Affronting Social Acceptability: English Voices Join the "Queer" Debate

• Published in: Lambda book report 1993-05, Vol.3 (10), p.22
• Main Author: Rochman, Susan
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Gays & lesbians; Human relations; Interpersonal communication; Literature; Personal relationships; Politics
• ISSN: 1048-9487; 1931-132X

At a rally in New York City the day before the 1990 Gay Pride Parade, someone thrust a newspaper into my hands. "Queer Bash Back" screamed the large bold type. Although I don't remember the rest of the text, I do remember my mixed reactions to the paper's proclamations. The radical affront to social acceptability intrigued and enlivened the activist in me, even though I had never though of myself as "queer." Yet I questioned some of the tactics and ideas these new queer activists promoted. Were demands for integration into mainstream society misguided and reactionary? To what extent do our lives differ from the lives of heterosexuals, and should those differences, rather than the similarities, be emphasized? What types of social changes should the lesbian and gay community strive for? And could I even speak of one encompassing "community" anyway? Most of the authors are academics, but the lack of jargon makes the anthology accessible to a wider audience. Instructors will find the book a welcome addition to gay and lesbian studies or women's studies classes, while activists and community organizers will find ideas and analyses relevant to their own work as well. Some of the chapters will prove controversial. For instance, Diane Richardson's "Constructing Lesbian Sexualities" argues that the new lesbian pornography colludes with "dominant discourses of sex which are fundamentally oppressive to women " by placing pressure on lesbians"to accept as the norm for lesbian sex sexual values which have previously been associated with heterosexuality." And Jason Annetts' and Bill Thompson's "Dangerous Activism?", which argues that AIDS activists created a single issue politic around AIDS by making "erroneous generalizations about public attitudes and misrepresenting other events,"will undoubtedly spark discussion in both academic and activist circles.