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Equally Queer? Strategic Lesbianism in Diane DiMassa's 'Hothead Paisan' Linke, Katja

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Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Linke, K. (2013). Equally Queer? Strategic Lesbianism in Diane DiMassa's 'Hothead Paisan'. Soziologiemagazin : publizieren statt archivieren, 6(1), 29-43. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-387635

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Equally Queer?

© Katja Linke

Strategic Lesbianism in Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan

von Katja Linke Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 30

In recent years, more and more people have [q]ueer is not a descriptive category chosen gender-neutral terms like “queer” with a deined referent, let alone a over gender-speciic terms like and new identity category. When queer gay to indicate their non-normative gen- is used as an identity category, [.] der and/or sexuality. While there are many power mechanisms of normative good reasons for this development, the loss inclusion and exclusion are uncritically of gender-speciic terms makes it harder to reproduced (translation: Katja Linke). address gender-speciic experiences of sex- his does not, however, prevent many ism both within and beyond queer com- people from using queer as a term munities. A close reading of Diane DiMas- to describe themselves and others. As sa’s comic, "The Complete Hothead Paisan. Jagose (1996: 98) notes, queer can Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist", points to the indicate a suspension of identity as possibility of a strategic use of the term les- something ixed, coherent and natural. bian that avoids the pitfalls of essential- But queer may also be used to signify ism and gender-normativity, while still a diferent kind of identity which is retaining its critical potential. consistent and self-identical, . . . as a way of distinguishing old-style and gays from the new. Is queer the new lesbian? his trend of rejecting gender-speciic terms like gay and – especially – -les Since at least the early 1990s, the term bian in favor of gender-neutral terms queer, which used to be a homophobic like queer, is not only indicated by the slur, was reclaimed as both a political and September 2010 title of Berlins queer a theoretical term in the context of the magazine, Siegessäule, . und Tschüss! gay and lesbian movement in the U.S., Hat schwul-lesbisch ausgedient? [. and from where it travelled to many other good-bye! Have the terms gay and - les parts of the world. In her intro duction to bian become obsolete?], but is also -cor queer theory, Annamarie Jagose (1996: roborated by several North American 1) deines queer as, [b]roadly speaking, studies (Horner 2007, Peters 2005, Rupp [.] those gestures or analytical models and Taylor in press, Sorensen 2010). In a which dramatise incoherencies in the study that was conducted among middle allegedly stable relations between and high school students in California in chromosomal sex, gender and sexual 2003, 2004, and 2005, Stephen T. Russel, desire. German queer theorist Antke homas J. Clarke and Justin Clary (2009) Engel (2002: 43) explicitly warns thatfound that 33,7% of the non-heterosexual Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 31 participants identiied as gay or lesbian, the original) concurs with this assess- while only 5,2% identiied as queer and ment when she writes that queer [.] 8,2% provided write-in responses, with is more and more frequently claimed as pansexual (open to sexual relationships a sexual identity label by todays youth. with people of all genders, including but he female-identiied participants in not limited to male and female) being the qualitative studies by Wendy Peters the most frequently listed category in (2005) and Anna Sorensen (2010) seem this rubric. hey (Russel, Clarke, and to oscillate between the two uses of Clary 2009: 888) state that it is wrong toqueer as a self-description outlined conclude that gay, lesbian, and bisexual by Jagose above. In any case, they give identities are irrelevant to contempo- good reasons for their rejection of the rary youth. While these gender-speciicterm lesbian. One of Sorensens par- terms might still be relevant to youngticipants (2010: 63) explains: Just to be people in California, it is nonetheless honest about my stereotypes of people noteworthy that it was only due to- stuwho identify as lesbian, I think of peo- dent input during the pre-test phase that ple who are totally not open to a gender queer was included as a separate cate- spectrum. Peters (2005: 106) concludes gory in the response options for the sur - that some of her participants viewed vey question. Clearly there were at least queer identity as more inclusive of non- some students who felt that the term normative gender performance [than queer was popular enough among lesbian identity]. Some saw queer as a their peers to merit explicit inclusion in movement that tries to recognize difer- the study. ences of race, class, gender, and ability Interestingly, a study of non-hetero- among queers and work toward equity sexual, female-identiied undergraduates in each of these areas. […] Others saw at the University of California in Santa queer as relecting people who partici- Barbara that was conducted in 2006, pate in BDSM [a wide range of sexual 2007, and 2012 yields a much higher per- practices including bondage and disci- centage of participants who identify as pline, dominance and submission, sad- queer (20%), pansexual (4%), or luid (9%) ism and masochism], leather and poly- (Rupp and Taylor in press). his study amory. hese contemporary responses clearly shows the growing popularity relect long-standing critiques of the of gender-neutral terms among young lesbian movement in North America, adults on college campuses in Califor- which has been called out on its rac- nia. Evalie Horner (2007: 287, italics in ism and classism (cf. Combahee River Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 32

Collective 1977 and Anzaldúa 1991), its (translation: KL). I argue that the critical sex-negativity (cf. Rubin 1984/1992), and retention of the term lesbian is neces- its transphobia (cf. Stone 1991). More sary if a critique of sexism is to remain recently, the gay and lesbian movementpart of queer theory. has been criticized for its assimilation- It is important to emphasize that I am ist politics and for iting into the logic not advocating an essentialist or gender- of liberal pluralism (Barnard 2004: 12). normative usage of the term lesbian. I hese critiques are valid and it is per- argue against seemingly commonsen- fectly understandable why many people sical deinitions like political scientist would not want to be associated with a Shane Phelan’s (1989: 63) pronounce- term that calls up these problematic and ment that the word lesbian is clearly oppressive connotations and histories. understood […] A lesbian, to most Eng- lish-speakers, is a woman who engages Let’s talk about sexism! in sex with women. Against this state- ment I would like to insist that lesbians I suggest, however, that the wholesale are not always women, pure and simple. rejection of the term lesbian leads toMost people who identify as lesbian will the unfortunate loss of a gender-speciic probably have experiences of having the term that makes it possible to address label woman applied to them and/or the sexism that queer women face both of choosing this label for themselves, at in their lives in general as well as in least in certain situations. But this does queer circles. If we are all equally queernot mean that all lesbians unproblem- – whether we grew up as women or as atically identify as women, would only men, whether we are intersex, cisgen- date people who do the same, and gen- dered, or transgendered, whether we live erally uphold the gender binary in every in a monogamous, straight relationship way possible. In fact, there is a rich his- or in polyamorous relationships with tory of lesbian gender-non-conformism. people of various genders – it becomes When the term lesbian irst came up diicult to name crucial diferences that around the turn of the century, sexolo- still play out in important ways in our gists like Magnus Hirschfeld and Have- lives. As Engel (2002: 44) reminds us, lock Ellis (1913: 251) theorized that From the perspective of a power analy- inverted women frequently, though sis, it is crucial to understand the analy- not always, convey an impression of sis of androcentrism and phallocentrism mannishness or boyishness. Elizabeth as inherent elements of queer theory Lapovsky Kennedys and Madeline D. Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 33

Daviss (1993) inluential ethnography, lished and distributed through gay and Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold, lesbian channels and venues apart from also describes butch/ culture (a mainstream comics and which, there- subculture in which more masculine les- fore, have been an uncensored, inter- bians (butches) and more feminine les- nal conversation within queer com- bians () date each other) as the munities, and thus provide a unique most visible mid-20th-century lesbian window into the hopes, fears, and culture. And Judith Halberstam’s (1998) fantasies of queer people (Hall 2012: famous book, Female Masculinity, II). Hothead Paisan thus occupies a ends with an analysis of contemporary prominent place within lesbian culture drag king culture. It is quite surpris- in the U.S. and is well positioned as an ing that a particularly essentialist, anti- exemplary text to elucidate the poten- butch/femme, anti-transgender strand tial of strategic lesbianism. of as expressed in the he literary focus of my argument is due work of people like , to womens studies professor Bonnie Janyce G. Raymond, , and Zimmermans (Sayer 1995) observation Sheila Jefreys was able to eclipse thisthat [i]n the absence of any kind of [.] history (and present). exclusively lesbian politics, lesbian com- In light of this history I argue for munity a practices and the fact that there strategic lesbianism that recognizes are very few lesbian businesses or spaces gender diversity, honors the complex that have sustained themselves over time, and oten enough tenuous relationship it is literature that continues to be a pro- lesbians have to the category woman, foundly important place in which lesbian and yet remains commited to anti-identities are constructed and decon- sexism. I will perform a close reading structed and contested and everything of Diane DiMassas (1999) comic, Hot- else. he visual medium of comics - is fur head Paisan. Homicidal Lesbian Terror- thermore particularly well suited to- illu ist, to show that strategic lesbianism is minate complex gender negotiations. indeed a viable subject position. Along My analysis is based on Jacob Hales with other comic artists such as Alison (1996: 107) reconstruction of the dom- Bechdel and , Diane inant cultures concept of woman, DiMassa is one of the most well known which I use to demonstrate that Hothead lesbian comic writers in the U.S. hey Paisan, the central character of the comic form part of a large tradition of queer by the same name, does not unproblem- comics, which have mostly been pub- atically it this concept. I argue that it Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 34 is precisely Hotheads wrong perfor- though they do fulill some of these mance of femaleness that exposes her to characteristics. Hale’s characteristics relentless sexism, which in turn makes are not meant to deine once and for all it strategically useful for her to deploy what it means to be a woman; instead, the term lesbian in order to name and they show the complexities of perform- resist the gender-speciic violence to ing femaleness and of reading someone which she is subjected. as a woman within the speciic culture of the contemporary U.S. Negotiating femaleness in "Hot- Far from being unambiguously posi- head Paisan" tioned as a woman, Hothead Paisan fails to fulill many of these charac- Even though Hothead Paisan is unam- teristics: Apparently unemployed, yet biguously positioned as a lesbian by the always able to aford food and - hous comics subtitle, Homicidal Lesbian ing, Hothead does not have an - occu Terrorist, she is not exactly what one pation considered to be acceptable for would call a woman who engages in sex a woman (Hale 1996: 109). In fact, she with women (Phelan 1989: 63). In his has no occupation at all. Neither can it article, Are Lesbians Women? (1996), be said that she engages in leisure pur- transgender studies scholar Jacob Hale suits […] considered to be acceptable for compiled thirteen deining character- a woman (ibid.), since most of her time istics of the category woman as it isis taken up by killing sexist and homo- conceived of in the dominant culture of phobic men, when she is not watch- the contemporary U.S. While none of ing TV or hanging out with her queer these characteristics are in and of them- friends. selves suicient to place oneself or oth- It is also more than dubitable that Hot- ers securely in the category woman, head fulills the criterion of [h]aving neither does one necessarily fall outside a gender identity as a woman (ibid.). of it if one does not fulill all thirteen of Hothead never explicitly states that she them. he characteristics are diferently feel[s her]self to be a woman (ibid.), weighted so that it becomes possible to but instead dreams of a world where show how somebody might be placed everybody turns into hermaphrodites within the category woman even if (DiMassa 1999: 33). To Hothead this is they do not exhibit all thirteen charac- ininitely more excellent than a mere teristics, or, conversely, how somebody gender takeover! (ibid.: 34) because in might not be seen as a woman even this perfect world everybody would be Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 35 both male and female – and everything when she is addressed with the male sig- in between – and gender would lose niier uncle Hothead (DiMassa 1999: its oppressive signiicance. Hotheads 94). Conversely, she does refuse to be dream world literalizes Engel’s (2002: 11) addressed as a young lady (ibid.: 402). insight that without a reliable gender She also does not behave in ways classiication, neither can the hierarchi- that work together to produce the gen- cal coniguration of genders be put into der assignment woman in those with practice, nor can relations of desire be whom one interacts (Hale 1996: 111, deined as same- or opposite-sex. he emphasis mine). uite to the contrary, hierarchical order of gender and hetero- Hothead exhibits behavior that she her- sexualized desire is based on the norm of self – probably along with most of her the stability and coherence of two unam - readers – categorizes as stereotypically, biguously separated yet mutually related even exaggeratedly, male: she engages genders (translation: Katja Linke). Hot- in extreme violence, even rape, demon- head knows that, in the absence of the strates callousness towards her victims, binary gender system, sexism and hom- and experiences a total lack of guilt. In ophobia would lose their power over one sequence, Hothead ponders who her. hus, far from feeling herself to beshe a would be if she had been born with woman, she longs for a world in which it a male body and she reaches the conclu- would not be necessary to have a gender sion: he stinking truth is [.] I would identity as either a man or a woman. be a mean, nasty, live to ride – ride to Most importantly, Hothead fails to fulill live, die hard, I-love-my carburetor, dirty a heavily weighted cluster of character- bad biker! [.] Im prety close to that istics, which Hale (1996: 110, emphasis anyway. Just take my heart away, and mine) groups together under the rubric Im a man (DiMassa 1999: 371f.). In the of gender atribution. On a very basic last panel of this sequence, Hotheads level, Hothead does not give textual usual self looks at the reader, but we also cues’ that work together to produce the see her hairy back in the mirror, literally gender assignment woman in those mirroring on a bodily level Hotheads with whom one interacts […] unam- insight that her behavior is much closer biguously, constantly, and without thoseto stereotypically male behavior than to with whom one interacts ever think- stereotypically female behavior. ing about making this gender assign- DiMassa makes full use of the visual ment ibid.: 111), since her irst name isopportunities aforded by the medium of gender-neutral and she does not object comics to show that Hothead also fails Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 36 to fulill the third and last characteris- ideals of femininity, which are indexed tic that is concerned with gender atri- through such markers as high-heels and bution. Hothead does not [a]chiev[e] tight-iting clothes that emphasize their and maintain [.] a physical gender self- breasts and hips. In contrast to Hot- presentation the elements of which work head, they wear make-up and jewelry together to produce the gender assign- and are usually drawn with long nails, ment woman in those with whom one shaved legs and armpits, and carefully interacts (Hale 1996: 110). According to styled hair. his exaggerated portrayal Hale (1996: 111), ones physical gender of straight women serves as a visual cri- self-presentation includes such elements tique of socially constructed ideals of as atire, jewelry, cosmetics, hairstyle, femininity, which all women, including distribution, density, and texture of facial Hothead, are measured against. and body hair, ingernail and toenail However, Hothead is not only difer- appearance, skin texture, overall body entiated from spritzheads, i.e. real morphology and size, odor, facial struc- women, who perform femaleness cor- ture, and vocal characteristics. It there- rectly, through her clothes and the fore encompasses both characteristics of grooming of her body, but also through the physical body that are comparatively her physical body itself. In one panel harder to change and presentations of (DiMassa 1999: 189), Hotheads body the body that can be modiied more orand the body of a straight woman are less at will. directly juxtaposed. While Hothead is With regard to the later, Hothead is drawn as muscular, unshaven and boy- consistently diferentiated from straight ish, the straight woman has an hour- women, who are oten disparagingly glass igure with large breasts and hips referred to as spritzheads in the comic and has no hair anywhere on her body. (cf. for example: DiMassa 1999: 131 and heir stance is somewhat similar, but 224). Hothead is usually dressed in black whereas Hothead takes on a challenging boots, cut-of pajama pants and a sleeve- posture with her legs far apart and her less shirt. Sometimes she wears a leather hands on her hips, the straight woman jacket. Her nails are short, her hair is has her legs closed and turns that pose unruly and punky. She does not wearinto a tease for the male gaze. Signii- make-up and does not shave her legs cantly, the straight woman is drawn as and armpits. Within the parodic world a paper doll with a paper bag over her of the comic, straight women in contrast head and is held up by a man, while Hot- are portrayed as embodying exaggerated head seems to stand on solid ground in Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 37 her big, black leather boots. he straight ent love interest in the comic, Daphne, is woman seems to exist only in relation drawn as very gender-ambiguous and is to a man, is held up by him, positioned in the middle of a large-scale transition and modeled for his enjoyment, robbed (DiMassa 1999: 312). Since it is never of her individuality. he lesbian, on the revealed from what to what Daphne other hand, stands on her own two feet, transitions and since she also never apart from the heterosexual matrix (cf. arrives at any obvious endpoint of her Butler 1990/1999: 194), representing a transition, Daphne further complicates rejection of both femininity and mas- Hotheads supposed status as a woman culinity in her gender-ambiguous body. who engages in sex with women his panel could, in fact, be read as a -vis (Phelan 1989: 63, see above). Instead of ual representation of Monique Witigs having sex with women, Hothead has (1992: 20, italics in the original) famous sex with a person who is neither male claim that [the lesbian] is not a woman, nor female and whose gender is best either economically, or politically, or ide- described as in transition. ologically. For what makes a woman is a Hotheads relationship to the category speciic social relation to a man, a rela- woman as it is commonly understood tion that we have previously called ser- is tenuous at best and challenges essen- vitude, a relation which implies personal tialist and identitarian accounts of what and physical obligation as well as eco - it means to position oneself as female nomic obligation […] a relation which and/or lesbian. In fact, it seems as if lesbians escape by refusing to become Hothead’s desire for a gender-ambig- or to stay heterosexual. In this panel, uous world as well as her relationship Hothead’s independence from men does to Daphne would position her as queer indeed seem to indicate an escape from more than lesbian in the sense that her the category woman even on the level of (ideal) gender identity falls outside the her physical self-presentation. binary of male and female just as much As the last paragraph already indicates, as her sexual orientation deies the she also, and quite obviously, fails to binary of hetero- and homosexuality. fulill the criterion of [e]ngaging [.] in some form of sexual/afectional rela- "Hothead Paisan" as an example of tionship with a man who is commonly strategic lesbianism recognized as heterosexual (Hale 1996: 110). While most of her past lovers are Hotheads strategic use of the term les- portrayed as femmes, her most consist- bian is due to the simple fact that she Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 38 is relentlessly read as a woman by a get when she feels overwhelmed by all sexist and homophobic world because the sexist advertisements in the street. she fulills Hales (1996: 107f.) two mostIf there was any lingering doubt about weighted characteristics: Absence of a Hothead being personally impacted penis [.]. Presence of breasts. While by the sexist culture around her, it is she does not fulill seven of the thirteenquickly dispelled by the many men characteristics and gives no clues with physically and verbally assaulting her in regard to four more of them (having to public. One panel in particular (DiMassa do with reproductive organs, hormones, 1999: 332) visually expresses the connec- chromosomes, and gendered life his- tion between being placed as a woman tory), the fact that her otherwise gender-and becoming a target of sexism: Hot- ambiguous body does have breasts andhead is shown with a women’s sign on no penis is enough to place her as female her chest, the upper part of which looks in the eyes of the sexist world around like a target. Hothead is dwarfed by a her. And the world does not approve of huge, partially visible igure, poised to what it sees. Read as a woman who does atack her. he shadows of the igures not conform to the expectations of true hands are already on Hotheads shoul- womanhood on many diferent levels, ders, demonstrating that her perceived she is made to bear the brunt of what femaleness positions her as a target and Hale (1996: 106) calls a multi plicity of a potential victim of sexist violence. regulative strategies [.] necessary to Here it becomes clear that the comic keep people straight, to keep women actually directly contradicts Witigs from being bad girls, and to keep people assertion quoted above that lesbians can clearly within their gender categories. escape the category (or class) of women Hothead encounters sexism everywhere simply by refusing to be in a relation- in mainstream U.S. culture: on TV, on ship with a man. Hothead would love to billboards, in the feminine aisle in the escape the sexism atached to a catego- supermarket. Positioned as a gender non- rization as female, but the sexist world conforming woman, Hothead is directly around her simply will not allow her targeted by these messages: Not only do that escape. To be clear: It is not any people on TV reach into her living room innate, natural, or essential female- to put her in a beautiful mold [.] with ness that ties Hothead to the category [her] name on it (DiMassa 1999: 15, woman, nor do her breasts and lack of emphasis in the original), Hothead also a penis in and of themselves make her inds herself standing on a literal tar- a woman. It is sexism that ataches such Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 39 huge importance to these two physi- describe Hothead’s subject-position cal characteristics of her body. And it is would violate Engel’s (2002) criterion precisely this sexism that informs Hot- of dehierarchization, which is sup- heads everyday experiences that estab- posed to govern the use of the strategy lishes a tie between Hothead and the of ambiguation. he term queer would category woman. In one sequence, shenot allow Hothead to name, analyze, advertises on TV, Is your career - sufand therefore work to dismantle the fering due to unworthy penises? [sic]very real gender hierarchies that - gov Are you tired of fearing for your lifeern her everyday life. Since it is impos- because penises are stalking the planet?sible for her to lead a non-gendered life [.] hen I am the girl 4u [sic] [.] Neverunder conditions of sexism, it would be again walk away quietly because theresan expression of wishful thinking and nothing u can do. his convenient hom- political naivety to deprive herself of icidal [slang word meaning les- gender-speciic terms that allow her to bian, oten used as a derogatory termname her gender-speciic experiences. for masculine women, but reclaimed byHothead’s strategic lesbianism is akin some lesbians, who self-identify with to Tuija Pulkkinens (1996: 204) poli- the term] will come right to your door!tics of names, which is based on a- stra (DiMassa 1999: 83). She deiantly identi- tegic assumption of an identity as not ies as a girl, a dyke, and as womensa universal characteristics but some- rightful avenger in order to point out thing rele vant here and now, something and ight against the sexism she encoun- formed as a political entity against the ters everywhere. hegemonic power (ibid.). he politics While Hotheads multifaceted gender of names is supposed to give diferent performance can in many ways be readpositions names and in this way acquir- as an atempt to put Engels (2002) -proing them as socially recognized exist- posed strategy of ambiguation into prac- ence (ibid.). While Hotheads naming tice in order to subvert the binary -genof her position is less concerned with der system, on which the heterosexual social recognition, it seems to me that matrix rests, this strategy also has itsresistance against hegemonic power limits because a fully gender-ambi guous is also impossible without a politics of world is clearly marked as a dream worldnames. It is not enough for this politics within the comic. In my reading, replac- of names, however, to create new names ing the gender-speciic term lesbian for emerging subject-positions beyond with the gender-neutral term queer to the heterosexual matrix (as Pulkkinen Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 40 seems to imagine); it also needs to retain political analysis of her life as informed old names to make strategic use of their by both homophobia and sexism. In fact, critical potential. Hothead distances herself from some It is important to emphasize that, in the forms of essentialist lesbian feminism tradition of women of color feminism that use the name lesbian as a narrow and Black lesbian feminism, I under- identity category that excludes people stand strategic lesbianism less as an who eat meat and talk about sex out identity, an accurate description of wholoud (DiMassa 1999: 43). I propose to one is and who one desires, but more as read Hothead’s strategic lesbianism as a a position from which to launch cri- tactic deployed by what Chela Sandoval tiques of heterosexuality and patriarchy (2000: 58) calls diferential conscious- ( Ferguson 2004: 127). As Roderick A. Fer- ness. Sandoval (2000: 60) writes, Dif- guson (2004: 127) puts it with recourse to ferential consciousness requires grace, eminent Black lesbian feminist Barbara lexibility, and strength: enough strength Smith, lesbian actually identiies a to conidently commit to a well-deined set of social relations that point to the structure of identity for one hour, day, instability of hetero patriarchy and to a week, month, year; enough lexibility to possible critical emergence within that self-consciously transform that identity instability. Chicana lesbian feminist according to the requisites of another Cherríe Moraga (2000) echoes this use of oppositional ideological tactic if read- the term lesbian when she relates how ings of powers formation require it; she uses her lesbian subject position to enough grace to recognize alliance with critique the sexism and the homopho- others commited to egalitarian social bia of the Chicano nationalist move- relations and race, gender, sex, class, and ment. For her, naming herself a lesbian social justice, when these other read- is more political than using the term ings of power call for alternative oppo- queer because it makes sure that sexismsitional stands. Since strategic lesbian- is named and that feminism does not ism is decidedly not an expression of an disappear under the umbrella of queer. innate and ixed essence, it is helpful to Hotheads choosing of the name les- see it as only one among many possi- bian is similarly strategic in that it is notble tactics that can be used to disman- based on an essentialist understanding tle the heterosexual matrix and other of herself and her partners as unprob- forms of oppression. However, given the lematically and unchangeably belong- prevalence of sexism in Hothead’s life as ing to the category woman, but on a well as in contemporary Western socie- Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 41 ties such as the U.S. or Germany (which critically mobilized so that strategic les- form the context of this analysis), I see bianism does not become another mode strategic lesbianism as a crucial tactic in of diference consistent with interest the ight against sexism in queer circles politics in liberal capitalist nation-states as well as in the wider society. (Ferguson 2012: 217). Given its focus on both homophobia and sexism, strategic lesbianism is one step Lesbian as “‘queer’ on a perhaps removed from being the single-issue smaller scale” mode of diference divorced from race and gender against which Ferguson With this brief analysis, I hope to have (2012: 217) warns in his most recent shown that it can be strategically useful book, he Reorder of hings. However, to retain the term lesbian – whether it is important to note that even though as an exclusive self-identiication in the strategic lesbianism in Hothead Paisan realm of gender and sexuality or along- is largely set in a white context and even side other self-identiications like queer though issues of race and class are not – in order to mount a critical challenge adequately addressed in the comic, stra- against sexism in diferent contexts. tegic lesbianism should not be construed Clearly, I am not implying that all queer as a white, middle-class tactic. As the women should identify as lesbians – the above example of Moraga’s work dem- racist, classist, transphobic history of the onstrates, strategic lesbianism can be term severely limits its appeal. However, deployed in all racial and class contextsI would like to contest the perception to name speciic ways in which thesequoted in the beginning of this article contexts are shaped by sexism and -homthat a movement that comes together ophobia. However, strategic lesbianism under the gender-neutral banner of is clearly a limited tactic in that, like thequeer would be particularly well suited term queer, it doesnt ensure that peo- to recognize diferences of . . . gender ple of color are named, it doesn’t ensure (Peters 2005: 106). Currently, lesbian that working-class people are named, seems to be the only term in common or poor people are named – it doesn’t usage that serves to indicate the particu- ensure any of those things (Moraga lar subject position at the intersection of 2000: 69). And, as both Ferguson and (at least) homophobia and sexism that Moraga (cf. 2000) emphasize, it is of queer women inhabit. the utmost importance that these (and In accordance with English scholar Anne other) subject positions are named and N. halheimer (2002: 202f.), I would pro - Ausgabe 1 | 2013 | Seite 42

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