The main theme for this article, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980), is supposed to be resistance. It was a little difficult to understand some parts. The first couple of pages were quite interesting and mostly shocking when she goes on to explain (page 1) what compulsory heterosexuality is and how it was written in part to, ‘encourage heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution which empowers women.' The New Rights messages stated that 'women are the emotional and sexual property of men' and 'the equality of women threaten the family, religion and state.' Reading this section was quite surprising to me because I didn't realize how women were looked so down upon. The fact that women were considered as a sexual property of men sounds extremely demeaning to me. I know that many people used to believe this and some still do. I in fact have a roommate that comes from an extremely conservative family and has almost the same basic thinking and for some reason believes men in relationships have more power and women are not worth as much.
Another part of this article that was interesting to me was when the author describes how lesbians face discrimination in hiring and harassment and violence in the streets. This fact makes me feel like we have so far to go yet. I can't imagine being discriminated against solely on my sexuality and not based upon my resume or intelligence. In the next couple of pages she depicts four different books that were written from different viewpoints and political beliefs but all authors were feminists. One of the books she examines was by Nancy Chodorow. She explains how men are 'emotionally secondary in women's lives' and 'men do not become as emotionally important to women as women do to me (page 16).' I don't know if I necessarily agree with this because I know of many relationships that the man means more to the women than the women means to the man. I do believe that once a woman has a child, they become the most important thing in her life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I thought that the article was a little hard to understand the first time I read it through, too, but the second time I read it I took my trusty highlighter and went to town highlighting the different things being presented. It helped a lot!
ReplyDeleteI really agree that we have a long way to go. This article was written in 1980, and I think we've come so far, but there's still a very long way to go.
Keli, this is a good point you make about facing discrimination in the workplace. It is still legal to fire an employee on the basis of sexual orientation in 30 of the states in the US. I think this is a good post, perhaps a bit short, but you engage the material which is great.
ReplyDelete