Femininity Played Straight

In Femininity Played Straight, Biddy Martin traces the changing relations of lesbianism and feminist theory from the late 1970s to the present. These sparkling essays argue for accounts of sexuality, gender and subjectivity that make lesbianism intelligible and important, for lesbians and non-lesbians alike.

Moving between theoretical and autobiographical modes, Biddy Martin brings different kinds of writing to bear upon one another. At a theoretical level, her work takes issue with postmodern theory, defending instead the role of psychoanalytic criticism. She argues for the continued validity of critical modes that do not abandon the unconscious in seeking to understand the relation of subjectivity to language. In so doing, she addresses the work of writers, thinkers and activists as varied as Mary Daly, Michel Foucault, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Sigmund Freud, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler, and Joan Copjec.

PART ONE Chapter 1 The Hobo, The Fairy, and the Quarterback Chapter 2 Extraordinary Homosexuals and the Fear of Being Ordinary Chapter 3 Sexualities Without Genders and Other Queer Utopias PART TWO Chapter 4 Sexual Practice and Changing Lesbian Identities Chapter 5 Teaching Feminist Theory Chapter 6 Lesbian Identity and Autobiographical Difference[s] Chapter 7 Feminist Politics: What's Home got to do With It? with Chandra Talpade Mohanty Chapter 8 Feminism, Criticism and Foucault Chapter 9 Feminist Metaphysics: A Critique of Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology