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From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and The

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From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and The From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace (Or, Why Can't a Woman Be More like a Fag?) Author(s): Suzanna Danuta Walters Source: Signs, Vol. 21, No. 4, Feminist Theory and Practice (Summer, 1996), pp. 830-869 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175026 . Accessed: 24/06/2014 17:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Signs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 199.79.170.81 on Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:21:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromHere to Queer: Radical Feminism,Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace (Or, WhyCan't a Woman Be More Like a Fag?) Suzanna Danuta Walters Queer defined (NOT!) A LREADY, IN THIS OPENING, I am treadingon thin ice: how to definethat which exclaims-with postmodern cool-its absoluteundefinability? We maybe here(and we may be queer and not going shopping),but we are certainlynot transparentor easily available to anyone outside the realm of homo cognoscenti.Yet definitions,even of the tentativesort, are importantif we are to push forwardthis new discourseand debate meaningfullyits parameters. Queer is, in true postmodernfashion, a ratheramorphous term and still emergentenough as to be vague and ill defined.Perhaps it makes sense to open, then,with my laundrylist of the queer contemporary, a list admittedlymore aware of the female manifestationsof this "queerness" and in no particularorder: Eve Sedgwick Teresade Lauretis ball culture JudithButler Queer Nation kiss-ins Madonna lipsticklesbians lesbianstrippers I would like to thankDavid Bergmanand AmyRobinson for their helpful comments on earlierdrafts of thisarticle. Both have contributedmeaningfully to the developmentof thispiece. Erstwhilecomrade Ara Wilson gave detailedand substantivecriticism, improv- ing thisessay in numerousways. In addition,I would like to thankthe anonymousreview- ers at Signs.Their thoughtful and thorough(if at timesrather contentious!) readings forcedme to engagein thisprocess of revisionwith equal thoroughness. [Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1996, vol. 21, no. 4] ? 1996 byThe UniversityofChicago. All rightsreserved. 0097-9740/96/2104-0002$01.00 830 SIGNS Summer 1996 This content downloaded from 199.79.170.81 on Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:21:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FROM HERE TO QUEER Walters conferencesat Santa drag butch/femme Cruz, Rutgers, piercing Michelangelo Iowa, etc. Ru Paul Signorile "in yourface tattoos Sue-EllenCase activism" passing dildos Camille Paglia queer zines S/M go-go girls outing backrooms(for men in skirts cross-dressing lesbians) Riot Grrrls male lesbians Sandra Bernhard Foucault AnnieSprinkle camp On Our Backs lesbianswho sleep bisexuality Susie Bright withmen genderfuck ?* * * These signifiers(and others,of course) constitutewhat many have called the "new queer sensibility."There is no doubt thata new tide of gayvisibility is sweepingthe country-from Time magazine cover stories on the new chic lesbians, to k.d. lang's VanityFair dress up with supermodelCindy Crawford,to gays in the military,drag queens on Donahue, outing,and our littlehypothalamuses and aberrantgenes. As usual in our media-saturated/structuredculture, these (largelyhetero) glam piecesintersect with unique developments,both intellectual and po- litical, withinvarious gay communities.So these shiftingsignifiers of "queer" are neversimply our own products,located solelyin some sub- culturalnetherworld (if theyever were-rememberdisco?), but instead theymove uneasilyin and out of the "mainstream"as it recodes and cannibalizesthese new images,icons, activisms. It is not only "queer" theoryand politicsthat are typifiedby shifting icons and activisms;feminism and feministtheory are themselvesthe sub- ject of muchcritical revision and rethinking,particularly in lightof both structuralshifts (changes in familylife, increasing numbers of women in the workforce)and ideologicaldevelopments (renewed media attackson feminism,the backlash phenomenon,the rise of right-wingChristian antifeminismand "familyvalues"). In addition,the development of queer theoryand politics(related but not identicalphenomena) emerges in the contextof changingdefinitions of feministtheory and politics.From chal- lengesby women of color,working-class feminists, lesbians, and others, feminismhas been undergoingprofound changes. These changes are markedby increasinglyfrequent criticisms of feministtheory's refusal to reckonwith the waysin which "other" differences(such as race or class) markthemselves on the body and insertthemselves into constructions of oppositional identity.In other words, queer developmentstake place Summer 1996 SIGNS 831 This content downloaded from 199.79.170.81 on Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:21:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Walters FROM HERE TO QUEER withina changingfield of theoryand practice;feminism (and genderthe- oryand politicsgenerally) is no longerthe young upstart but, rather, has achieveda certain"stature" that now has produceda deeperand more thoroughgoinglevel of criticalanalysis and revision. Keepingthis in mind,I wantto examinethe relationship between new queer developmentsand feminismand feministtheory, with a specificfo- cus on the displacementsof radicaland lesbian feminismby a queer the- orythat often posits itself as theantidote to a "retrograde"feminist theo- rizing.Let me begin by layingmy cards on the table: I am waryof this phenomenon.1These new developmentsare not whollypropitious for the (shared,I hope) goals of endinghomophobia, confronting compulsory heterosexuality,liberating sexuality. Nevertheless (and I would hope this goes withoutsaying, but I will say it anyway),this critiqueshould be taken as an immanentone, fromsomeone who liveswithin the gay and lesbian movementand who believesthe new queer politicsand theoryto be largelywell intentioned,however misguided and theoreticallysuspect.2 While my criticismsstand, I am also aware of the real strengthsand possibilitiesembodied in thenew queerdesignations. The fullexploration of sexual desirein all itscomplexity is of coursean importantmove, par- ticularlyas a neglectedaspect of progressivediscourse. And the queer challengeto the notion of sexual identityas monolithic,obvious, and dichotomousis a healthycorrective to our vexinginability to see beyond the limitationsof the homo/heteroopposition. In addition,the openness of the termqueer seemsto manyto providethe possibilityof theorizing "beyond the hyphen,"beyond the additivemodels (race, class, gender, 1 Let me note here,too, thatI am mostassuredly not alone in mycritique of "queer." Indeed,feminists have alreadyinitiated a substantialbody of workthat takes issue with the constructionof "queer theory"as the "replacement"for feminist and lesbianand gay studies.Often, but not always,these critiques of "queer" dovetailwith critiques of post- modernism,as will be broughtout in thecourse of thisarticle. See particularlyModleski 1991; and Bordo 1990. BiddyMartin's work (1993, 1994) has been particularlyhelpful. Wilson's1992 critiqueof bisexualityand de Lauretis's1991 thoughtfulintroduction to the differencesissue on queer theoryhave also added to the growingdiscourse. 2 I should note herethat queer theoryand queer politicsare not,of course,identical. The movementsof theoryand the movementsof politicalaction neverfollow one from the other,nor does one simplyexpress the otherin differentform. Nevertheless, the two are, as are mosttheories and practices,intimately connected, albeit often in an implicit manner.For example,the new queer politicsis markedby a wide embraceof all nonnorm- ativesexualities (witness the namingof recentmarches "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans- gendered")and muchof the theoreticalenterprise that goes underthe name "queer the- ory" is also concernedwith widening the net beyondwhat is typicallythought of as "gay and lesbian" studies.While I do not mean to conflatethe two,I am interestedin dis- cussingthe connectionsbetween them and the implicationsfor a radicalpolitics given thesenewer developments. Moreover, this article works to addressa generaltrend, a direc- tion,a set of discourses,rather than the totalityof an individualtheorist's oeuvre. I thus see thisas a piece of politicalcultural criticism as muchas specifictheory critique, to ana- lyze "thatcertain something in the air,"in whichthe theoristsfigure as inspiration,expres- sion, arbiters,and legitimation. 832 SIGNS Summer 1996 This content downloaded from 199.79.170.81 on Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:21:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FROM HERE TO QUEER Walters sexual orientation= oppressedidentity) that have so oftenseemed to set up new hierarchiesor retreatedinstead into an emptyrecitation of "difference."Indeed, race critiqueshave consistently insisted on challeng- ing binarymodels of identityin thedevelopment of conceptsof position- alityand intersectionality.Queer discourseis clearlynot "the enemy,"3 but neitheris
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