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus. Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticization and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media. Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.

Author Biography

Susan Hawthorne is the author/editor of 25 books published in five languages across 20 territories. Her non-fiction books include Bibliodiversity (2014) Wild Politics (2002) and The Spinifex Quiz Book (1993). She has been active in the women's liberation movement since 1973, was involved in Melbourne's Rape Crisis Centre and performed as an aerialist in two women's circuses. She has taught English to Arabic-speaking women, worked in Aboriginal education and has taught across a number of subject areas in universities. She is Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities at James Cook University, Townsville. Among her awards, she was the winner of the 2017 Penguin Random House Best Achievement in Writing in the Inspire Awards for her work increasing people's awareness of epilepsy and the politics of disability. She has won awards for her contribution to the gay and lesbian community and to publishing. Susan Hawthorne is the author/editor of 30 books published in nine languages across 25 territories. Her non-fiction books include Bibliodiversity (2014) Wild Politics (2002) and Vortex (2020). She has been active in the women's liberation movement since 1973, was involved in Melbourne's Rape Crisis Centre and performed as an aerialist in two women's circuses. She has taught English to Arabic-speaking women, worked in Aboriginal education and has taught across a number of subject areas in universities. Among her awards are the Magdalen Berns Award (2024), the 2017 Penguin Random House Best Achievement in Writing in the Inspire Awards for her work increasing people's awareness of epilepsy and the politics of disability. In 1996 she won the Hall of Fame, Rainbow Award for her contribution to the Gay and Lesbian Community. She was a Finalist in 2012 for the Audre Lorde Poetry Prize for her book Cow (2011).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Poem: Together (1975) 2 Friends at the Wrong Time (2013) 3 The Institution of Heterosexuality and Lesbian Feminism as a Strategy (1976) 4 The Politics of the Exotic: The paradox of cultural voyeurism (1989) 5 What Do Lesbians Want? (1992) 6 Planting Roses: An exploration of lesbian traditions, cyberculture and poetics (1997) 7 Transgender People in the Women’ s Circus: Open letters (2001) 8 From the Lesbian Body to Same-sex Attracted: The depoliticising of lesbian culture (2003) 9 The Political Uses of Obscurantism: Gender mainstreaming and intersectionality (2004) 10 The Butterfly Effect: The disruptiveness of lesbian knowledge (2005) 11 Ancient Hatred and Its Contemporary Manifestations: The torture of lesbians (2005) 12 Not on Anyone’ s Program: How to count the unrecorded, unremembered, unnoticed lesbian refugees (2005) 13 Lesbian Economics: A challenge to economics as a sense of entitlement (2006?) 14 The Silences Between: Are lesbians irrelevant? (2007) 15 The Aerial Lesbian Body: The politics of physical expression (2007) 16 Matrices (2010) 17 Footnoted and Sidelined: The campaign for lesbian human rights (2011) 18 Poem: Slut but but (2011) 19 “ Or, Failing That, Invent” : On lesbian language, memory and poetry (2014) 20 Fragmented Feminisms (2016) 21 From Inner Space to Outer Space: Australian lesbian writing (2017) 22 The TranScam (2021) 23 Separatism (2021) 24 The Lesbian Art of Suzanne Bellamy: Creativity as political strategy (2024) 26 Poem: Things a Lesbian Should Know (2019) Bibliography Index