Identifying Lesbian and Mother :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Identifying sapphic and puzzleIn her 1995 book, On the Outside Looking In The Politics of Lesbian Motherhood, Ellen Lewin presents the phenomenon of sapphic women who, through childbirth, gain access to the straight lodge as an in-group member. At first glance, Lewins observations seem to subvert traditional intimate/ after-school(prenominal) ideology, portraying the boundaries of the hetero- and homosexual worlds as permeable rather than rigidly, relationally exclusive. A to a greater extent exhaustive analysis, namely of the accounts of the women Lewin interviews, serves instead to reinforce inside/outside construction in relation to self and perceived identity. While the women be allowed into the selective sphere of heteronormality, they do not cross these categorical lines as both lesbian and mother. This paper will argue that the terms lesbian and mother are inversely exclusive, perhaps not in reality, but in the capacities of identity, performance, and location inside a n inside/outside dynamic. Lewin prefaces her analysis with a glance at the upright Western representation of the lesbian. This depiction focuses on the exclusion of lesbians from typical effeminate roles of motherhood and nurturing being a mother carried an implied notion of straightity, therefore, lesbianism and motherhood off each other out in the popular imagination (107). Indeed, more of the women surveyed shared the sentiment of motherhood as overwhelming and engulfing other dimensions of their livesincluding what they considered the lesbian component (109). While this may be ascribed to the daunting tasks of mothering and childcare, the women pointed to a more self-appropriated explanation as they echoed one another in their tendencies to downplay the entailment of their lesbianism in giving accounts of themselves as mothers (110). Simultaneously, these women were rooting themselves more deeply in the heterosexual world and losing ties with the homosexual world. Many of t he reports quote the lesbian mothers as looking stronger ties to the world they share with straight women than with other lesbians. Many felt the lesbian community to be unfriendly to lesbian mothers. One woman was nevertheless asked to leave her all-lesbian rap group after her child was born, as her friend group members believed she was no loner attuned to lesbian issues (124). The question remains as to why straight mothers, as a representation of the larger heterosexual community, would be so quick to ally themselves with lesbians, even lesbian mothers. For a scholar of feminist theorist Diana Fuss, this coalition seems to threaten the inside (read dominant) emplacement of heterosexual society.