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The House That Jill Built: a Lesbian Nation in Formation

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The House That Jill Built: a Lesbian Nation in Formation THE HOUSE THAT JILL was the co-founding of the lesbian Told in the context of a number of BUILT: A LESBIAN rock band Mama Quilla 11. Indeed, crucial political developments of the many of us suspected that the best time-the bust of the Body Politic for NATION IN part of lesbian organizing was-you publishing the article "Men Loving FORMATION guessed it-the dances. Boys Loving Men," the arrival of anti- Which is to say that we panelists gay activist Anita Bryant to Toronto, Be& L. Ross. Toronto: University got the lesbian-feminist part ofit, but among them-and dropping the of Toronto Press, 1995. the "ism" was far more elusive. names ofpracticallyevery activist who Here's where Becki Ross's new drew a breath inside 342 Jarvis, The book, The House That Jill Built, is House ThatJillBuilt helps to tease out extremely usehl. It will no doubt the differences between political Recently, the Toronto Historical suffer from the no-win situation syn- streams in the '70s while respecting Board was the site of a panel on les- drome that goes with producing a the commitmentandenergy ofwomen bian feminism in the '70s as part of first book on a neglected subject-it who were charting new territory. the Pass It On series of events uncov- cannot be all things to all people. But But don't for a second conhse this ering gay and lesbian history. I and it does grapple with the problem of bookwith history. Activists oftheday two other long-time activists partici- defining lesbian feminism-not as had multiple political affiliations and pated in a spirited discussion that abstract, but as a lived politic. sometimes Ross gets confused about ultimately took us down a surprising Through interviews, articles pub- the locus of certain activities. I've path. For when we were asked to re- lished in the gay and lesbian press at talked to at least three people who flect on lesbian feminism in the '70s the time, and archival recordings of have said that Ross got their political and its meaning in the '90s-From key meetings, Ross takes us back to connections wrong. I can only be sure Dogma to Dildoes was the evening's the first gathering of 60 women in about my own case. The fact that provocative title-we came to the 1976 at the Canadian Homophile Ross reports that Mama Quilla 11 conclusion that we weren't quite sure Association in Toronto, the found- lasted three years and then died, when what lesbian feminism was, or ing of LOOT, the development of the in fact Mama Quilla thrived into the whether it ever really existed. LOOT centre at 342 Jarvis, and its '80s and releared an influential record, All of us on the panel-the others disintegration by 1980. makes me worry about the historical were Amy Gottlieb and Eve Ross discusses how this movement accuracy of other bald statements Zaremba-took to the streets in the grew out of disaffection with male- made by the author. '70s through specifically feminist or- centredgay-liberation and lesbo-pho- And don't look for the confronta- ganizations like the International bic mainstream feminism. It was also tional book Ross might have written. Women's Day Coalition or Women spawned by dissatisfaction with lib- As the first Ph.D. in Lesbian Studies Against Violence Against Women. eral organizations like the Daughters at OISE, ROSShas been a pioneer in Zaremba and I were also active on the of Bilitis who sought lesbian rights queer theory and in developing a so- Broadside collective, which published because, they believed, dykes were called pro-sex gay sexual politic that is a feminist monthly. As we remem- really just like everybody else. That counterposed against radical feminist bered it, our activism in lesbian or- wasn't us, we said at LOOT. We valued politics that oppose pornography and ganizations-particularly the Lesbian collectivity in a hierarchical culture fight systems of violence and control Organization of Toronto (LOOT)- and our personal presentations de- in sexuality. It looked like Ross was was a logical extension of our femi- fied conventional codes of feminin- on her way to a completely different nist politics. Insisting on the right to ity. And besides, we did develop a treatment of the material when she love women dovetailedwith the prin- certain chauvinism about the virtues published a working paper in FUSE ciple that we should have control of lesbian life. We weren't like every- magazine two years ago. It contained over our bodies and lesbian practice body else-we were better. Indeed, a blistering attack on LOOT and the kept us out of the bed of the "en- the ideological heartbeat of lesbian lesbian-feminist impulse, claiming emy," but almost all of that and eve- feminism, according to Ross's chroni- they defied diversity-in style as in rything else we could thinkof spelled cle, is a new-found pride in lesbian- sex-alienated sex workers and aban- radical- or socialist-feminist. ism and a growing understanding of doned sex in general. In making the For my pan, the most important the meaning of community and its argument, Ross reduced lesbian femi- aspect of my association with LOOT ability to nourish us. nists to two-dimensional cartoons. VOLUME 16, NUMBER 2 The piece obviously triggered a LESBIAN CHOICES tics, Card concludes that the princi- reaction from somebodydither her ples around which lesbians organize advisors or her subjects, or both- Claudia Card. New York: Columbia our lives are those which distinguish because she's de-emphasized the University Press, 1995. us as lesbians and the integrity of the rhetoric significantly. If anything the relationships we choose to create. tone of the book has been weirdly What distinguishes us as lesbians, flattened out. Where previously, according to Simone de Beauvoir, is quotes came in small bytes and with- that we are not "women," who are by out much context, now they spew definition heterosexual. De Beauvoir out largely undigested, and multiple Lesbian Choices is Claudia Cud's saw lesbianism as a choice, a radical points of view mingle in such a way philosophical exploration of the position for the time, but she was that one wishes Ross would cut meaning of "choice" in lesbian self- unable to recognize a basic contradic- through it all with some of the hard determination. However, far from tion in her thinking, that if lesbian- analysis she's known for. being an exercise in abstraction, Card's ism is a choice for women, what And though Ross reports that most work is firmly grounded in the actu- about heterosexuality! Going beyond of us were in our late 20s, she cannot ality of lesbian lives (her own in- de Beauvoir's notion of "attitudinal" possibly appreciate how young we all cluded). In discussing the meaning of choice ("an attitude chosen in a cer- were at the time. I don't mean that choice for lesbians, she also looks at tain situation"), Card discusses the our ideas had that passionate and the implications of various choices meaning ofchoice within the current angry teenage edge, which theydid- and, in the process, explores the mean- discourse of lesbian ethics. Card asks but that we as women, as beings in ing of "lesbian," lesbian culture, and if it is possible for some women not to the world, were about as developed as lesbian ethics. She draws on, and choose to be lesbian, given a particu- our emerging politics-which is to builds on, the work of other lesbian lar moral and philosophical (or po- say, not much. Though Ross does ask philosophers (Sarah Hoagland, litical) understanding of society, and a few activists what they're up to 20 Marilyn Frye, Janice Raymond, suggests that social construction adds years later, a more thorough survey Adrienne Rich) as well as some emi- complexities to the question of would have shown how involvement nent patriarchs (Aristotle, Hegel, "choice," in particular the interac- in LOOT set the stage for a lot ofcareer William James, Foucault). tion of individuals with institutions choices and pursuits. Many of those The book is organized into three which both create and restrict indi- who staffed the phone lines at LOOT, sections: "Constructing Ourselves," vidual options. like Rosemary Barnes, for example, "Lesbians in Relationships: Ups and With respect to lesbian ethics, after went on to become skilled profes- Downs," and "Coming Out: Issues reviewing the workofsarah Hoagland sional counsellors either in hospitals in a Wider Society." Although only and Marilyn Frye in particular, Card or women's services. And while Ross one chapter (in Pan One) is entitled asserts that lesbian ethics is not a laments that only two of the hun- "Lesbian Ethics," Claudia Card is blend of politics and ethical values dreds ofwomen who passed through concerned throughout with the ethi- (Hoagland), although the line be- LOOT'S doors were out lesbians, that's cal considerations of, among other tween politics and ethics is a fine one, changed now, as was readily apparent things, lesbian separatism, homo- nor is it simply a theory of agency from the panel at the historical board. phobia, horizontal abuse, and the (Hoagland, Frye). Rather, lesbianeth- I'vewritten a play about lesbian moth- politics of outing. ics concerns itself with what pro- erhood, Eve Zaremba is the high- Card begins her exploration by dis- motes the establishment of healthy profile creator of the dyke detective cussing a course she teaches at the lesbian communities and defines the Helen Keremos and both Amy University of Wisconsin on lesbian conditions for women-loving.
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