Beyond sexual deviance: Elevating the expansive intimacies of Chicana lesbian life in Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About

In this article, I expand popular readings of Chicana lesbianism focused on sexuality by tending more deeply to the affective terrains of love and kinship represented in the 1991 anthology Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About edited by Carla Trujillo. Countering the (il)logics of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of lesbian studies 2023-10, Vol.27 (4), p.354-367
Main Author: Solomon, Meagan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
asexuality
Colonialism
decolonial
Decolonization
Deviance
Gays & lesbians
Girls
Heteronormativity
Heterosexuality
intimacy
Kinship
Lesbianism
Love
Mexican Americans
Mothers
Nationalism
Paraphilias
Sexuality
White supremacy
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Summary:In this article, I expand popular readings of Chicana lesbianism focused on sexuality by tending more deeply to the affective terrains of love and kinship represented in the 1991 anthology Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About edited by Carla Trujillo. Countering the (il)logics of white supremacy and Chicano nationalism which reduce Chicana lesbians to symbols of sexual deviance, I argue that Chicana Lesbians embodies an expansive matrix of intimacies that reconstruct the Chicana lesbian figure from a one-dimensional symbol of sexual deviance to a multi-faceted figure who redefines what it means to love one's people and culture beyond colonial paradigms that privilege heterosexuality. Drawing upon theories of decolonial love and queer asexuality, I examine the expansive inner lives and intimacies of Chicana lesbians to construct a more thorough portrait of how we love and relate to each other. While many studies foreground the sexual lives and politics of Chicana lesbians as subversive to the heteronormative status quo, I elevate the equally powerful forces of love and kinship in our struggle to transform the legacies of colonialism and Chicano nationalism.
ISSN:1089-4160
1540-3548
DOI:10.1080/10894160.2023.2231706