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Discursive Spaces from America's First Gay Magazine to the World's Last Website for Queer Women, 1947-2019 Josie Rush

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Discursive Spaces from America's First Gay Magazine to the World's Last Website for Queer Women, 1947-2019 Josie Rush Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 8-10-2019 Just Between Us Girls: Discursive Spaces from America's First Gay Magazine to the World's Last Website for Queer Women, 1947-2019 Josie Rush Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the American Popular Culture Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, and the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Rush, J. (2019). Just Between Us Girls: Discursive Spaces from America's First Gay Magazine to the World's Last Website for Queer Women, 1947-2019 (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1810 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. JUST BETWEEN US GIRLS: DISCURSIVE SPACES FROM AMERICA’S FIRST GAY MAGAZINE TO THE WORLD’S LAST WEBSITE FOR QUEER WOMEN, 1947-2019 A Dissertation Submitted to McAnulty College of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Josie Rush August 2019 Copyright by Josie Rush 2019 JUST BETWEEN US GIRLS: DISCURSIVE SPACES FROM AMERICA’S FIRST GAY MAGAZINE TO THE WORLD’S LAST WEBSITE FOR QUEER WOMEN, 1947-2019 By Josie Rush Approved June 28, 2019 ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. James P. Purdy Dr. Judy Suh Professor of English Professor of English (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Dr. Kara Keeling Professor of Cinema and Media (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Kristine Blair Dr. Danielle St. Hilaire Dean, McAnulty College of Liberal Arts Chair, English Department Professor of English Associate Professor of English iii ABSTRACT JUST BETWEEN US GIRLS: DISCURSIVE SPACES FROM AMERICA’S FIRST GAY MAGAZINE TO THE WORLD’S LAST WEBSITE FOR QUEER WOMEN, 1947-2019 By Josie Rush August 2019 Dissertation supervised by Dr. James P. Purdy Just Between Us Girls charts the diffusion of queer theory outside of the academy, using convergence theory to examine communication technologies like periodicals and the Web to argue for a conception of queer theory that includes discourse between queer women about queerness. In making this argument, this project creates a lineage of discursive spaces by, for, and about queer women, putting content from these spaces in conversation with canonical queer theorists like Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, and Jack Halberstam. Analyzing and contextualizing discursive spaces like Vice Versa (1947- 1948), The Ladder (1956-1972), The Furies (1972-1973), AfterEllen, and Autostraddle demonstrates not only that queer women have depended on communication technologies for identity and community formation long before the Web but also that queer women iv have historically invested in and theorized concepts significant to queer theory, like coming out, the relationship between gender and sexuality, and heteronormativity. v DEDICATION For those who did and those who would have. To James and Doris Matthews. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Every idea, every project has a community behind it, and Just Between Us Girls is no exception. This project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of my director, Dr. James P. Purdy, whose careful scholarship and intellectual openness have demonstrated the type of scholar and teacher I’d like to be. Thank you as well to Dr. Judy Suh and Dr. Kara Keeling for their time and feedback on this project. My gratitude also goes to the Duquesne English Department for the 2018-2019 Dissertation Fellowship and for the Department’s financial support during my visit to the UCLA archives; the opportunity to focus on my scholarship has been invaluable. I am grateful to my students for having the courage to learn and for continuing to remind me of the classroom’s potential. And, most of all, to my brilliant wife, Rebekah Lynn, whose insights, joy, and passion have enriched my project and my life beyond words. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract........................................................................................................................... .....v Dedication..........................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgement........................................................................................................... viii Introduction..........................................................................................................................x Chapter 1..............................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2............................................................................................................................55 Chapter 3............................................................................................................................97 Chapter 4..........................................................................................................................136 Epilogue...........................................................................................................................169 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….175 viii Introduction: “Here to Stay”: The Convergence of Lesbian Spaces, Queer Theory, and Communication Technologies Let me begin by saying that I came to theory because I was hurting – the pain within me was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory desperate, wanting to comprehend – to grasp what was happening around and within me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing. bell hooks, “Theory as Liberatory Practice” I think many adults (and I am among them) are trying, in our work, to keep faith with vividly remembered promises made to ourselves in childhood: promises to make invisible possibilities and desires visible; to make the tacit things explicit; to smuggle queer representation in where it must be smuggled and with the relative freedom of adulthood, to challenge queer-eradicating impulses frontally where they are to be so challenged. Eve Sedgwick, “Queer and Now” Queer theory entered the academic scene preening with promise and shining with salaciousness. When Teresa de Lauretis coined the term as the title of a conference at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1990, “queer” had just barely scrapped free of its discriminatory contexts and the combination of “queer” and “theory” carried with it an injunction to queer theory, that is, to challenge ideas about what constituted theory (Halperin 340). Part of the appeal of the name doubtlessly derives from its oxymoronic nature, the odd-couple pairing of the anti-assimilatory and radicalizing queer with ix disciplinarity and systemic, guiding philosophies. The implicit challenge of the term was – and for many continues to be – tantalizing. As academics took up the call to queer theory, however, some issues with the endeavor soon became apparent. Primarily, as David Halperin points out, queer theory was named before it was invented, and so theorists had no established set of philosophies and perspectives from which to take their cues. The retrospective conceptualization of texts like Gender Trouble and Epistemology of the Closet as queer theory ironically served to deepen the presumed divide between queer theory, gay and lesbian studies, and feminist theory. Indeed, through its avowed rejection of identity categories, queer theory frequently defines itself against lesbian and gay studies and feminist theory, positioning its predecessors as essentialist (at worst) or as fields too conservative in their theorizing for anyone who really believes in the discursive (de)construction of identity. Adding to that divide was the fact that queer theory had gained purchase in the academy with a velocity and ease that not only far out-stripped gay and lesbian studies but also called into question queer theory’s anti-assimilationist roots. Could a theory that was queer live and thrive in the academy? And even if queer theory could thrive in the academy, should it? Despite these conflicts, queer theory has maintained a foothold in academia, so much so that Lauren Berlant’s and Michael Warner’s observation in 1995 still rings true almost 25 years later: “Queer is hot” (343). It’s hot enough that not only have a group of star academic queer theorists emerged, but it’s also caught the eye – and sometimes the derision - of academic and non-academic LGBT1 individuals alike. Whether bristling at the use of the reclaimed slur as an umbrella term that erases the specificities of varying 1 LGBT is a popular acronym for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender individuals. I will provide a detailed note on this project’s philosophy for the naming of sexual minorities later in the main text. x sexual identities or questioning the usefulness of a school of thought so steeped in constructionism and discursivity that it often seems to neglect the lived experiences of LGBT individuals, people within and outside the academy have varyingly questioned and promoted queer theory’s radical potential and intentions. That these conversations continue and have become increasingly visible
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