Sheila Jeffreys

Wow, what a book. Sheila Jeffreys takes on a broad spectrum of issues and pulls no punches. She tackles sexological essentialism, detailing its developments from the late 19th century through 1920s and the publication of The Well of Loneliness up until '90s; sadomachosism, its numerous manifestations and defenses; lesbian sex therapy and its relationship to heterosexuality; the lesbian sex industry, including pornography, prostitution, and sex toys; butch–femme roleplaying and its discourse ranging from Joan Nestle to Bev Jo; postmodern understandings of gender à la Judith Butler — and that's just the first half of the book. Her prose is clear, exact, and uncompromising, and her arguments are supported by an impressive wealth of examples and quotations such as magazines, novels, lesbian-feminist theory, and historical texts. Written in 1993, The Lesbian Heresy offers an accurate depiction and analysis of the direction of lesbian culture and feminist activism that still rings true today (although the picture now is notably bleaker). The book offers a cogent analysis of how sexuality under patriarchy is constructed, through the eroticization of male domination of women, to serve male interests and that this holds true even when enacted by lesbians. Despite this depressing state of affairs, Jeffreys ultimately presents a lesbian-affirming alternative, in which women turn away from male definitions of sexuality and create a powerful culture of love and respect.

Useful terms and concepts: heterosexual desire is the eroticization of inequality; "lesbianandgay" to describe the subsuming of lesbian interests into a male framework.… (mer)

An interesting thesis that would have been more effectively presented if the author had kept her personal preferences out of the way. While I would cite to the book only with extreme caution, lest it be inferred that you endorse her anti-gay male attitudes, or her conviction that anyone who wants to dress in anything more than flannel shirts and ill-fitting jeans is a "masochist" (among an extensive list of questionable positions), the text can provide some helpful references to other literature that is less dogmatic and more objective.

The argument suffers from a lack of awareness of psychology--evolutionary psychology particularly--or sociology, instead treating politics as offering a complete frame from which to consider the dynamics of beauty standards. The author paints a picture of a cabal of male fetishists who conspire to inflict the whole suite of wretched practices upon women, who are uniformly described as passive, lacking agency or motivations of their own to either reject the pressures or explain why they in fact not only fail to reject the practices but appear to adopt them wholeheartedly. False consciousness fails as a persuasive explanatory model, but it seems to be the best this author can muster.

Despite flaws in both theory and method, the text nonetheless can be helpful to anyone looking for a point of entry to the discussion. Just don't stop with this.… (mer)